Marianas fashion shines on FestPAC stage

HONOLULU — Former Miss Marianas Shannon Tudela Sasamoto and other representatives of the CNMI were featured in a fashion show at the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Cultures alongside Guam designers and models on Wednesday, June 12.

Sasamoto was both designer and model of the clothes that she and other CNMI FestPAC delegates highlighted on the FestPAC mainstage at the Hawaii Convention Center.

Sasamoto told the media that her handmade designs drew inspiration from the alileng shell. She also incorporated each island in the Marianas in her design pattern.

“I thought [the alileng shell] was so interesting, that it’s something that is so commonly seen and used as jewelry and we also use it for food, and I thought why is it that … we don’t see it in our fashion?” she asked. “What I like about the alileng shell is that each of them is irregular and unique in itself so I thought the Mariana Islands would seamlessly blend in.”

During her segment of the fashion show, Sasamoto wore a body suit featuring the design. Joining her on stage was Connie Mendiola in a mestiza-inspired dress, Marjorie Daria in a jacket, and Jriannalyn Amor Torres in a tube top and bucket hat.

Mendiola and Torres are cultural dance delegates from i Simiyan Marianas attending the festival.

Sasamoto said the preparation for the fashion show “was crazy” because she didn’t expect to be featured. Sasamoto said she was taking part in the Young Pacific Leaders forum that coincided with FestPAC activities. She designed and created clothes specifically for the YPL forum because she wanted to highlight her talents as a designer for her own satisfaction. She was later asked to share her designs with the entire festival.

“We really tried to squeeze our way in and thankfully we were able to, and I am so grateful to i Simiyan as I was able to get some models from them,” she said. “It just shows the culture of reciprocity of living in our community.”

Daria called the experience “fantastic” and an “honor.”

“I think the fact that Shannon is a woman, she’s a native of Saipan, I think that really speaks a lot to our indigenous designs and how her work is inspiring other young women to take up a similar job outlook,” Daria said. “For Shannon to be able to represent the CNMI in that way with our own unique designs really is incredible.”

Alongside Sasamoto were Guam delegates Roquin-Jon Quichocho Siongco and Franceska De Oro, who featured their own unique designs and also incorporated CNMI residents in their portion of the fashion show.

Siongco, who is a traditional weaver, blended contemporary materials with his passion for cultural weaving. He drew inspiration from his Chamorro ancestry but expressed it in a modern way with his own style.

“I think it’s important to be innovative and reaffirm ourselves and also see the beauty in a lot of our traditional stuff,” he said. “Just taking a second look at what we have and the beauty that we have there and kind of having your own spin and having fun with it.”

Siongco has been weaving for 17 years, but this is his first FestPAC as a delegate.

“I’ve shown different parts of the collection as it’s been growing in various different places ever since 2019,” he said. “This is really the opportunity right now to have as many folks dressed head to toe as I could [gather], and it’s been a real honor working with other cultural practitioners that I feel can embody them.”

One such model was Roberto Santos, a cultural dance delegate from i Simiyan Marianas, who wore a loincloth and woven body adornment by Siongco.

For her part, De Oro drew inspiration from Marianas flora and the manamko’.

She calls her style the “aesthetics of the manbiha.”

“I feel like this collection is definitely an extension of myself,” she said. “I used to call myself ‘Young Biha’ and I used to say I’m ‘not a nen but I’m not yet a biha,’ so this is very much a cheeky play on that idea.”

She said she wanted to bring the contemporary and mix it with the “old school.”

Some parts of her collection were her take on the Spanish colonial era, and post-Spanish colonial era.

She said she wanted to capture the essence of some of her most recent ancestors “by mostly bringing in the energy of the women in my family and their confidence and their pika-ness and their sense of self — how strong they were in themselves and their style.”

Two of her models were Ashley Pangelinan and Tiara Deleon Guerrero, also known as Local Girls Marianas, who were FestPAC volunteers. De Oro reached out to the pair to model.

Pangelinan wore a top heavily inspired by the flower of the gaosali plant, a species native to the Marianas, while Deleon Guerrero modeled a mestiza.

Both of them created their own handmade mwars.

“It’s been wonderful,” Deleon Guerrero said of the experience. “We’ve made so many connections. I think the whole purpose of FestPAC was for us to all network and meet each other and bond. And that’s been our experience so far. We’ve met so many great people.”

Deleon Guerrero said the people of the Marianas should make time to attend the festival wherever possible. “I think if you are of Pasifika descent or even just living in the Pacific, this is a very great opportunity to meet our other islanders to bond, to see the similarities and the differences in all the cultures and network.”