Pinay Collection was born out of the aspiration to amplify and own our Pilipina/x identity in the diaspora.

Our commitment is centred around representation that is rooted in community purpose and care.

Our way of representation aims to build support around our shared pain and histories as Pilipina/xs.

Our voice and platforms work to amplify Pina/xy voices and re-distribute space and resources.

All of these efforts are centred in shared learning and helping mobilize our community towards social impact.

For so long the narratives of Filipina/xs have been shaped by people other than us. Our colonizers and other oppressive forces have rendered us quiet, submissive, subservient, and inferior. All the things that I – and many of the Filipina/xs in my life – are not.

This is why it’s so important for us to reclaim the word “Pinay” and why it’s so important for us to #WearPinay. To take back this word and make it ours again; to define it on our own terms.

But Pinay Collection goes even deeper than this. This brand – dare I say movement? – isn’t just about our colonizers or external forces that have kept us down. It’s also a statement against those within the Filipino community, our own families, our own intimate relations who are guilty too of keeping us down, who use our very own mother tongue against us.

In Pinay Collection’s line you’ll find words like maldita, maarte, lakwatsera, ambisyosa front and centre of the fashion. Extra, bratty, a woman who goes out “too much”, a woman who is “too ambitious”. They are all Tagalog words that have been used against Filipina/x to shame us, silence us, make us feel small.

- Written by Justine Abigail Yu -