Ilonggo takes New York Fashion Week by storm

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BY HAZEL P. VILLA, Contributor
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Sunday, September 17, 2017

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A SELF-TAUGHT Ilonggo fashion designer from Mandurriao district, Iloilo City has made it to one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious fashion shows – the New York Fashion Week held on Sept. 10, 7 p.m. at Pier59, Chelsea Piers, New York City.

Michael Seneriches, 43, who migrated to Chicago, Illinois in 2002 and is now working as a nurse in San Francisco, was one of four emerging fashion designers to showcase his designs, specifically the Mikelsen brand.

Seneriches was invited in July 2017 by the Council of Aspiring American Fashion Designers (CAAFD), in collaboration with iFashion Network to present 14 of his designs for the New York Fashion Week’s Collective Showcase Spring/Summer 2018 together with Fesvedy from Georgia, Frances Gerard from New Zealand, and Samantha Leibowitz from New York.

Seneriches went to the West Visayas State University for his elementary and high school education and University of the Philippines in the Visayas for a degree in Fine Arts in 1990 before transferring to UP Diliman w

here he finally earned a degree in BA European Languages, Major in German, Minor in Political Science with an emphasis on International Studies.

OPPORTUNITY

“The work of Seneriches and the Mikelsen brand is described as timeless, chic, and simply elegant,” read the official press release of the CAAFD, a nonprofit organization that “educates, promotes and empowers aspiring designers and fashion professionals in gaining a foothold in the fashion business, giving them every opportunity to become the renowned designer they yearn to be.”

The release further added, “This emerging fashion designer is best known for his ‘Mikelsen’ woman. She is beautiful, strong, and stylish. Seneriches mixes femininity and edge in his modern ‘Me-nimal’ collection. The look is defined by peplum styles laced with golden hues, and this sleek collection will have boundless grace at New York Fashion Week as it effortlessly floats across the stage.”

After graduation in 1995, Seneriches’ hopes of becoming a diplomat someday was channelled to filmmaking when he took courses in digital production in Altensteig, Germany at the later part of 1998 and then video production in Cape Town, South Africa in 1999. This then evolved to a fascination in fashion photography.

“I was in the Philippines again from 2001 to the early part of 2002. I then migrated to Chicago, Illinois around 2002 and finished Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Rush University in Chicago in 2005.  I moved to San Francisco in 2006 and worked in the Emergency Room for 10 years,” said Seneriches who became an American citizen in 2011 but keeps dual citizenship.

ROAD TO NEW YORK FASHION WEEK

A self-taught fashion designer inspired by Raf Simmons, Celine, Chloe, Oscar dela Renta, Tom Ford, and Christian Dior, Seneriches took lessons in sewing and patternmaking in San Francisco after an unexpected participation at the SFFAMA (San Francisco Fashion and Merchants Alliance) in 2010 that was holding a fashion show and where Seneriches was simply volunteering as support staff.

“Owen (the founder of SFFAMA), mentioned he needed more designers for the show. I dared myself to join and asked him if I can present something by next week, would I be able to join the show if it is good enough?  Owen said yes, so in a week’s time, I had my co-worker who had sewing experience help me sew three to four dresses to start with to show SFFAMA. My collection got approved and that was my first fashion show around summer of 2010,” said Seneriches.

It was series of starts and bumps for Seneriches since then. He admitted getting depressed for not making it to the final rounds of Project Runway. However, he continued to experiment on his designs even as he continued to work as a nurse at one of the hospitals of Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organization in the USA.

“On December 2016, I got an email from Ellen Wang of the CAAFD to showcase my collection at New York Fashion Week as an emerging designer. I couldn’t believe it, but I had to turn it down as the participation fees were beyond what I would like to spend.  Then, in April 2017 Ellen and her group from CAAFD emailed me again to invite me to the September Spring Summer 2018 showcase, and for the same reasons, I had to say no since the costs were not reasonable for my hobby,” says Seneriches.

ILONGGO AT WORLD’S PREMIER FASHION SHOW

Come end of July 2017, Ellen again emailed Seneriches and offered a sponsorship for him to be able to participate at the emerging designer showcase, with cost substantially reduced.

The Ilonggo fashion designer was thoroughly elated with the show with reviews coming in this week from fashionbloc.co.uk and fashion blogger Daniel Quintanilla of the blog DANIEL+LAUREN.

“The registered nurse turned fashion designer shocked the New York Fashion Week audience with his maverick designs. The words of the evening were “chic” and “elegant” and these designs backed that up fully,” wrote Quintanilla on Sept. 12 in his blog.

Seneriches feels he has come full circle from that one Sunday when as a teenager in Iloilo, he told his mother that her accessories don’t match her attire and overhearing it, his father tells his mother, “Maybe your son should be a fashion designer.”

“And here I am, an Ilonggo in one of the biggest shows in the fashion industry in the whole world,” says Seneriches with glee./PN
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