FELIP on Music, Fashion, and Finding His Own Voice
The Filipino artist offers a glimpse into the creative world he’s building through music, fashion, and an unwavering sense of self
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Before FELIP took the stage for his SULFUR event, he was battling something far less glamorous than the excitement waiting outside.
Backstage, hours before the show, the SB19 member and solo artist admitted he had been sick for days. That evening, he told me, was the worst he had felt since it began. His voice was not in its best condition. Under normal circumstances, it would have been understandable if he held back.
Instead, he went onstage and delivered one of the most energetic performances of the night.
The event brought together several corners of FELIP’s creative world. Alongside performances of songs from his catalog, he shared the stage with collaborators PLAYERTWO and Illest Morena, artists who have helped shape the musical ecosystem around him.
Watching him perform, it would have been difficult to guess what was happening behind the scenes.
While audiences know him primarily as a musician, his ambitions have grown far beyond music alone. Over the past several years, he has steadily built a parallel identity as a designer and creative director through his fashion label SUPERIOR SON, creating a world in which fashion and music converse.
For FELIP, those pursuits have always been connected.
RELATED: FELIP’s Meteoric Rise
How a sewing machine sparked FELIP’s love for fashion
Long before fashion became a business, it was a necessity. FELIP traces his relationship with clothing back to his childhood, when he was raised by his grandparents and spent time around an old sewing machine at home.
“It definitely evolved over time. Growing up, I was raised by my grandparents, and my family had an old sewing machine at home.”
As a teenager, he became fascinated by the artists he saw on television and in music videos. He admired their silhouettes, styling, and stage presence, but finding similar pieces was not always possible.
“When I was in high school, I’d see artists on TV and in music videos and want to wear clothes with the same silhouettes and fits. Since I couldn’t always find those pieces, I started learning how to alter and make them myself.”
What began as simple experimentation soon became a creative practice.
“I taught myself how to sew and began experimenting with my clothes. I’d paint on shirts, cut holes into them, and customize whatever I had. That’s really where my love for fashion started.”
The story feels particularly relevant today, as more musicians move into fashion. Unlike celebrity labels that emerge after fame arrives, FELIP’s interest in clothing predates much of his public career. Fashion was one of the foundations of his creativity.
“Even now, that same curiosity and passion are still there.”
Why SUPERIOR SON is rooted in personal history
His curiosity eventually evolved into SUPERIOR SON, the fashion label that has become one of FELIP’s most personal projects.
Rather than looking outward for inspiration, he increasingly finds himself looking back.
“A lot of my inspiration comes from where I grew up,” he says. “These days, I’m very drawn to nostalgia and to revisiting things from my past.” The brand’s upcoming collection mirror that approach.
“For our upcoming SUPERIOR SON collection, we’re exploring Visayan heritage and reinterpreting elements that feel familiar to me.”
At a time when heritage and cultural storytelling are becoming increasingly important in global fashion, FELIP’s approach is a personal excavation of identity.
What interests him most, however, is not color or embellishment. “More than anything, I’m obsessed with silhouette,” he says.
“I don’t focus on color first. For me, the shape of a garment is what matters most.”
“A great silhouette can completely change how someone looks and feels. The right cut can make you look taller, slimmer, stronger, or simply more confident. That’s the power of good design.”
The goal behind SUPERIOR SON
For all the discussions surrounding craftsmanship and design, FELIP’s ultimate objective is surprisingly straightforward. “Confidence. That’s always the goal.”
According to FELIP, confidence often reveals itself through a person’s energy. He believes that when people feel good in what they are wearing, that sense of self-assurance naturally becomes visible in the way they carry themselves.
“So when someone wears SUPERIOR SON, I want them to look in the mirror and feel proud of themselves. I want them to think, ‘I look good. I feel good.’”
If a piece of clothing can give someone that extra boost of self-assurance to take on the day, he believes it has done exactly what it was meant to do.
The icons who influenced FELIP’s style
FELIP’s style has become one of his defining traits, combining rock influences with contemporary streetwear and tailoring. The roots of that aesthetic can be traced to a handful of figures he admired growing up.
“Slash from Guns N’ Roses was a huge influence on me. His style was instantly recognizable and full of personality.”
“I was also inspired by Dennis Rodman because he never cared about fitting into expectations. He expressed himself however he wanted.”
