Meet the duo behind LiFE DESiGN, the tarps that turned silly humor into Fashion Week gold “In the age of AI, people are going to be craving mistakes”

You know you're doing things the right way when Simon Porte Jacquemus shares your work on his personal Instagram, when Kiko Kostadinov’s team slides into your DMs to ask for theirs, when KidSuper grabs his straight off the street, or when Tyler, the Creator shares it on his Close Friends story. That was the case for the humorous tarpaulins that appeared in Paris during Fashion Week. Created by LiFE DESiGN, a streetwear brand, the tarps feature congratulatory messages like “Philippines is proud of uuu,” addressed to fashion celebrities, sometimes paired with photos that don’t even match the person being celebrated (Wes Anderson becomes Jonathan Anderson, Macaulay Culkin as Jacquemus). They popped up like daisies in the streets of Paris and beyond a few weeks ago. As soon as they were spotted, they were filmed, and quickly made the rounds on social media. To understand the buzz and offbeat humor behind them, we spoke with the brains behind the tarps.

The idea came two years ago, when the founders were stuck in Manila traffic and noticed the ubiquitous tarps displayed outside homes celebrating milestones like high school graduation or board exam results. “I thought, ‘I don't care about Maribeth, I don’t know Maribeth.’ But what if I did?” shared Xylk (pronounced silk), one of the founders. That moment sparked their first LiFE DESiGN tarp. Their debut featured Martine Rose: “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if someone in Manila would be congratulating Martine Rose for an outstanding collection. So we did. We think the timing was good cause she just won the British Menswear Designer of the Year award so using that momentum was key to the impact it had online.” It worked. Martine reposted it on her stories, saying she loves the Philippines, which became the project’s first industry nod.

LiFE DESiGN was founded by Xylk—aka Pigo the Pinoy Nigo, aka LiFE DESiGNER number 1—who was born in Manila and raised in Toronto. For him, the brand is a fun challenge that echoes his early days in advertising. “I studied advertising for one year but later dropped out after the second semester to pursue music. In 2017, I was in a band and was getting ready to launch our album at the time. Fleasayo was a costume designer and visual/film artist who I revered and wanted to work with, so I hit him up to propose the idea of shooting all the music videos for the album in Europe. We started a Kickstarter for the project and then we took 10 of our band members and friends to travel Europe with us for two weeks. After that, Flea left for America and we would lose touch for several years until 2021.”

Fleasayo—aka Flearell, LiFE DESiGNER number 2 —was raised in Toronto and has Nigerian roots. “I originally studied business, but when I found out I was going to be a father, something shifted. I dropped out and decided I was going to become the hood Nick Knight. I founded a creative house. I studied under an old tailor who used to make uniforms for the Colombian military. I ended up meeting Xylk through iNNERGii. I wanted his bandmate’s phone number. When I asked for it, she would only oblige to give the number if I came to her show; that’s where I met Xylk. I never ended up getting her number…” he explained. You could call it temporary public art. “It’s fun graffiti, it's a temporary tattoo for the streets. It’s becoming a game for us to find the best location that has high visibility and the right traffic. And the best part about it is that when we leave the tarps, people have started looking for them and taking them for their own homes. We’ve become the Pinoy Banksy in a way.” Their collaboration itself was sparked by contrast: “What really led me to work with Xylk creatively was a moment of contrast. My crew at the time dismissed him without even knowing who he was. I’ve always been drawn to what’s misunderstood, what’s rejected; because there’s often a kind of childlike purity in those spaces. Something real that most people either fear, overlook, or can’t recognize. But to me, that’s where the essence is.”

At its heart, LiFE DESiGN celebrates Philippine culture. That wild humor, understated sincerity, and creative chaos all in one. “These tarps are part of that culture. Hilarious, kitschy, kind of poking fun or kind of serious,” they explain. “It’s human.” And that human quality, they believe, is especially important today. “In the age of AI, where everything is ‘perfectly’ generated and polished, I believe that what will make humans humans isn’t emotion or expression but the ability to be wrong.” That space for the intentionally absurd and unpolished is where LiFE DESiGN moves, not just as a brand, but as an artistic philosophy that embraces flaws, fun, and not taking things too serious. In an interview with RollinStone Philippines, Xylk breaks it down: “In the Western world, Filipinos are subjected to, like, three main tropes: Karaoke, jeepneys, and Manny Pacquiao,” he says. “Oh, and nursing. Like, these are the boxes that the whites have put us in, right? And I feel that we are a complex, multi-layered culture and I want to reflect that in our work.” He adds: “If Japan is known for craftsmanship, and Europeans are known for quote-unquote ‘elegance’ or whatever they think elegance is, then I think Filipinos should be able to take over the lanes of fun and humor. We just really like to have fun.”

So what does the world’s reaction to LiFE DESiGN’s work say about fashion right now? “It’s great to see that in these little exhibitions of our ideas, people across the globe resonate and are moved by them somehow. I think it’s super important even more so for the people in the Philippines to see that the culture is being appreciated in the highest level of fashion, streetwear and western culture. It’s a symbiotic relationship that LiFE DESiGN aims to bridge. In the age of AI, people are gonna start craving mistakes. It shows us that it desperately craves what we’re offering.” It’s really simple: in this cynical world, sometimes all we need is some good fun.