Ukay Ukay with Ed, Edd and Eddie
Actually just two Eds. Ed Cabagnot of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and Ed Lejano of the UP Film Center. Both from Manila who consider me their friend because I do not talk movies with them.
Ed C. is an astrologer and wants to go full-time because this is the bitchy season and he bitched everyone in the office. I was about to go to my “I have this friend who’s into hell lately” and he waved me off and after I told the birthday, said, “It will be hell until Dec. 1 and then if her karma is good, she could be rich. But her life had changed tremendously.”
So Ed C. is also now a psychic.
Off we went to Bayanihan Hotel to do some serious ukayukay. I have not done this for so long but ukay-ukaying with the two Eds is really like in a misadventure with that underrated Cartoon Network show, Ed, Edd and Eddie. After it’s over, I had a bag full and they had two bags full.
Rules for Ukay-Ukaying:
1) One in five will always be something you will never ever wear.
2) Go for the funky
3) Ed C bought a bowling shirt two sizes smaller he had to have it because it’s Guess. One in five of those you bought is for the you you thought you were. Meaning your ideal size.
4) One in five will have a stain or hole you would only discover when you have gone home
5) Go for the leatherjackets and just feel inside the pockets. I read in a local weekly once that $100 bills were stuck in some leatherjackets.
6) I once had a writing class and asked the students to write about their most memorable ukay ukay find. Ten of the girls wrote about their favorite T-back. A used T-back? I failed them because they cheated. Well, one went on to say that she showed it to her boyfriend and….
7) One in five would bear a bad karma. Usually the brand is Giordano or it’s a weird suit.
8) One in five would be destroyed by bad laundry.
9) That leaves you with no good purchase. If you bought five. I bought eight. One is a white Alexander McQueen shirt.
10) Here’s an essay which was used in Martin Masadao’s now classic, The Ukay Ukay Handbook with great graphics from Singapore-based Norman Adefuin.
P., a French anthropologist while doing the ukay-ukay at Bayanihan in 1998, told me she remembered reading a book about the dumping of used-clothes in Nigeria. She said the clothes came from French and my mind swam over a sea of Christian Dior and Coco Chanel haute couture in some Nigerian version of Bayanihan.It is worth digging up on how ukay-ukay eventually became wagwag and why Baguio became the center of it all. Ukay-ukay, which means "dig up - dig up" in Visaya, was the term for these garments, accessories, toys and other thingamajigs packed in huge cartons and unloaded in piers. "Ukay-ukay" first cropped in the port areas like Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, San Fernando and Manila. They had been around since the Second World War but hardly anyone noticed them.Even in Baguio, used clothings shipped from the US were already being sold in the Baguio Market in the 1950s. European countries got the Marshall Plan and what we got were the jeep and the ukay-ukay. These were the Big Brother's hand-me-downs.And since Baguio was established as the Summer Capital exactly a hundred years ago by the Americans, it was inevitable that ukay-ukay also find its way up there. But PX was all the rage then and ukay-ukay were thrift shop fodder.The epiphany came when ukay-ukay (which suggest digging into the piles of unsorted clothes) became wagwag. There are many theories about wagwag. One suggested that the ukay-ukay originated behind the rice section of the Baguio Market, hence the borrowing of wagwag variety of rice. The most probable one is the act of shaking the clothes ("wagwag"in Filipino and Ilocano) from the pile. So the evolution is from digging them up (ukay-ukay), you eventually shake off the dust in the hope of sizing them and wearing them.The period that ukay-ukay became wagwag in Baguio was in the 1980s when the source of garments shifted from US to Hongkong and Japan. The Philippine Japanese Association, which is very strong in Baguio, started the weekly sale of used clothes from Tokyo until the floodwaters broke. Used garments from Hongkong also started pouring in.If in the past the ukay-ukay (shortened into U2 by the sellers after a popular brand of clothing not the rock band) were unloaded in piers, now the wagwag traders or viajeros fly every other week to HK and accompany the boxes with them. Many of these viajeros were former HK domestics who knew their way around the former Crown Colony.Opening the boxes (done mostly on Saturdays) is like Pandora opening that damned box. You wouldn't know what you get. A box of used bedsheets and blankets is a losing cause while a box of children's clothes is a jackpot.At first, the shops lay out whatever they got. But as the shops proliferate (almost a thousand now compared to only 200 in 1997), in-trading has become the norm. Some shops now sell only toys, others only baseball caps and jackets. When a wagwag shop exclusively for left-handed (Remember Simpsons?) would be created, you know that the end is near.When the 1990 earthquake hit Baguio, the thing that drove the tourists back were the U2 and the ww.com (gayspeak for wagwag). Now it is the main crowd drawer. This will find its significance when we realize that Bayanihan (the Ground Zero for wagwag) was one of the first hotels in Baguio. From rest-and-recreation, the thrust of Baguio shifted to shop-till-you-drop.Why Baguio? Because if you have a U2 shop, for example, in hot CdeO and the box you got were all fur coats, what would you do? Wear them and sweat like a hog or deconstruct them into seat covers? At least in Baguio you can wear them and if you find them tacky, ship them to Lepanto where Fashion TV has yet to be shown in cable. U2 is the new drug and the network is as extensive. I bought a used scarf in Banaue.Does this forebode the over-commercialization of our tourism industry? Don't be silly. It's still the fight against the rich vs. poor, the North vs. the South. If Hongkong kept all its clothes like my mother does, it would sink on its sheer weight. They would only be glad to dump these on us. That is why there are still so many of us who fear the wagwag, seeing these are harbingers of AIDS and other imagined diseases.The garment trade is a social and ecological nightmare, just ask Kathie Lee and her sweatshop scandal. At least when you wear recycled clothes, you are assuaging the guilt of those who owned it first. You also help Planet Earth.Globalization is not always a sell-out. American books and magazines destined for landfills are sold here cheaply and the best thing you can do is to read them and learn.The key is to wear not-so-innocent wagwag yet keep your virtues pure. I remember treading along the foggy Baguio-Bontoc Road when out from the mist in Atok loomed an old woman wearing a long white coat with fur collars. She was carrying a bouquet of cala lily. The gown can only be wagwag.My friend, a photographer who forgot his camera, cried at such a surreal sight. I can only mutter, The White Lady of Cordillera also wears wagwag.
