“Bang’s return was a dissonant medley of the designer’s ideas that have been brewing in his head since his last show in 2019: Tennis! Paris! Water!”
“The real challenge is to shut up about ‘Challengers,’” read a tweet a week into the release of Luca Guadagnino’s tennis threesome dubbed “the movie of summer.” Two months after its theatrical release, some fans still can’t shut up about it. People are dancing to its soundtrack by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor at the club, and most recently, at a fashion show staged by designer Bang Pineda at the Makati Stock Exchange, where models wore radioactive tennis ball-yellow pieces that glowed in the dark, alongside rhinestoned and deconstructed tailoring, his signature denim streetwear staples, and form-fitting chiffon dresses with protruding tennis balls. Honestly, it’s a lot for one show. Running at a total of 50 looks, Bang’s return to the runway was a dissonant medley of the designer’s ideas that have been brewing in his head since his last show in 2019: Tennis! Paris! Water!
The spectacle though is something else. Staged at the fountain area of the Leandro Locsin-designed structure, “State of the Bang”—a rather serious name for a playful collection—was meant to sit a 500-person guestlist. The designer’s name is after all synonymous with noise. The show was attended by a slew of celebrities including actor and newly sworn-in president of the Senate Spouses Foundation Inc. Heart Evangelista along with politicians such as Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna with her salt and pepper bob in a corsetted dress. Bang takes from splashy western houses’ publicity tradition, mixing conceptual set design with big name front row attendees (some guests were no show, though), and celebrity casting. TV personality Vice Ganda opened the show in a sheer shirt worn under a bejeweled satiny navy robe. The members of the P-Pop boy group BGYO followed together with Hayden Kho and actor Rayver Cruz.
The designer basically staged three different runway shows featuring looks with derivative elements easily recognizable by any chronically online fashion girlie: monochromatic tailoring paired with outre headpieces; campy concepts; new-ish menswear proportions and textures; and deconstructed streetwear and menswear. These are formulaic but nonetheless adequate.
The craftsmanship is also commendable with the coats lined, the hems—most of them at least—ironed and flattened, albeit some clunky pants like the one Cruz sported with a navy double-belted suit, a recurring silhouette with suspect belt hoops upon closer look. The bottoms didn’t fall as flatteringly and could have used one more fitting.
Other kinks that irked the eyes were the literal Wilson tennis bags that went down the runway to complete the athleisure looks (unlikely partnership?) and the rhinstoned motifs that were supposed to be tennis balls but read more like yin and yang symbols or more accurately a Pepsi logo.
For all the other faults, there are a couple of wearable pieces that we can totally see hitting the streets like the hoodies and denim numbers, which albeit being peppered with Bang’s (mellowed down!) signature logomania are very much in touch with Gen Zs’ sensibilities: fun and quirky but still “normcore” enough.
There are also some editorial-ready and honestly fun numbers, particularly the tops and outerwear studded with halved tennis balls, racket trinkets, and tennis ball keychains, as well as a few shiny, slinky sleeveless tops made of metallic sequins and glittery tennis ball appliques.
Bang’s return to the runway is a show of incongruous range and frivolous experimentation, like hitting second serve and hoping it’s good enough to rally.