With “Thank You, Universe,” Jo Ann Bitagcol transforms the baro, Maria Clara, and terno into pieces made for the way Filipinos dress today.
She has spent 30 years seeing fashion from nearly every angle. She began as a model, moved behind the camera as a photographer, entered the art world, and later built a label that transforms images of Philippine dress into shirts, scarves, robes, skirts, and other wearable pieces. Her latest collection, Thank You, Universe, brings those chapters together while marking three decades in the industry.
Now available at her pop-up at Power Plant Mall, the collection draws from vintage baro, Maria Clara, and terno pieces photographed from the archive of scenographer and designer Gino Gonzales. The images appear across Bitagcol’s signature boxy shirts, kamisas, robes, sporty kimonas, sarong pants, and apron dresses, alongside newer pieces such as the bubble saya and a multiway wrap that can be worn as a skirt or dress.
“I want everyone to have a piece of who we are,” Bitagcol tells The POST. “There’s a piece of the Philippines in here. The soul is still there.”
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A career that began in a Bulacan panciteria
Bitagcol’s fashion story began in 1996, when she was discovered in a panciteria in Bulacan. She debuted in the Fashion Watch series that same year and later modeled in Paris for Asian designers with showrooms in the city. Upon returning to Manila, she became a muse to several of the country’s leading designers.
Photography eventually pulled her behind the scenes. In 2004, she studied the medium at the University of the Philippines, apprenticed under Lilen Uy, and learned from mentors including Jun de Leon and Juan Caguicla. By 2007, she had established herself as a photographer for publications and brands.
“I was still navigating where to go,” she said of that period. “Well, I’m still learning until now.”
Her work later expanded into fine art. In 2015, she presented her first solo exhibition, Tripolar, at Avellana Art Gallery. She subsequently developed the project through exhibitions at Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery and Art Fair Philippines. Designing came later, after Joey Samson encouraged her to turn her prints into scarves. She debuted them at the Bench Katutubo Pop-Up Market in 2019 before expanding into clothing during the pandemic.
She speaks to vintage garments before photographing them
Bitagcol has worked with Gonzales for years, regularly returning to his archive of vintage Philippine garments. Her process for Thank You, Universe did not begin with a fixed concept. She and Gonzales selected garments, arranged them, and allowed the images to take shape.
“We just show up there and see what happens,” she tells The POST. “We allow everything to unfold.”
Before touching or photographing a garment, however, Bitagcol asks permission from its previous owner.
“I always ask permission,” she says. “I’ll say, ‘Okay, grandma, grandpa, whoever the owner is, permission to shoot, and please guide me as to how you want your story to be told.’”
As Bitagcol worked with the vintage garments, she began seeing unexpected figures in the images. “I feel or I see that they’re creatures and characters from other planets,” she tells us. “This particular piece, I call the Heartheaded, and then Queen of Hearts, and then there are characters, they’re like gurus of some sort, but they’re like Martians or, I don’t know, aliens.”
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Filipino dress beyond formal occasions
Bitagcol wants the collection to feel connected to heritage without limiting it to weddings, ceremonies, or cultural events. Her version of the barong, for instance, borrows familiar details but takes on a sportier form that can work across different settings.
“The barong is a little bit not on a daily basis,” she shares. “So there’s an idea that it’s sporty. It can be day, it can be night. You can dress it up, you can dress it down also.”
That runs throughout the collection. A photograph of a Maria Clara dress can appear on a shirt pocket, while traditional shapes return through skirts, wraps, and layered separates. The pieces do not attempt to reproduce historical clothing exactly. Instead, they carry its images, forms, and memory into the present.
She elaborates, “I’ve always been interested in finding fresh and new ways to present our history, culture and heritage. In creating a new print to celebrate 30 years, I wanted to explore new shapes, silhouettes and figures.”
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The Philippines gave her work purpose
Bitagcol’s career has since taken her to Bench Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week through Filipinxt, and the FASHIONPhilippines Milan Mentorship Program under Fondazione Sozzani.
Despite those international milestones, she continues to return to Philippine dress as the center of her work. Over time, she realized that she was not simply giving something back to local culture. It had also given her direction.
Thank You, Universe is also a tribute to the people, places, and creative worlds that shaped her over the past 30 years. “I am just grateful on all angles, on all aspects, all the gods and goddesses of the universe. Thank you to all my collaborators, all my designer friends, all creative friends. Thank you to fashion. Thank you to photography. Thank you to culture. Thank you to the Philippines. Thank you to fellow Filipinos.”
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Thank You, Universe is the first of three projects planned for Bitagcol’s 30th anniversary year. For now, it offers a clear picture of what has held her work together across modeling, photography, art, and design: a belief that Philippine heritage does not have to remain behind glass. It can be photographed, reimagined, and worn again.
Thank You, Universe is available at the Bitagcol pop-up on the second floor of Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center. For updates, follow @joannbitagcol on Instagram.
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