‘Wearable art’ helps promote Benguet

BAGUIO CITY—Fashion has become a vehicle in promoting tourism in Benguet.

Last week, Hilson Busoy, the Benguet-born designer of Modesta Styles, presented a collection of “wearable art” that features both popular and unexplored destinations in the province.

Landscapes and tourist attractions in Benguet’s 13 towns were photographed and printed on shirts and jackets that Busoy presented in the fashion show “My Place,” a project intended to boost the province’s tourism.

Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan said tourism could further boost the province’s economy, which relies mainly on agriculture and mineral production.

Fongwan expressed lament over the common notion of tourists that Benguet is part of Baguio City, when it is actually the summer capital that is part of the province.

He said Benguet has been treated by most tourists only as a route to Baguio or the tourist town of Sagada in Mt. Province.

“We would like to see the province of Benguet known. Sagada is luckier because it is becoming popular,” he said.

He said most tourists do not know that flowers used to decorate floats for the crowd-drawing Panagbenga (Baguio Flower Festival) and the strawberries and vegetables they buy in Baguio all come from Benguet.

Busoy, a native of Sablan, Benguet, has long wanted to promote his province and found this chance through fashion. “I wanted to help Benguet’s tourism and I was inspired to use my talent to do this,” he said.

His shirts and jackets, presented by models wearing Cordillera tapis (wrap-around skirt) and bahag (G-string), featured La Trinidad’s strawberry fields, Itogon’s Mt. Ugo, Sablan’s Towing waterfalls and Kabayan’s Mt. Pulag, among other things.

Busoy said he hoped to stage more fashion shows to reach a wider audience and bring in more tourists to the province. Part of the proceeds of his Sept. 3 fashion show here went to an 8-year-old child suffering from a congenital heart disease. Ivon Domingo, Inquirer Northern Luzon