For Jude Macasinag and Novèl’s Prince Padilla, the whole point is to make the kind of clothes they would miss if they didn’t exist.
Prince Padilla and Jude Macasinag have known each other long enough to stop performing for one another. That much was obvious at Vestido on August 14, 2026, where the two staged Non-Essentials, their second joint outing after a first attempt a couple of years back. The Manchester-raised Prince, who designs under his own label Novèl, was careful, though, not to frame the night as a reunion tour. If anything, it was a status report.
“This event felt like a celebration of where Jude and I are right now in our careers,” Prince later stated on social media. “We’re very different designers, but what keeps us tethered is something much more fundamental: our belief in making things by hand and our undeniable pursuit of our craft.”
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Going Against The Grain: The Idea Behind Non-Essentials By Prince Padilla And Jude Macasinag
Jude, based in Paris but clearly still tuned to Manila’s frequency, says that “The whole idea behind Non-Essentials is that we’re embracing how we work without necessarily needing to comply with the market, especially here in the Philippines, where people tend to gravitate toward basics, quiet luxury, and things like that.”
It’s a pointed line from a designer who, months earlier, had a piece of his own making walk the Berlinale red carpet: a gold lamé dress worn by Jorrybell Agoto at the premiere of Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana (2026), and present at the pop-up in its full gilded splendor.
Nothing here was made to be easy. “Realistically, Prince and I work on collectible, one-off pieces, and we wanted these pieces to feel like proper collectibles,” Jude says. “Some aren’t necessarily the easiest to maintain, but they’re beautiful, and we wanted to embrace that.” He’s not selling low-maintenance. He’s selling the opposite, and betting people still want it.
Two Vocabularies, One Instinct
What holds the two together is hardly aesthetic. Their current output barely overlaps. Prince has drifted toward eveningwear thick with embroidery and iridescent sequins, shapes bending abstract. Meanwhile, Jude pared his silhouettes down while pushing every ounce of ambition into the surface: the finish, the hand, the details most people won’t clock until they’re standing close. “I’ve gone back to more streamlined and easier-to-wear silhouettes, but with a much more considered approach to the surface,” he says. “We’ve found a common point between our individual practices, so it doesn’t feel like we’re bringing two completely different worlds into the same space.” What connects them, Jude explains, is process, not palette.
“The way Prince and I work is quite organic. Since we’ve worked together before, we have an understanding of how each of us makes design decisions, and our approaches naturally coincide,” he notes.
The offering itself is split three ways, with ready-to-wear pulled straight off the rack, one-off and gone for good once sold; Prince’s pre-order pieces; and a run of what Jude calls “show pieces,” composed of garments with no commercial pretense at all. “What’s nice about the show pieces is that they’re there to demonstrate what I can do and how I can approach design when I don’t have to think about price or certain other limitations,” he says. “They were really made for the sake of making, which is something I still give myself the liberty to do.”
A Closet Full Of Ghosts
Threaded through the pop-up was Couture in the Closet, Jude’s venture into vintage haute couture. It’s part archive, part occasional resale, and built to fill a hole he’d noticed in the Philippines. “You don’t really find vintage haute couture here that’s still relatively accessible in terms of pricing,” he says. The pieces he’d sourced made the case on their own, like a Chanel suit that once belonged to a woman from an old noble family and a scattering of space-age Pierre Cardin that hadn’t aged so much as waited.
Jude works across other people’s brands as freely as he works on his own, and he doesn’t see the two as being in tension. “I don’t have to fully rely on having my own brand to get more resources,” he says. “I can make clothes that we simply want to make and have fun creating, and hopefully the market here in Manila is open to that.”
Frequently Asked Questions
“Non-Essentials” is a joint fashion showcase by Prince Padilla and Jude Macasinag, featuring ready-to-wear, one-off pieces, pre-order designs, and show pieces.
Prince Padilla and Jude Macasinag are designers whose practices differ aesthetically but share a commitment to making things by hand and pursuing their craft.
The showcase features collectible one-off pieces, ready-to-wear garments, Prince’s pre-order pieces, and show pieces made without commercial considerations.
Couture in the Closet is Jude Macasinag’s venture into vintage haute couture, combining an archive with occasional resale and making vintage couture more accessible.
They created “Non-Essentials” to embrace their individual approaches to fashion without having to conform to market preferences, while celebrating craftsmanship and the freedom to make.
