Filipino-Australian fashion designer Aljon San Jose showcased his new SAJO collection, (un)Withered at the inaugural BrisAsia Festival Fashion event on Friday 25 March at the Brisbane Fortitude Music Hall.
Packed with colour, the collection explored gender-neutral, athleisure styles in a fresh departure for the menswear designer.
“I will continue designing gender neutral styles and shapes because I would love to see my clothes on everybody. Whilst I do that, I will continue to further explore, study and learn more about womenswear so that in the future I can release and showcase even more in both womenswear and menswear,” he said.
Commenting on the inaugural event that celebrated culture through fashion by showcasing Asian, Indigenous and International design, label and modelling talent, Mr San Jose said it was a great honour to be a part of the first-ever BrisAsia Festival Fashion showcase.
“To have my collection amongst those established labels and designers was such a great feeling and a very humbling experience that I will forever be grateful for,” he said.
“My favourite part was definitely being on a runway/showcase of that size. As my first ever proper runway show, just embracing the atmosphere and energy surrounding it was such a great experience for me. Learning the “ins and outs” of an event like that first-hand was very humbling and I am excited to continue to grow.”
Mr San Jose is a ‘proud Filipino who is just trying to put the country on the map, and in this case in the Fashion World’. He lived in the Philippines at the start of his life, then moved to New Zealand and later Australia, and has recently graduated from Brisbane’s QUT with a Fashion Degree.
“My design aesthetic has definitely been inspired by my Filipino heritage in my past work and will continue to do so,” he says. “Having lived in the Philippines for a bit my life has helped gain inspiration through things such as my experiences there, famous symbols, artefacts and history.”
With dreams to live and work in fashion throughout Europe and New York, Mr San Jose also hopes and aims to have manufacturers and a production team in his homeland of The Philippines in the future.
This inaugural event was organised to celebrate culture through fashion by showcasing Asian, Indigenous and International design, label and modelling talent as part of the growth and expansion of the successful BrisAsia Festival program.
Follow the SAJO Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/sajodesigns/
