Clothes make the man… and Manitoba men make the clothes

Clothes make the man… and Manitoba men make the clothes

Derick De Leon started with sketches.

He lay, bedridden with a career-ending injury, mapping out creations for a future fashion brand.

Fast-forward two years: De Leon’s work has hit the Sundance Film Festival, he’s been asked to speak in Ottawa and his designs are in local stores.

He’s one of two Manitobans to recently delve into male fashion design. The pool is small, noted Eugene Warwaruk, the other designer and a Steinbach-based lawyer.

In the past month, De Leon has launched a Filipino barong-style outfit, while Warwaruk has unveiled his own blazer.

Neither expected to be fashion designers five years ago.

“If you fall, you fall,” De Leon said, leaning back in a coffee shop last May.

He was talking about hurdling — something he did for the University of Manitoba Bisons until an ominous-sounding pop after a jump.

Valentine’s Day 2021, he said — the day he tore ligaments and cartilage in his knee. The day leading to surgery, a month-and-a-half of bed rest and an unexpected end to his track and field career.

“It was tough… I was in the best shape of my life,” said De Leon, now 24. “The post-surgery is the worst.”

Recovery meant a lot of time resting, alone. His mind began wandering back to fashion, a passion he’d put on the backburner.

He followed certain designers while studying kinesiology. Rhuigi Villaseñor was “just that cool guy,” De Leon said.

He’d watch the Filipino designer’s interviews — Villaseñor talking about his luxury brand Rhude, his partnership with supercar manufacturer McLaren, his work for the Swedish house of Bally.

“He’s been, like, my Yoda in fashion,” De Leon said.

De Leon immigrated from the Philippines in 2011. The number of Filipino fashion designers around here is small, he noted.

But that didn’t stop him: he began sketching while stuck in mandatory bed rest. He also started searching for manufacturers and ways to enter the industry.

Eventually, he found a manufacturer in Bangladesh. He’d send sketches, and they’d reciprocate with samples. He watched shipping and input costs rise over the course of the pandemic and spent money he’d saved through years of work.

“It was, honestly, expensive,” he said.

De Leon built his clothing line while finishing his degree and getting a full-time job as a strength and conditioning coach.

“I was really impressed by his vision,” said Karla Atanacio, a member of the Manitoba Filipino Business Council. “Even at the time, it just… (had) this distinct kind of look.”

She spotted De Leon in his brand’s early stages and wanted to help. Smitty’s became their meeting place, and Google Jamboard the blank page.

Atanacio would pose questions. Who’s the target audience? What does the brand mean?

Out came Astige — Tagalog for cool, with an ‘e’ on the end.

“(It’s) just to make it click like Gucci, Louis Vuitton,” De Leon explained, emphasizing the “ee” sound in the luxury brands.

In March 2022, he launched loungewear under a collection called “Divine Intervention” — a nod to the injury that changed his life’s trajectory.

“It didn’t do well,” he said.

Undeterred, he released a new collection, including a leather varsity jacket ($788, sold out online), a nylon polo and a trucker hat.

Early this year, a stylist in Los Angeles messaged De Leon — would he lend an outfit to actor and filmmaker Jordan Firstman for the Sundance Film Festival?

“I don’t know how they found me, but I didn’t bother asking,” De Leon said.

It was a quick yes. Astige became the first brand spotlighted on Firstman’s social media post about Sundance.

“It was all other well-known designer brands, and then here I am — who the hell is this designer?” De Leon said, laughing. “It blew my mind.”

Meanwhile, he was preparing to speak to Filipino Canadians in Ottawa. Atanacio chairs an event, Pinoys on Parliament, and enlisted De Leon to present about fashion.

He arrived at a conference filled with roughly 250 youths.

“I did not know that the Filipino market was big,” De Leon said, adding the people he met inspired him to embrace the culture.

Now, he’s looking to fill a gap: he released a short-sleeve and bottom combo inspired by the barong, a Filipino formal shirt, that “doesn’t scream Filipino.”

He said it’s his biggest hit yet — the $100 cotton tops and $80 shorts have sold out online, and few are left in stores.

Clothing Bakery, The Collab Shop and Surplus Market in CF Polo Park stock his wares.

More than half the pre-orders came outside the Filipino community. Several are from Montreal, he said.

“Astige is doing this new thing, where it’s very subtle,” Atanacio said. “Because it’s so intricate and so not in your face, you’re not going to be accused of appropriating.

“What Derick is doing is sharing and showcasing our culture for everybody.”

De Leon dreams of opening a shop in the Philippines and taking his brand to Toronto Fashion Week. For now, it’s a side hustle to his full-time job.

Eugene Warwaruk launched his own side project in May. However, Eugene Mark Apparel has been four years in the making.

The lawyer came home inspired after a trip to Japan with his brothers, who own Farmery Estate Brewery.

“Just in the prep of packing… I was looking for a travel blazer, and the ones that I found weren’t satisfactory,” said Warwaruk, 48. “I was kind of disappointed with what was out there.”

And so, he embarked on a new mission: make the travel blazer he envisioned — one that’s comfortable and looks good.

He has a history with entrepreneurship. He dropped out of university in the late ’90s to open a restaurant, Lux Solé, with his three brothers. The siblings shared a one-bedroom apartment while starting their business.

Nearly a decade later, he returned to school to earn a business degree, and then one in law.

“The light bulb went off to say, ‘If I can graduate with my degree, I can do anything I put my mind to,’” he said.

Being in Japan in 2019 renewed his creative spirit.

“I just wanted to do something completely unique, for me, and I thought — why not fashion?” he said.

He returned to Manitoba and met challenges, including finding a manufacturer to produce small sample batches, choosing a comfortable fabric that holds its shape.

He dispensed with the idea of local manufacturing, unable to find someone who’d run small orders for the price he wanted to pay.

“At time I felt… discouraged,” Warwaruk said, adding he wanted “to see it through.”

After many dog-walking brainstorms, he found a manufacturer in India along with his dream fabric — a polyester blend including Lycra. Next round, he hopes to use recycled fabric.

He released 71 blazers in May. Eugene Mark Apparel is currently selling the $299 jackets on his website, eugenemark.ca. Warwaruk has try-on events at Farmery Estate Brewery’s outlet on Saturday and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“It’s always great when someone wants to start something new and stay local,” said Michelle Maynard, a fashion instructor at MC College.

The number of male designers making men’s garb in the city is likely small, she noted. Lennard Taylor, who creates women’s attire, is a prominent standout in the local industry, she added.

Maynard might have one male student among 10 hopeful fashion designers.

“There are probably more challenges, but also benefits, in starting a fashion business in Winnipeg,” she said.

For one, Winnipeg has fewer people than bigger cities like Toronto, she said. Entrepreneurs might have a hard time finding manufacturers and staff here, she added.

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