Last night, Collezione launched its new C2 clothing line with a nationalist pop art exhibit. I had never heard of Collezione, but I liked the "C2" name because it made me think about sickeningly sweet tea. Mmm.

As usual, I couldn't understand the art, but at least I took pictures. Oh wait, I didn't. Lizz did all the picture-taking because she had the better camera.

I like this one because it reminds me of the classic "Do you see two faces or a vase?" optical illusion. Plus skulls are cool.

But enough about the art. Let's take a look at the clothes.

Most of them are nice normal shirts and dresses but with colorful Philippine maps randomly splattered on them. Filipinos would of course recognize the shape (except for those who failed their grade school geography classes). Foreigners would probably think that it's just some kind of stain though. My favorites are the ones with bright red map prints. It would be so much fun to wear one of those and run down the street screaming "Help! I've been shot!"

The orange dummy in the picture was wearing a cool shirt with "PILIPINAS" spelled backwards. I think it proves that even dyslexic people can be patriots. Yay!

Now this one I really like. It has dozens of little black Philippine maps printed on it, but from afar, the maps look like a swarm of insects. It would be so much fun to wear one of those and run down the street screaming "Help! Get these bugs off me!"

Oops, did I just rehash the same lame joke? Sorry. I'm too old to run down the street screaming anyway--no, not because I'm becoming more mentally mature, but because at my age, any form of physical activity gets me tired rather quickly.

Anyway, I showed some of the pictures to Philos, and he said that he would love to wear those shirts because he's such a nationalistic nut. I'm not sure I share his enthusiasm, but what do I know? I have zero fashion sense.

The event did make me reflect a bit about the concept of nationalism. If I don't get lazy, I'll try to tackle that topic in my next entry.

The exhibit will be open to the public until June 14, 2008, at the CAV Restaurant in Bonifacio High Street, Taguig. For more information about Collezione C2, call 671-2770 or email info@collezione-c2.com.