Ukay has become respectable. Ukay-ukay has made the middle- and lower-income Filipino look better. All you need is a quick eye and a modicum of good taste. Maybe we’re wearing the discards of other countries but most of us don’t care. Beautiful clothes are beautiful clothes.

Filipinos like to look fashionable and if you can’t afford the stuff to drool over in high-end stores, there’s the pre-loved alternative. There are two categories of ukay (the word comes from halukay, meaning to forage). One is the P10 to P50 kind, which the help patronize and which you snub, and the P250 to P500 plus, which is the imported ukay that’s the delight of me.

Ukay is very democratic, though. The maid carrying the bayong overflowing with your organic vegetables may be better dressed than you. Or, to your shock, is wearing a T-shirt with a glittering sequined star while pushing your wheelchair around the mall.

Some well-heeled executive’s wife may brag that the adorable lace cardigan, or T-shirt, or dress she is wearing is from the UK. It is like the princess who can wear paste jewelry in a ball and nobody would question if it was real.

Many ukay clothes are unused, but I’m not too particular about that. Beautiful is beautiful. Quality clothes can stand a tub of boiling water and a normal wash afterward.

When you comment on a particularly good-looking garment a close friend is wearing, she will usually admit (even brag) if it’s an ukay find. Otherwise, courtesy demands that you do not ask.

Weekend market

I confine my ukay forays to the weekend market of my neighborhood, which is the only one I know. This morning, I encountered an olive-green Alexander McQueen blouse with rubberized sleeves cut out like lace. I rejected it for being too dilapidated and pretentious.

The ukay clothes you wear must be credible. Otherwise you might look like a pulubing naging prinsesa. Maybe designer brands never really mattered to me since I honestly can’t tell one from the other and neither can most of my friends.

I settle instead for an olive-green sando with a logo of Red Bulls liquor in front—two angry bulls eye to eye and horn to horn. On a fierce lady with white hair who’s a widow, that should be statement enough. Sissies need not apply.

Ukay-ukay is here to stay. Not because we need style, but because it’s fun.