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Garche: The Visionary Story

Ever wondered about pursuing your college degree as a career path? Or do you have a hobby that may start up a business from your college learning?

These ladies’ degree helped them start up their own brand. Faith Mary Mae Guzman, Alex Dianne Silva and Raven Lean Monterde, Psychology Major Graduates from the University of the Philippines Cebu used the trendy tote bags with a twist inspired from college as their business.

Garche was inspired from the word archetype. “Two years ago, we-suddenly had this discussion about starting a business. Somebody in the team suddenly suggested starting our own local brand then from there we gathered ideas until we came up with what we have today,” Faith shares.

Their brand that showcases local art through archetypes developed its first collection called The Visionary. “This explains our interest in including different archetypes in our products,” Faith says.

Currently, Garche’s team has Alex as Social Media Manager and Designer, Raven as Main Designer and Faith as their Designer as well.

Garche emphasizes that their brand shares stories behind Psychology. “We wanted to create a brand that emphasizes the story behind the designs instead of focusing only on aesthetics. Psychology, storytelling, art, and fashion are all things that we are passionate about, and Garche is the culmination of all those things,” Faith adds.

People can relate to their design. The Visionary Collection was set to inspire and let people relate on Psychology and art at the same time. Faith then shares that their future designs and releases will be based on a theme – an archetype that any human being can relate to at any point in their life.

The Visionary Collection’s tote bags can be bought for Php 499 to Php 479 only. The price depends on the type of strap used in the bag. Garche also envisions selling more products. “We also have plans to release other products such as shirts, jackets, pouches,” Faith shares.

Garche uses local materials mainly cacha on their bags. As a start up yet proud brand, Garche envisions to be positive. “We thought of an archetype that has the traits we want our brand to have: optimistic for the future, innovative, and someone that thinks differently,” Faith says. This is where The Visionary was born.

Soon, the brand will release another set of collection called The Lover. But before starting up Garche, Faith shares their struggle with finding resources around the city and labor. “It was challenging to look for the most affordable resources and labor while putting in mind quality and appropriate pay for the people involved,” she says.

Tote bags are trendy but tote bags that tell stories are classic. “We wanted to tell stories of the same nature, but also want to emphasize that even stories of the same nature have their own unique twists to them,” Faith adds.

In designing their collection, she then adds the factors like movies, comics, video games, and photos of real events in conveying emotion without words.

Locally, artists and visionaries use their skills as inspiration to start up a brand that we can call our own. From sailing the smooth seas of trends to discovering what clicks, it is never wrong to experiment from your hobbies and giving it a twist of your skills.

Worldwide, fashion trends change almost every day. But when these weather changes, tote bags could never go wrong

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7 Things You Need To Know Before Watching Balangiga: Howling Wilderness

Following its premiere in October 2017, controversies still creep on “Balangiga: Howling Wilderness”.

This one-of-a-kind film with surreal takes on one of the Philippines’ dark times surely deserves our time. The story is seen through the eyes of a boy that uniquely shows humanity’s cry for help.

Before its screening at your nearest cinema weeks from now, here are seven things you need to know about this morbid film about a portion of our history.

It revolves around the Balangiga Massacre in 1901.

During the American occupation in the Philippines, Company C of the 9^th Infantry Regiment arrived on the south coast of Samar Island, Balangiga in 1901. Their arrival was to cut the contacts of Filipino guerrillas to the people.

According to sources, the Americans confiscated all the weapons of the residents in Balangiga, men were detained and were treated badly. They burned down a church and its bells were taken which are still not returned to date.

Under General Jacob H. Smith’s orders, his officers burned towns and killed all who aged ten and above. For historians and people who lived there, the massacre came after the events of Smith’s orders. Americans practiced scorched earth policy and took food and killed people.

The film revolves around the journey of 8-year-old boy Kulas and his grandfather as they fled the town after Smith’s order to kill everyone over ten years old as revenge for the “rebellion” of the people in Balangiga.

Some scenes were limited especially violence on animals.

The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) mentioned that actual scenes of the film were limited.

The sickening scenes of animal slaughter, corpses and deaths will shock or excite us more.

Its tone will keep you interested

Even with gruesome scenes, the dreamy-feels tone with a mood that will continuously haunt you will surely keep you seating on your chair.

The film has minimal dialogues it will also show beautiful shots in the countryside.

It won awards in QCinema International Film Festival 2017

The film won Best Picture during the 2017 QCinema International Film Festival.

Following its back-to-back awards, it also bagged trophies in the 66^th Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) and Urian.

It will be a part of Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino 2018

Because of its numerous awards in different film festivals, “Balangiga” will be part of the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino 2018 as a guest entry under Special Features Section.

Under this section are best picture awardees in different independent festivals from 2017 to be shown as exhibition films.

The director of the film is also a musician

“Balangiga” was one of the masterpieces of director Khavn dela Cruz. Surprisingly, dela Cruz’s composition “Katurog Na” sang by folk-rock artist Lolita Carbon won Best Original Song in 66^th FAMAS.

It was intended to be a historical film for children

According to dela Cruz, the film is an unfinished project.

In his interview with ABS-CBN, he mentioned that he focused on adding and re-shooting the film to make it more accessible to a wider audience, especially for children.

History films show us more. “Balangiga” explained and portrayed more on the horrors of the armed conflict between the American forces and Filipino people.

More importantly, it showed that there is no good outcome from colonialism.

The film will be shown starting on August 15, 2018 in selected cinemas nationwide including Robinsons Galleria.

See you there!

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Butch Carungay’s 50th in Neverland

By Emmanuel Hamoy

Cebu’s glitterati came out in full force for Butch Carungay’s 50th birthday bash at EdenClub. It was a fun-filled night overflowing with Pol Roger, trivia games whilst traipsing the light fantastic.