Pineapple Pinnacles

Puey Quinones, Philippine fashion designer, create fabrics that loosely falls on the sleeve or crumple at the back, the silhouette slants, hems drape back to the point of origin, swatches of fabric jostle together in comfortable chaos.

But amid these conflicting elements is an undercurrent of well thought-out design.

Whoever knew 90% of Puey’s works come from the country’s maximum prison, with inmates facing life sentences for crimes like kidnap and murder.

Puey goes the once a week to teach the inmates about fashion and to keep them occupied.

They are taught how to handpaint on silk, as well as classes on texture, design, and draping.

Their works have made it to magazines and major billboards; not forgetting the insatiable tastes of his upmarket clientele. The inmates are also paid for their works for which are secondary to them as they consider it an honor to work with Puey Quinones.

He initially kept his helpers away from the press due to the stigma in relation to inmates, but revealed them shortly after. It turned out he made the right moves as his pieces are constantly snapped up by the people who love him as well as those who got to know him through this program.

Read more about the background of Puey here

Watch the clip of Puey with his helpers here