A Filipino designer has taken on the challenge of solid waste management by upcycling trash into fashionable works of art.
Visual artist Francis Sollano partners with hotels, malls and restaurants to source garbage materials to be used by him and his team in creating trashion art pieces that can be worn as accessories.
Sollano also creates home accessories and installations.
Sollano and his team are based in Cebu in central Philippines and shuttles between the islands and Singapore where he has set up a second home.
He admits to taking trashion seriously only after he joined the Youth for a Livable Cebu (YLC), a group of young professionals advocating sustainable lifestyles to make his home island a more liveable place. The group has been his platform for introducing his creations and networking with commercial establishments, effectively ensuring proper solid waste management.
To create his art pieces, Sollano experiments with various techniques such a weaving, shredding, and indirect heating to manipulate materials. The designer uses organic processes done by hand to convert ugly used and thrown out elements into works of art.
His works are described by the fashion world as elegant in aesthetic and delicate in quality.
Where there used to be the signature blue plastic bags of a huge department store chain, there now exists delicate-looking lacy material for his Chloe-inspired dress, a piece shredded by hand and ironed by Sollano himself.
He has fashioned clear plastic bottles into a cluster of flowers for his Dani hat.
Sollano has a degree in Business Management from the University of the Philippines in Cebu. He went into public relations as a career which led him to going to Singapore and Southeast Asia travels for a brand management agency. He headed the marketing communications of internationally-renowned furniture designer and fellow Cebuano Kenneth Cobonpue’s studio, Hive. Sollano now only does PR on the side to allow him to focus on creating his trashion art.
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