Ed C. is an astrologer and wants to go full-time because this is the bitchy season and he bitched everyone in the office. I was about to go to my “I have this friend who’s into hell lately” and he waved me off and after I told the birthday, said, “It will be hell until Dec. 1 and then if her karma is good, she could be rich. But her life had changed tremendously.”
So Ed C. is also now a psychic.
Off we went to Bayanihan Hotel to do some serious ukayukay. I have not done this for so long but ukay-ukaying with the two Eds is really like in a misadventure with that underrated Cartoon Network show, Ed, Edd and Eddie. After it’s over, I had a bag full and they had two bags full.
Rules for Ukay-Ukaying:
1) One in five will always be something you will never ever wear.
2) Go for the funky
3) Ed C bought a bowling shirt two sizes smaller he had to have it because it’s Guess. One in five of those you bought is for the you you thought you were. Meaning your ideal size.
4) One in five will have a stain or hole you would only discover when you have gone home
5) Go for the leatherjackets and just feel inside the pockets. I read in a local weekly once that $100 bills were stuck in some leatherjackets.
6) I once had a writing class and asked the students to write about their most memorable ukay ukay find. Ten of the girls wrote about their favorite T-back. A used T-back? I failed them because they cheated. Well, one went on to say that she showed it to her boyfriend and….
7) One in five would bear a bad karma. Usually the brand is Giordano or it’s a weird suit.
8) One in five would be destroyed by bad laundry.
9) That leaves you with no good purchase. If you bought five. I bought eight. One is a white Alexander McQueen shirt.
10) Here’s an essay which was used in Martin Masadao’s now classic, The Ukay Ukay Handbook with great graphics from Singapore-based Norman Adefuin.
THE SEMIOTICS OF UKAY-UKAY
P., a French anthropologist while doing the ukay-ukay at Bayanihan in 1998, told me she remembered reading a book about the dumping of used-clothes in Nigeria. She said the clothes came from French and my mind swam over a sea of Christian Dior and Coco Chanel haute couture in some Nigerian version of Bayanihan.It is worth digging up on how ukay-ukay eventually became wagwag and why Baguio became the center of it all. Ukay-ukay, which means "dig up - dig up" in Visaya, was the term for these garments, accessories, toys and other thingamajigs packed in huge cartons and unloaded in piers. "Ukay-ukay" first cropped in the port areas like Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, San Fernando and Manila. They had been around since the Second World War but hardly anyone noticed them.Even in Baguio, used clothings shipped from the US were already being sold in the Baguio Market in the 1950s. European countries got the Marshall Plan and what we got were the jeep and the ukay-ukay. These were the Big Brother's hand-me-downs.And since Baguio was established as the Summer Capital exactly a hundred years ago by the Americans, it was inevitable that ukay-ukay also find its way up there. But PX was all the rage then and ukay-ukay were thrift shop fodder.The epiphany came when ukay-ukay (which suggest digging into the piles of unsorted clothes) became wagwag. There are many theories about wagwag. One suggested that the ukay-ukay originated behind the rice section of the Baguio Market, hence the borrowing of wagwag variety of rice. The most probable one is the act of shaking the clothes ("wagwag"in Filipino and Ilocano) from the pile. So the evolution is from digging them up (ukay-ukay), you eventually shake off the dust in the hope of sizing them and wearing them.The period that ukay-ukay became wagwag in Baguio was in the 1980s when the source of garments shifted from US to Hongkong and Japan. The Philippine Japanese Association, which is very strong in Baguio, started the weekly sale of used clothes from Tokyo until the floodwaters broke. Used garments from Hongkong also started pouring in.If in the past the ukay-ukay (shortened into U2 by the sellers after a popular brand of clothing not the rock band) were unloaded in piers, now the wagwag traders or viajeros fly every other week to HK and accompany the boxes with them. Many of these viajeros were former HK domestics who knew their way around the former Crown Colony.Opening the boxes (done mostly on Saturdays) is like Pandora opening that damned box. You wouldn't know what you get. A box of used bedsheets and blankets is a losing cause while a box of children's clothes is a jackpot.At first, the shops lay out whatever they got. But as the shops proliferate (almost a thousand now compared to only 200 in 1997), in-trading has become the norm. Some shops now sell only toys, others only baseball caps and jackets. When a wagwag shop exclusively for