Ec’s latest collection brings together patchwork, utility and leftover fabrics while returning to the local relationships that influenced its beginnings.
At this year’s Purveyr Fair, the ec booth wore its history on its walls. Designer Nimrod Sarmiento patched together fabrics from previous collections and years of work, joining them into one expansive surface that serves as a physical archive of the label. Founders Stacy Rodriguez and Carlos del Prado see the whole spirit of ec in it. “Fabrics that had once been garments were given a new life as part of the space that presented the next collection,” the founders explain.
READ ALSO: Filipino Brands Offering Great Closet Basics
An Archive In Fabric: The Idea Behind Ec’s New Collection
The same instinct for reassembly shapes the label’s third collection for the fair, where patchwork has grown from a technique into a habit of mind. Utility jackets, anoraks, chore coats, shorts, and relaxed trousers all arrive softened by color, print, and surprising pairings of cloth. Stacy and Carlos describe the mood with evident affection. “The result is a collection that feels practical but playful, constructed but slightly unruly, where the beauty comes from the meeting of things that don’t necessarily appear to belong together at first.”
Refinement guided the collection more than accumulation did. The Summer Jacket, a recurring ec silhouette, now falls to a mid-length shape and closes with a two-way zipper in place of buttons, and a single saturated print gives the new proportion room to speak. The Anorak takes a more collaged route, gathering utility pockets, collars, closures and panels from different garments into one cloth of mixed patterns. Checks, stripes, and florals meet in trousers, shorts, and shirting, sometimes with graphic restraint and sometimes with the air of a happy accident.
Ec Goes Back To Their Roots
Much of the collection’s warmth comes from a return to the label’s beginnings. Working with a neighbourhood tailor this year brought back the relationship that started ec’s earliest project, and the tailor’s experience joined the founders’ patterns, fabrics, and techniques. “One of our earliest projects was built around working directly with a neighbourhood sewer, and we wanted to revisit that relationship and the importance of local making within our practice,” the founders explain. They also see a larger lesson in the exchange. “The collaboration is a reminder that ec’s design language has always been shaped by the people and processes around us.”
Leftovers earn a second life as well. Ec’s first collaborative T-shirt uses retaso, the fabric scraps of production, as its branding; a bag, made in collaboration with Stacy’s personal label Eustacia, turns its unused cuttings into braided zipper pulls that work as both hardware and ornament. The founders speak of this as a principle rather than a trick. “The leftover material therefore becomes part of the finished piece rather than something discarded at the end of production. Materials can be cut apart, combined, repurposed, and given another life.”
In Front Of The Camera
The campaign images carry that same freedom. Photographer Mac Villaluna, a longtime friend of the label, shot the collection against a geometric backdrop that turns color, print, and layered cloth almost graphic. DJ Andi Osmeña models the looks, moving through the frames with a natural coolness that makes each garment look lived in. They shift between playful poses and direct portraits, and the clothes take on their character as they go.
“This was important to us because, ultimately, we want someone to wear our clothes,” the founders say. “The garments are designed to add to someone’s character, giving them room to move, play and make the clothes their own.”
Photography by Mac Villaluna, courtesy of ec
Frequently Asked Questions
ec’s latest collection explores patchwork, reuse, local making, and unexpected combinations of fabrics and prints, bringing together utility jackets, anoraks, chore coats, shorts, trousers, and shirting.
ec uses fabrics from previous collections, production scraps known as retaso, mixed prints, checks, stripes, florals, and leftover materials that are repurposed into finished garments and accessories.
Patchwork appears across the collection through mixed fabrics, patterns, utility details, and panels. The Anorak, for example, combines pockets, collars, closures, and panels from different garments.
ec worked with a neighborhood tailor, returning to the kind of local making that shaped one of its earliest projects. The label also collaborated with Eustacia on a bag made using unused fabric cuttings.
ec was founded by Stacy Rodriguez and Carlos del Prado.
