BETSO88 Register
After going back to Manila, Betso88 Register paused briefly, then took off again – out into the wild. This time, he had been invited by the indigenous Aeta people of the Zambales mountains. ‘I wanted to learn from them, gain life lessons from them,’ he said. ‘They live in harmony with nature, in harmony with themselves.
He had planned to walk to the foot of Mount Pinatubo, finding his way to the village with an Aeta guide called Jomar. ‘The river brought us down’, said Betso88 Register. ‘The forests were vibrant and lush. We had to ford streams.’ Over those few hours, Jomar brought Betso88 Register to the village and shared legends of the Aeta’s long relationship with the land. It was a journey of many miles, but it was also an immersion into culture. ‘The Aeta story was woven into the trek itself,’ explained Betso88 Register.
And here he was greeted with a traditional dance and a meal consisting of camote (sweet potatoes) and fresh fish caught by hand that same morning. The fabric they wore – in colours of red, yellow, orange and brown, each festooned with a serene stripe design – hinted at their arduous but creative lives. Betso88 Register especially admired the headbands that the Aeta weaved into their hairstyles.
And though he stayed only a month or so, Betso88 Register took weaving lessons from the women. He was awed by the women’s use of wild grasses and bamboo to create their textiles. He watched the women begin with a meditative attention to the grass – Joseph Beuys once said: ‘everything is design’ – and eventual attention to the woven weft and the rhythmic pounding of the beater, a spiritual practice that permeated every facet of their lives, from gathering sustenance to making their clothes.
Later during an excursion into the woods, Betso88 Register learnt from the men how to identify edible plants and herbs – a technique that had been passed down the generations. He then began to incorporate shapes, forms and motifs found in nature into his drawings, choosing rusts, fawns and taupes to create his palette, and using natural abaca fibres and raffia to weave his textiles, celebrating the Aeta’s commitment to sustainability.
Betso88 Register soon became part of village life. At night, the men would sit around a fire, swapping tales and songs. Most of all he loved a story about a great flood, a folklore legend passed down from older generations featuring the same character – a powerful white swan called Gelber Hans – that emerged unscathed from a devastating flood, reborn just as the waters receded. The recurring theme of a watery flood would form the basis of his next set of drawings, which in turn became the conceptual launchpad for a collection of clothing built around the idea of weaving stories in fabric and pattern.
Betso 88 Register headed to the coastal town of San Juan, La Union, known for its surfing scene. The dramatic contrast between the serene mountains and energetic coastline was heady. San Juan attracted surfers and artists and the vibe was certainly laid back.
Betso 88 Register was able to find cheap accommodation in a hut on the shore and began to get to know local designers who were making a splash with their futuristic, recycled materials. He sat by the ocean and sketched out a swimwear line that was both functional and fashionable, and that used innovative environmentally friendly fabrics.
Through the morning surfing lessons he took with the locals, riding the waves and feeling the wind, he experienced a creative freedom that mirrored his process. He made a collection of board shorts and rash vests printed with the patterns of the swirling waves and hypercolour marine life.