left-handed (Remember Simpsons?) would be created, you know that the end is near.When the 1990 earthquake hit Baguio, the thing that drove the tourists back were the U2 and the ww.com (gayspeak for wagwag). Now it is the main crowd drawer. This will find its significance when we realize that Bayanihan (the Ground Zero for wagwag) was one of the first hotels in Baguio. From rest-and-recreation, the thrust of Baguio shifted to shop-till-you-drop.Why Baguio? Because if you have a U2 shop, for example, in hot CdeO and the box you got were all fur coats, what would you do? Wear them and sweat like a hog or deconstruct them into seat covers? At least in Baguio you can wear them and if you find them tacky, ship them to Lepanto where Fashion TV has yet to be shown in cable. U2 is the new drug and the network is as extensive. I bought a used scarf in Banaue.Does this forebode the over-commercialization of our tourism industry? Don't be silly. It's still the fight against the rich vs. poor, the North vs. the South. If Hongkong kept all its clothes like my mother does, it would sink on its sheer weight. They would only be glad to dump these on us. That is why there are still so many of us who fear the wagwag, seeing these are harbingers of AIDS and other imagined diseases.The garment trade is a social and ecological nightmare, just ask Kathie Lee and her sweatshop scandal. At least when you wear recycled clothes, you are assuaging the guilt of those who owned it first. You also help Planet Earth.Globalization is not always a sell-out. American books and magazines destined for landfills are sold here cheaply and the best thing you can do is to read them and learn.The key is to wear not-so-innocent wagwag yet keep your virtues pure. I remember treading along the foggy Baguio-Bontoc Road when out from the mist in Atok loomed an old woman wearing a long white coat with fur collars. She was carrying a bouquet of cala lily. The gown can only be wagwag.My friend, a photographer who forgot his camera, cried at such a surreal sight. I can only mutter, The White Lady of Cordillera also wears wagwag.
posted by Unknown at 1:35 PM
6 Comments:
I finally had the time to read most of your entries in your blog. It was a good break for me in between my inis sa work and frustration. Like I told EV, kapag naging super inis na ako, I will have my artistic hibernation and take a leave or leave PNGOC.
I loved what you wrote about Vigan. One of my favorite places in the world. Nakakagutom ang empanada. That was all I wanted to eat when we were there at nandidiri na ang kasama ko sa akin. Empanada at papaitan that people there serve for breakfast. From Vigan we went to Puro. I bought my mom a sewing machine and my friends got VHS, TV and even a motorcycle. Hard to believe that you can find all these things in a fishing village.
Anyway, you left some clues for me in your entries (Marcel Proust) and even if we never had our "talk" I somehow know and understand what you are going through. But only you can make yourself happier again. Work can only help you forget for awhile but not really help you move on quite as quickly as you would want to.
By the way, I scored quite high sa POP Quiz mo. Siguro mga four to five mistakes. I don't know TODAS kasi we were not allowed to watch Pinoy shows ng nanay ko. Puro english programs lang except re-runs ng LVN and Sampaguita pictures. Kaibigan mo pala si Rolando Tolentino. My best friend in college had this huge crush on him. I even sat in one of his classes because my friend insited that I see her professor. He had long hair noon. Pero I thought that he was gay and my friend said that it was because of my sad experience. I caught my almost would be boyfriend in bed with a guy friend of mine. This was in college. Buti hindi ko siya sinagot.
Fans? Kapal mo. I will tell my friend that her ultimate crush is still available. Wala pa rin naman siya asawa. Successful Dentist na siya. Nung college mas nagtatambay siya sa akin sa Diliman kasi type niya artist or artist looking. Nakaponytail kasi si Roland Tolentino nun. Talagang stand out if you are in UP Manila. Sa Diliman kasi dami ng ganun.
Sige na baka maging SOBRANG FEELING sikat ka na.
so, the two eds are still going up to baguio regularly ha?! BTW, the cult classic ukay-ukay handbook is still available. Call 444-9259. There are just a few, like 100 copies, left from the first printing. See yeah sometime frank. :-)
so, the two eds are still going up to baguio regularly ha?! BTW, the cult classic ukay-ukay handbook is still available. Call 444-9259. There are just a few, like 100 copies, left from the first printing. See yeah sometime frank. :-)
i wanna get the ukay handbook, pls post the location. thanks
got the ukayukay handbook from mt cloud bookshop, chep at around or less than P50
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