By Chuan-Yu Kang
Mich Dulce was one of the many lovely girls I met during the SS13 London Fashion Week.
I remember that day my friend and I had just popped into the Estethica exhibition room and found there was a nice new millinery brand in the corner. Then, Mich showed up—with her sexy voice and Vivienne Westwood look, asked if she could take a photo of my friend’s amazing J.W. Anderson knitwear. Right there and then, we became instant Facebook friends and actually have a dim sum date next week!
“I know this is not very professional but I can’t stop asking people if I can take photos of their outfits!” Mich said, “Everyone looks amazing!” She is really quite a lovely character. Born in the Phillipines, her brand—a lovely millinery brand—is extremely adorable. Her 2013 Spring/Summer collection was inspired by flowers and spring. She quoted Japanese Buddhist monk, Yoshida Kenko’s sentence from his book 《Essays in Idleness 》, on the top of her new collection press release: “The heart is subject to incessant pangs of emotion as the young leaves are growing out.” It not only represents the concept of the new season, also the aesthetics of the brand. Therefore, rose pink, cream white, and smoky black are the main colours in this collection. She uses a traditional Philippian fabric “T’nalak”, which is made from hand-woven banana fibers, to shape those romantic flowers and lovely bunny ears in her designs. Mich even trained her workers—females from Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation—in person. Her designs gives off a romantic, feminine, and young poetic feel, which somehow, is mixed with a Japanese Gothic Lolita atmosphere. Therefore, it was not surprising that Anna dello Russo, the director of VOGUE NIPPON, showed up with Mich’s bunny hat on London Fashion Week’s free newspaper.
The brand has been sold globally since 2009. The stocklists include New York, London, Singapore and Tokyo. After designed millinery many seasons, Mich started looking into menshat in 2013 Spring/Summer. Under the same concept, she tried to create some tall hats and tennis hats with her signature floral shapes. These hats are kust as cute but unisex. Even girls easily wear them. I can definitely imagine them becoming popular for boys worldwide.
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