“Depths of Despair”: A Story of Survival by Designer Cyrix Muyco

This is what survivors are made of—grit, power, and passion. Here’s how Iloilo-based Filipino designer Cyrix Muyco found healing and strength through fashion

This is an excerpt from MEGA’s June 2024 One To Watch

It was depression and anxiety that pushed designer Cyrix Muyco to pursue fashion. Creating new things became his coping mechanism. He has always been into arts, like his father, who serves as his inspiration. In high school, Muyco would thrift clothes and then reconstruct these for events. Despite his inclination in the arts, the designer pursued a background in business administration and marine engineering. 

“If I want to continue this career, I’ll have to board the ship,” he expresses. “I don’t think I can do that because I have depression. Even now that my work is on land, I still get triggered. What more if I go onboard for ten months? So I told myself, why not finally pursue the fashion industry?”

Fashion has always been Muyco’s first love. It’s just that it wasn’t as popular and supported in his province, Iloilo, when he was still studying. There weren’t enough institutions that offered fashion design courses. It was in 2017 when he officially entered the industry as an assistant to another Iloilo designer. Then, he became a wedding fashion designer himself, even dabbling in events management. Currently, he’s also exploring the ropes of being a stylist so as to have a more cohesive vision when creating clothes. 

“I create garments with emotions,” says the self-taught designer. “Mas gusto ko ‘yung may hugot para iba at mas mapamahal ka sa ginagawa mo. (I like to have emotional weight to them to set them apart and to fall in love with what I’m doing) It’s my first time to do an avant-garde collection. Hindi ko rin naisip na kaya ko pala (I didn’t think that I could do this). I created this “Depths of Despair” collection for an entire month. The theme of the competition is brutalism, and I saw being emotionally tortured as a form of brutality.”

In 2016, Muyco shared that he was sexually abused. He allowed his collection to tell this very story, naming each piece for every emotion he felt: distress, anxiety, hatred, and anger, directionless, burn out, and torture. There was no justice served for his case, so the creative made a powerful fashion narrative of survival. 

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Follow young designer Cyrix Muyco’s journey towards reclaiming himself in MEGA’s June 2024 issue, now available on Readly, Magzter, Press Reader and Zinio.

Photographed by MIGGY BROÑO. Creative Direction BRIE VENTURA. Art Direction JONES PALTENG. Production and Beauty Direction MARIAN SAN PEDRO. Styling BITHIA REYES assisted by FEDERICH PANEN. Makeup BRYAN LIM. Hair PATTY CRISTOBAL. Sittings Editor RYUJI SHIOMITSU and BAM ABELLON.

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“Depths of Despair”: A Story of Survival by Designer Cyrix Muyco
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