Closing the second day of MNL Fashion Week 2026, Jerome Lorico transforms a familiar material into a study of movement, form, and transformation.

PHOTOGRAPHY @renzylaurel of @mawstudiospmp and No_name_ph
After years away from the runway, Jerome Lorico makes his return with a collection shaped less by excess and more restraint. His first major show back marks a quieter kind of homecoming, informed by the things he has learned to leave out, and by a desire to return to what feels essential. Drawing from his upbringing in Albay, Bicol, and the contrasting energy of Manila, Lorico looks at the clash between two contrasting poles, leading to a realization of a return to nature.
“I grew up and learned so many things in my little hometown in Albay, Bicol,” Lorico says. “Moving to a big city like Manila was not just a new learning curve but also a way for me to explore new ideas, culture, and energy.” Now, that journey comes full circle in a collection that invites its audience to slow down and reconnect with nature, with others, and with themselves.
“It is a return to what is natural, primal, and less,” he says of the show’s energy. “It is looking back to what was before so I can look farther ahead.”

Photos courtesy of No_name_ph
The collection is, at most, “A reflection of what my hands can do, my eyes can see, and the determination of certain forms and textures to own their identity beside me as a creative and brand,” as what the designer describes.
At the heart of Lorico’s collection is his mastery of knitwear, which he treats less as a fabric and more as a malleable form. “Sculpting knitwear is like molding water,” he says. “I have always been an instinctive designer where the details that I create are guided by feeling and balance.” This intuitive approach is evident throughout the collection, where each knitted piece becomes “an extension of my inner feelings and instinct,” taking on forms that feel organic rather than rigidly constructed.
And instead of confining knitwear to its familiar associations with comfort and everyday dressing, Lorico pushes the material into a more experimental territory.

Photos courtesy of @renzylaurel of @mawstudiospmp
The collection opens with restrained silhouettes before gradually unfolding into more intricate fabric manipulations. Knits are stretched, layered, and unraveled into cascading strands, extending beyond the body and allowing movement to become part of the whole ensemble. What begins as a seemingly simple material is transformed into something far more sculptural, with each look revealing the designer’s ability to find structure within softness.
On the runway, the pieces appear almost fluid in motion, creating silhouettes that seem to change from one angle to the next. Amid a sea of muted neutrals, flashes of color also surface like unexpected currents, cutting through the collection’s otherwise restrained palette. Some looks retain the inherent ease of knitwear, while others expand into more architectural proportions, clinging onto the body with just enough structure to feel deliberately sculpted. In Lorico’s hands, fabric does not simply dress the body. It moves with it, giving the collection an almost living quality.

Photo courtesy of @renzylaurel of @mawstudiospmp

Photo courtesy of No_name_ph

The collection’s Manila debut is only the first glimpse of what Lorico hopes to build beyond it. Light and Salt will continue its journey to Paris this October, where it will serve as an introduction to the designer’s first exhibition during fashion week.&nbsp;
Beyond the clothes themselves, Lorico also hopes to leave behind something less tangible and more felt. “With everything that’s happening in the world, fashion, design, and art can serve as a temporary state that conjures an ideal world or frequency,” he says. His intention, ultimately, is to create through “freedom and possibilities” and to offer, even briefly, a space where positive feelings and emotions can take form.

Jerome Lorico’s ‘Salt and Light’ Is Rooted in a Return to Nature

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