In the Philippines, there’s a tarp for every milestone. From your brother’s cum laude graduation to your dog coming home after running away for two weeks, there’s a tarp for every event big or small, complete with bold Comic Sans font and grainy, smiling, Photoshopped photos.
Lately, though, the tarps around Poblacion, Makati’s nightlife district, have taken an interesting turn. Instead of relatives, they now feature celebrities: rapper A$AP Rocky in Calvin Kleins, tennis player Alex Eala playing in the court from Wii Tennis, and a Filipino-looking version of the actor Timothée Chalamet are just some of the faces smiling at the people of Poblacion. Each tarp sports a quirky congratulatory message and the same cheerful banner: “PhiLiPPiNES IS PROUD OF YOU.”
“We’re all about having fun,” says Xylk, one-half of the duo behind the Poblacion tarps, to Rolling Stone Philippines. Xylk’s partner-in-crime, Fleasayo, nods in agreement. The two friends are the co-founders of LiFE DESiGN, a Filipino streetwear brand that, Fleasayo argues, will be the next “Filipino Comme Des Garçons.” Even the way the two designers introduce themselves is a testament to their sense of unseriousness: Xylk’s official business title is PiGO THE PiNOY NiGO LiFE DESiGNER #1, while Fleasayo’s is LiFE DESiGNER #2 WiTH THE STAR TATTOO! (Note: the lowercase i’s are an intentional choice).
Both Xylk, the Filipino designer behind the viral sako Grocery Bags, and Fleasayo, a Nigerian-Canadian creative who has worked across the fashion capitals of America, are determined to make LiFE DESiGN the biggest Filipino streetwear brand the world has ever seen. “What is the [Filipino] Vandy the Pink?” Xylk asks. “Are Filipinos even trying to take up space in the Super Bowl of street wear? We just don’t see any of that. So it makes sense to have a brand rooted in Filipino culture and made 100 percent in the Philippines.”
“We don’t do menswear, we don’t do womenswear,” adds Fleasayo, building off of his friend’s rhythm. “We do funwear, because it’s more fun in the Philippines.”
‘Filipinos are Swagapinos’
Although the pair are currently busy working on LiFE DESiGN’s upcoming fashion collection, both of them felt that they needed a fun way to build up hype around their brand. Enter the Poblacion tarps, each one embodying the cheekiness and unseriousness of LiFE DESiGN’s ethos. However, Fleasayo insists that the tarps are more than a marketing strategy. “They aren’t just banners,” he says. “They’re love letters for success. For recognition. For support. That might be a normal thing in the Philippines, but to the Western world, these tarps are something monumental.”
Describing themselves as “great students of the pop culture of the West” (both friends spent a large chunk of their childhoods living in Canada), Xylk and Fleasayo argue that no other brand is bringing Filipino humor to the rest of the world. “We are the creative reporters of what’s happening in the Philippines,” says Xylk. “Why can’t we take something as everyday and mundane as our tarp culture and connect that with the West?”
What’s more, Fleasayo argues, LiFE DESiGN is shaping up to be a brand that resonates across cultures. “There’s this viral Twitter thread with our [A$AP Rocky] tarp where someone was like, ‘Why are Filipino people so proud of everyone?’ It had over 800,000 views,” says Fleasayo proudly. “It was predominantly Black people commenting things like, ‘I would rather have a tarpaulin than a Grammy.’ ‘I need the Philippines to recognize me.’ ‘Filipinos are swagapinos.’”
Respectful Disrespect
When designing the tarps, both designers emphasize the need to make something immediately after a cultural moment hits. Whether it’s celebrating Tyler the Creator’s latest Louis Vuitton collection or Chappell Roan’s first Grammy win, LiFE DESiGN guarantees they’ll have a tarp about it at most a day later. “It’s like when you win a championship, there’s already merchandise out, right?” Fleasayo explains. “That’s how we look at what we do: I can message Xylk and be like, ‘Yo, A$AP got not guilty! And he’ll send me a photo of the tarp design, already done and ready for printing.”
Once the “kuya down the street” prints out the tarps, Xylk, who is currently based in Poblacion, has the tarps distributed around the neighborhood. “We have a population of parking boys who help put them up,” he says. “Balong, Nathaniel, Jeje — these are the homies that help us out because one of the things that we as LiFE DESiGN wanted — no, needed — to do is dance with the people here.”
After the cultural moment passes, the tarps are left up for anyone to see (and take). “We call it respectful disrespect because it’s kind of like vandalism, but you can just take the tarps off,” says Xylk. “People sleep in them sometimes,” adds Fleasayo. “But people can also take them and turn them into relics. Or they leave them there, and they turn into national landmarks. They go viral on TikTok.”
A Great Surprise
If it isn’t obvious by now, the design duo has big plans for LiFE DESiGN. As they work on their upcoming collection Dressmaker, in honor of Xylk’s late grandmother (but that’s all they’ll say about that for now). As they gear up for Paris Fashion Week this June, Xylk and Fleasayo share their hope that the brand can help dismantle Filipino stereotypes on a global stage.
“In the Western world, Filipinos are subjected to, like, three main tropes: Karaoke, jeepneys, and Manny Pacquiao,” says Xylk in a matter-of-fact tone. “Oh, and nursing. Like, these are the boxes that the whites have put us in, right? And I feel that we are a complex, multi-layered culture and I want to reflect that in our work.”
“If Japan is known for craftsmanship, and Europeans are known for quote-unquote ‘elegance’ or whatever they think elegance is,” continues Xylk, “then I think Filipinos should be able to take over the lanes of fun and humor. We just like to have fun.”
“The tarps are going to be everywhere,” says Fleasayo. “I would just say get ready. We specialize in the element of a great surprise.”
