Manila Fashion Festival is a fashionclothingtrade show held bi-annually in Manila, Philippines showcasing more than 50 local and international designers each season. Following the festival's principal sponsorship with Panasonic starting with the Fall/Winter 2018 show last April 2018, the event was renamed to Panasonic Manila Fashion Festival.
History and organization
Manila Fashion Festival was founded by Ronnie Cruz and is currently organized by Art Personas led by Chief Operating Officer and Creative Director Rene M. Dominguez. The event aims to showcase world-class artistic production and strengthen brand presence through creative execution. Other sponsors includes World Balance, MAC Cosmetics, Junca Salon, SIP Purified Water and Zeal Cosmetics. The 4-day shows are also being live-streamed through its YouTube channel.
Early seasons
The first Manila Fashion Festival show dates were from November 11 to 14, 2014 for Spring/Summer 2015 collections held at Green Sun Hotel which featured ARIN brand and collections from Pablo Cabahug, Renan Pacson, Sassa Jimenez, Chris Diaz, Vania Romoff, Anthony Ramirez, Yevgeniya Alexandrovna Yushkova, Mark Bumgarner, Cheetah Rivera, Veejay Floresca and Jaz Cerezo. The show was voted as Best Fashion Show of 2014 by online fashion magazine Stylebible.ph readers. Shortly after its first season, the Fall/Winter 2015 collections were showcased from March 19 to 22, 2015 and featured 25 fashion designers including Jerome Salaya Ang, Happy Andrada, Odelon Simpao, Rhett Eala, Banggo Niu and Ziggy Savella. The Spring/Summer 2016 collections were showcased from October 23 to 25, 2015 and featured Randy Ortiz, Renan Pacson and Project Runway Philippines Season 4 winner, Joy Chicano. The Fall/Winter 2016 collections were showcased on a 4-day run from April 11 to 14, 2016 held on a new venue at Marquee Tent, Edsa Shangri-La Manila and featured collections from 25 fashion designers including Rhett Eala, Mark Bumgarner, Pablo Cabahug and newcomer Brit Tripudio. It also featured several brand collections like Lauquen, Coca-Cola Dress Coke, Seven Friday and ARIN and hosted graduation shows from iAcademy and SoFA Design Institute fashion schools.
MFF Now, Next and Beyond
The Manila Fashion Festival Now collections ran from October 18 to 21, 2016 with a collaboration with the Embassy of Netherlands, featured over 60 designers and 10 brands and observed resetting of fashion timeline and the "See Now, Buy Now" concept. Manila Fashion Festival Next ran from March 21 to 24, 2017 and Manila Fashion Festival Beyond featuring 50 designers and design collaboration with AirAsia ran from October 17 to 20, 2017.
Panasonic sponsorship
Following major sponsorship with Panasonic starting the eighth season which ran from April 10 to 13, 2018, the show was renamed to Panasonic Manila Fashion Festival and featured designers from Cebu and Davao regions with their Fall/Winter 2018 collections. The ninth season which ran from October 16 to 19, 2018 featured over 40 local designers and a handful of designers from Southeast Asia.
Capsule Collection
Manila Fashion Festival launched its first capsule collection last May 27, 2015 which featured collaboration of fashion designer M Barretto and menswear clothing line brand OutKast Paradigm.
