Lulu Tan-Gan: From Queen of Knits to Queen of Yarns
Lulu Tan-Gan has one medium: yarn.
Recharged for the “pleasure and pressure ahead,” she has come out of semi-retirement to become the first female designer featured in the Red Charity Gala (RCG), the annual fashion show-cum-fundraiser co-founded and co-chaired by Tessa Prieto and Kaye Tinga.
Not that she puts much weight on such distinction. “Creative lives are inclusive, and fashion in particular transcends gender,” she told Lifestyle.
For the RCG, her concept “Farm to Fashion” reflects the “innovative potential of piña fabric and its possibilities in modern fashion.” Using natural piña silk linen, Tan-Gan took inspiration from the symbolic bridging of the islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao through the use of fabric from Kalibo as well as Kalinga and Mandaya motifs.
With around 60 pieces in her upcoming collection, to be shown at the Shangri-La at the Fort Oct. 22, the craft fashion designer breathes contemporary life into traditional fabric and prints. She uses modern cuts, accented by embroidery, quilting, tints from natural dyes (manufactured in-house or in collaboration with Dr. Patty Araneta of the Mahalina Foundation), and other interesting details like years-old fabric scraps that have found new purpose as eye-catching yet chic flourishes. (“No inch of the weave is wasted throughout the design and cutting process.”)
Elegant everyday Filipiniana? With Tan-Gan’s flair for stylizing indigenous and traditional wear, she just might have the answer.
So, perhaps it’s time for her informal title to be updated—from Queen of Knits to Queen of Yarns—having long expanded her repertoire to include weaves using another form of the sustainable material, piña.
“I can do a lot with it in one lifetime. For the same yarn, I can weave or knit. For the same yarn, I moved to art,” she says, referencing her 2018-2019 installation art exhibit “Knit Bomb, Yarn Bomb” at the Ayala Museum Gardens.
Deep connection
Captivated by its ethereal beauty, Tan-Gan feels a deep personal connection with piña fabric. It was in the mid-2000s when she began to question what defined her as a Filipino designer and started experimenting with piña yarn. She tried mixing it with her own cotton and acrylic knit yarn but found it too delicate for the knit loom. Additionally, she found it too itchy, and decided it was better to use the piña fabric as is, “raw and delicate.”
She admits that the material is quite the antithesis of what she was used to working with, however. The usage, tension, texture, weight and versatility are complete opposites: Knit is modern, piña is traditional; knit is sturdy while piña is delicate; knit is coarse while piña is fine; knit is heavy whereas piña is feather-weight; knit is stretchable, piña is stiff.
Still, Tan-Gan knows that fashion is change and innovation is key in her career. Innovation is also important in ensuring that our heritage materials move beyond their traditional ceremonial roles to remain relevant in today’s fashion landscape.
“I had to innovate piña fabric itself,” she says. “When one designs, one has to feel and understand the character of the material. Piña is known for its stiffness in appearance and feel. I had to innovate it to be fluid.”
By doing so, she has diversified the usage, as well—from traditional to modern—and reinvented it as luxe wear in the form of dresses, blouses, boleros, caftans, jackets, capes and even coats by introducing versatility and ease without sacrificing elegance.
“Through my designs and fabric treatments, we have transformed the perception of piña from a traditionally stiff material to one with more fluidity. These pieces are designed to be layered with more skin-friendly inner wear, such as T-shirts or chemises,” she says.
“As we pioneered the use of layering, piña is presented as an effortlessly chic option that moves beyond formal occasions,” she adds.