The common thread is individuality. Throughout the years, he has been drawn to people who treat fashion as an extension of their identity, using clothing as a way to express who they are rather than simply follow trends.
What FELIP thinks about Gucci’s creative direction
As his presence in the fashion industry continues to grow, FELIP has also recently attended several Gucci events, offering him a closer look at one of fashion’s most influential houses.
Asked about the brand’s current direction, he points to its balance of seemingly opposing influences. “What’s impressive to me is how they’ve managed to balance streetwear influences with luxury and elegance.”
What strikes FELIP most are designers who maintain a distinct creative identity throughout their careers, preserving the essence of their design language regardless of the fashion house they are working for.
“You can still recognize certain signatures and sensibilities in Demna’s work, but at the same time it feels authentic to Gucci.”
As both a designer and a lifelong fashion enthusiast, FELIP is drawn to clothing that feels strong in its simplicity, believing that a garment does not need excessive detail to leave a lasting impression.
Why FELIP named his new single ‘SULFUR’
The show may have highlighted FELIP’s creative ambitions, but music remains at the center of everything he does.
SULFUR represents another step in his artistic evolution, leaning more heavily into rock influences while maintaining the melodic instincts that have defined much of his solo work.
Interestingly, the song began with a completely different title. “The title actually started as ‘SILVER,'” he says.
The original concept stemmed from his love of silver jewelry and accessories. Over time, however, the title began to feel too obvious.
That led him to search for something more layered. He began looking for a title that carried a similar intensity while feeling less obvious and more open to interpretation, eventually arriving at SULFUR.
“The more I researched it, the more interesting it became to me. Sulfur is a highly reactive and corrosive element, and I liked the symbolism behind that.”
Building a future that grows beyond himself
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of FELIP’s outlook is that he rarely frames success as an individual pursuit. When discussing the future, he consistently returns to the people around him.
“I don’t just want to evolve as an artist. I want everyone around me to evolve too. My team, my community, the people who support me. I want us all to grow together.”
It is a philosophy that informs both his music and his fashion work. For FELIP, the two are deeply connected, serving as parallel expressions of the same creative vision and personal identity.
Even while dealing with illness, he remained focused on delivering an experience that brought together collaborators and multiple aspects of his creative identity.
The performance itself served as a reminder of where that vision begins: with the work.
As for the response to SULFUR, FELIP says he is grateful for the support the song has received.
“What makes me happy is how organic the reception has been. People are discovering the song naturally and connecting with it in their own way.”
“Sometimes I just want to put music out into the world and let it find its audience,” he says. For now, that audience continues to grow alongside him.
It is an approach that mirrors much of what FELIP is building today. Whether through music or fashion, the focus is on creating work that feels honest to who he is and where he wants to go.
Hours before the SULFUR event began, his voice was strained, and he admitted he was feeling the worst he had since getting sick. Yet when showtime arrived, the crowd saw none of that hesitation.
They saw an artist performing with the same conviction that has carried him from customizing clothes on a sewing machine at home to launching his own fashion label, from idol stardom to carving out an increasingly distinct identity as a solo musician.
Perhaps that is the thread connecting everything FELIP does. The fashion, the music, the world of SUPERIOR SON, and now SULFUR. They are all expressions of the same instinct to create and keep moving forward.
By the end of the night, the irony was hard to miss. The artist who had worried about his voice backstage spent the evening commanding a room full of people singing right back to him.
And as the final cheers echoed through the venue, one thing felt clear: SULFUR may be the latest chapter in FELIP’s story, but it is far from the final form of the world he is building.
Frequently Asked Questions
SULFUR is a defiant and edgy track about cutting off negativity, moving forward, and cementing his artistic independence.
The title originally started as “SILVER,” but FELIP wanted something more unexpected and symbolic. He chose SULFUR because of its meaning as a reactive element that portrays the song’s energy.
SUPERIOR SON is FELIP’s fashion label that focuses on silhouette-driven design and personal storytelling. It draws inspiration from his upbringing and Visayan heritage.
FELIP began by customizing his own clothes using an old sewing machine at home. He taught himself how to sew, alter, and design pieces after being inspired by artists and music videos.
FELIP sees music and fashion as two forms of the same creative language. Both serve as extensions of his identity and are guided by the same focus on confidence and expression.
Photography MEETKESO
Special thanks Bea Laino and Maverick Lacson
