Rajo Laurel had 33 years of dresses and a few things to say. Presented at the Fashion Week Asia Gala, ARCHIVO revisits the designs, memories, and creative instincts that have shaped his career since 1993.
Rajo Laurel had an archive worth revisiting and no shortage of ideas left to explore. On October 24, at the Marriott Grand Ballroom during Fashion WeekFashion WeekA recurring event, held in cities such as Paris, Milan, New York, and London, where designers present upcoming collections to buyers, editors, and celebrities. Fashion weeks set the direction ofGo to Fashion Week Glossary Asia 2026, the designer presented ARCHIVO, a collection that put his own history up for reconsideration. Friends, family, and industry peers gathered to see the clothes, many of which had accompanied Laurel through different stages of his career.
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ARCHIVO By Rajo Laurel: A Matter Of History
The question was what to bring back, what to alter, and what deserved to remain in the past. Laurel approached the archive as a working wardrobe rather than a collection of artifacts, giving old designs new colors, unexpected proportions, and reasons to return to the runway.
One of the collection’s more compelling arguments for keeping old clothes around was a dress from 1993, the year Laurel first presented his work. Originally black, it reappeared in heliotrope, a shade that moves between pink and purple depending on the light. Its infanta cut, irregularly bubbled form, and uneven hem give the silhouette an animated quality, as if the fabric has never quite agreed to stay still.
33 years on, the dress still has plenty to say. Laurel considers it the most special piece in ARCHIVO, not simply because it marks the beginning of his career, but because the people who witnessed that beginning were in the room to see it again. “The people in that room are part and parcel of my story, of my history,” he muses. “In a way, I was looking back at my work through them and with them.”
Old Ideas, New Tricks
If the dress supplied the emotional center of the collection, the newer interpretations showed what Laurel could do with the distance between then and now. His fascination with Elizabethan dress, which informed his work in the early aughts, resurfaced. Bustles also returned, though they no longer felt obliged to sit where tradition had placed them. They draped across all sides of the body, turning a familiar historical device into a question of proportion and placement.
Laurel also made a case for looking at what remains after a garment is cut. Retasos found new purpose in patchwork. Here, the archive extended beyond the finished dress to include the material that might otherwise have been discarded. The past, in other words, was not limited to the clothes worth preserving.
The show had its own return to form behind the scenes. Laurel worked with Robby Carmona, a frequent collaborator of his who actually directed his first fashion show in 1993, to shape the soundtrack around the clothes. The sequence opened with a suite created for Lahi earlier that year, moved through restrained colors and black-and-white looks, then closed with a vivid burst of color.
For all its personal references, ARCHIVO was not intended as a monument to Laurel’s career. “This is for the Philippines and perhaps even for the region to showcase the creativity, the craftsmanship, and the talent of the Filipino people,” he comments. He credits divine grace for the evening, though one could say that the collection’s achievement also rested on the designer’s willingness to examine his work without treating it as purely sacred or untouchable.
Time On His Side
That willingness may be the most interesting measure of 33 years in fashion. Revisiting a collection can easily become an exercise in nostalgia, but Laurel used the occasion to test what his old ideas could still do.
Two days after the show, Laurel was exhausted and happy. He had little appetite for planning what would come next. Instead, he wanted to give himself what he calls “the power of the pause,” trusting that another idea would arrive when it was ready. Legacy rarely occupies his thoughts, and perhaps ARCHIVO explains why. After all, a body of work doesn’t have to be sealed off to be meaningful. Sometimes it needs to be taken apart, tried on again, and allowed to surprise its maker. After 33 years, Laurel can afford to leave the next dress unwritten for a little while.
Frequently Asked Questions
Archivo is a collection by Filipino fashion designer Rajo Laurel that revisits 33 years of his work, reinterpreting archival designs and exploring new approaches to silhouettes, materials, and couture.
Rajo Laurel presented Archivo on October 24 at the Marriott Grand Ballroom during the Fashion Week Asia Gala.
The oldest piece is a dress from 1993, the year Laurel first presented his work. Originally black, the dress returned in heliotrope, a shade that shifts between pink and purple.
Laurel revisited his earlier fascination with Elizabethan silhouettes, reworked bustles into unconventional placements, and incorporated retasos, or fabric remnants, into patchwork designs.
Laurel sees Archivo as a celebration of Filipino creativity, craftsmanship, and talent, with the aim of showcasing the country’s fashion industry to a wider regional audience.
