A Look Inside Vestido’s Worn Stories

Step into Vestido’s Worn Stories, where fashion transcends trends to become a living archive of memory, identity, and timeless reinvention

Words Mika Reyes
Photos courtesy of Vestido Manila
February 27, 2025

"To rewear is to rewrite," these are the words of Karina Swee in the foreword of Vestido's Worn Stories. To breathe new life into the past and to weave the future into every fold. This is the ethos behind Vestido’s Worn Stories — an exhibition that transforms garments into vessels of memory, each thread imbued with the history of those who have worn them before. Here, fashion transcends adornment, becoming an extension of self, a fluid marker of time, and an ever-evolving archive of identity.

Clothing, after all, is more than fabric against skin. It conceals and reveals, adapts and shifts, embracing its wearer while whispering the secrets of those who came before. Worn Stories invites us into a space where dresses evolve, identities converge, and garments become living testimonies to personal and collective experiences. The exhibition turns clothing into a language—a dialect of texture and movement, where past and present blur into one continuous narrative.

At the heart of Vestido’s Worn Stories is a collective of female photographers, each charting new pathways through their lenses. From the ethereal storytelling of Shaira Luna to the intimate visions of Camille Robiou du Pont, each artist brings a distinct perspective, transforming garments into artifacts of memory. Regine David, through her Tokyo-honed lens, captures the interplay of fashion, identity, and storytelling, while Andrea Genota’s dreamlike compositions pay homage to her Laguna roots, celebrating the quiet strength found in femininity. Colin Dancel revels in the delicate tension of light and shadow, while Judd Figuerres and Mano Gonzales expand the discourse through film and material exploration, pushing the boundaries of fashion as an artistic medium.

Among these, Judd Figuerres’ Vestido Time Capsule stands as an immersive installation that threads together memory and transformation. Participants contribute personal artifacts—objects worn, loved, and laden with significance—creating a tapestry of voices and experiences that shape the Vestido Woman of the future. Through 3D-scanned portraits and evocative soundscapes, Figuerres constructs a nonlinear portrait of time, where garments become echoes of those who once wore them. The result is not just an exhibition, but an experience—a meditation on the passage of time, the persistence of memory, and the infinite ways in which clothing can embody our most intimate stories.

Fashion, in its essence, is a paradox—both personal and universal, ephemeral yet enduring. It is at once a statement of self and a conduit of cultural memory, carrying within it the weight of traditions, beliefs, and aspirations. As Worn Stories unravels, it challenges us to reconsider our relationship with clothing. Not as possessions, but as living archives. Not as static relics, but as dynamic expressions of who we are, who we have been, and who we are yet to become.

Here, nothing is wasted. Every seam, every stitch, every fiber is a story in motion. And in this cycle of renewal, beauty is forever in flux.