Cebuano furniture designer Vito Selma announced on Instagram this morning that the first garment he made is featured in the Vogue Italia website.
Selma wrote that he was hesitant when he was first asked to do the project by fashion stylist Andre Judd Chang, as it was unexplored territory for him and because he knew it required a different set of skills.
“I am a product designer, taught and trained to design objects, anything from a tv controller to an entire kitchen. I see everything as an object. When I was asked by @andrejuddchang to design a dress, I was very hesitant. That is unexplored territory and I know it requires a totally different skillset,” he wrote in his Instagram post.
The dress he designed, which was named “The Barrel,” doesn’t use any fabric. Instead, it’s made of wood—material Selma knows pretty well because of his work as a product designer. The dress also made use of material manipulation techniques similar to what the designer uses in his furniture designs.
“Working with wood my whole career, I have not seen an ending to the techniques and the beauty that wood can showcase. This dress wasn’t designed with a shape in mind, nor to emphasize the material used, but as an idea to push the extents of how wood bends and moves,” Selma explained.
“This garment is an ode to the Philippines and its craft,” he added.
Selma also announced that he will be releasing a lamp version of the Vogue-featured dress in 2020.
Photo courtesy of Vito Selma’s Instagram account
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