In an exclusive interview, Rhett Eala discusses his upcoming Red Charity Gala 2025 collection: a personal exploration of creative freedom and design evolution.
On October 4, 2025, Rhett Eala will unveil his collection as the featured designer of this year’s Red Charity Gala. Organized by philanthropists Tessa Prieto and Kaye Tinga, the gala benefits the Assumption HS 81 Foundation, Hope for Lupus Foundation, and the Philippine Red Cross, touching lives and causes across the country.
Since its launch in 2009, the Red Charity Gala has also championed local design and creativity as an art form and a force for charity. To be the annual featured designer means joining an esteemed lineage of industry greats and receiving the artist’s greatest gift: creative freedom.
Ahead of Saturday’s show, in an exclusive interview with Lifestyle Asia, Rhett discusses what this freedom unlocked in his creative process, and how it led him on a journey through his own design career.
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A Collection Of Freedom And Reflection
Truly, freedom is what most inspires an artist. To create without restrictions, to make without boundaries, and, ultimately, to produce something that inspires—this is every creative’s dream—to work freely.
“There were no rules in coming up with my collection for the Red Charity Gala, and that alone is inspiring,” Rhett shares. “Any creative mind knows that the best exercise to express oneself is when complete trust is given to you.”
This trust is not simply given; it is trust earned, recognizing and celebrating his established voice in Philippine fashion. As one of his first solo shows in a long time, he admits, the process became a deeply personal experience that allowed him to revisit his past work and explore his design ethos.
“I didn’t know I was actually making references to my past works. I didn’t realize that I continue to challenge myself in what I do,” Rhett says, with each design in the collection an extension of himself. “It evokes memories of my first sketch, my first solo show, and the recurring themes that have eventually become my signature looks. I just stayed true to what I enjoy doing.”
The ultimate takeaway? Rhett provides a grounded response: “That the clothes are wearable and timeless.”
Fashion As Community And Collective Effort
But Rhett is quick to note that no collection, no matter how personal, exists in isolation. For every collection, there is a community.
“I may be the featured designer, but I work with so many people behind the scenes to be able to create the entire collection and even the show presentation,” Rhett says. “And that is what Red Charity Gala has always been advocating: that it is a community tirelessly working together to help raise funds for charity and to push the fashion design industry.”
It’s this spirit of collaboration, creativity fueled by collective effort and channeled toward meaningful impact, that soon takes the runway. As anticipation builds for the Red Charity Gala 2025, Rhett’s collection stands as both a personal milestone and a reminder of the multi-dimensional facets of the fashion and creative industry as art, as community, and as a force for good.
Preview Of Rhett Eala For Red Charity Gala 2025
Photos courtesy of Red Charity Gala.
