Power vocals, impactful lyrics, and beats that could make anyone tap their foot. Those are some of the tools that music artists use to tell their stories. But since the inception of music videos, music superstars are able to add another layer to their storytelling, providing visuals and movements that complement their songs. Fans see unusual concepts come to life and right at the center of it are their idols. Apart from the grand set, creative lighting, and cinematic shots, fashion is also a key element in making a music video iconic. In the P-pop scene, one of today’s top artists that uses style masterfully is boyband SB19.
The award-winning band, composed of Pablo, Josh, Stell, Ken, and Justin, recently launched the music video for their latest song “Gento.” Now with over four million views, the song clip, which is a total bop, presents the wardrobe styling of the duo Rainer Dagala and Em Millan (Team Rain X Em). The band members get down and dirty as they dance in a mining field wearing pieces by designers Neric Beltran and Renan Pacson.
SB19's Stell, Ken, Pablo, Justin, and Josh in Renan Pacson creations
Manila Bulletin Lifestyle dives deep into the looks featured in the music video through an interview with Renan Pacson. From the custom pieces’ inspiration to how AI played a role in the process, the fashion designer details his journey in creating the P-pop boyband’s looks for their music video.
First off, how did your collaboration with SB19 start?
Team Rain X Em pulled out a denim look for Josh Cullen’s (Parcinq) shoot, which Josh bought on the spot. A week later, Rain contacted me asking me if I was interested in creating looks for SB19’s upcoming music video. He gave me a brief and the working budget, the keywords were “minero” and “anay,” which actually got me excited that I started exploring surface treatments right away. I sent a proposal deck with rough sketches and proposed surface treatments and material manipulations and waited until I got a go signal to create the looks.
How was it working with the band? Were they involved during the design process?
Very much involved and collaborative. I had to present my ideas to the SB19 boys and Team Rain X Em and wait for their inputs and comments. But I was also given enough freedom and room on how to interpret their vision. They know what they want but they were also very open to exploring ideas and silhouettes. It was surprisingly a breeze working with them. During our first and only fitting, (the first time I also saw SB19 in person) I got to witness how creative and hands-on the boys were in creating the music video. Our fitting ran for like four and a half hours, and during that time, I had a glimpse of how the minds of SB19 work, they were just constantly brainstorming the entire time while we were also doing the fittings. I was mindblown entering the SB19 multiverse!
What was your goal in creating those looks?
The goal was to stick to the vision of having a "fashion" approach to “minero” looks, but comfortable enough for them to move as they had to dance with the clothes, move a lot, and even climb hills and go down a cave. Team Rain X Em and I also had the goal to make sure that each of their personality would shine and match their looks, we kept their individual, personal style but just pushed it to the edge.
How long did you work on them and what materials did you use?
I had 14 days when Team Rain X Em asked me to prepare the sketches, and I waited a few days for approval of the details and stuff, which left me with about a week to produce the looks. We had the first and final fitting one day before the music video shoot.
The main fabrication for the five boys was the bleached Japanese twill. For each look, I tried to mix in different sets of materials to match each boy’s personality. I dissected the idea of traditional Levi’s pieces (because of their mining history) and flipped them to create each look for the boys. I injected a lot of copper and antique gold details, and even buried a few pieces in mud for a couple of days.
As seen in your feed, you’ve been playing with AI for design. Did you use it in designing the pieces for the band?
Yes, I did generate some design ideas with the help of AI just to explore what could be done with the vision they have in mind. I utilize AI as an upgrade to regular sketching (although, I still presented my stick figures). In my personal creative process, since I was also given enough room to play with the designs, I used AI to see possibilities and more options based on what they had already approved. Then, I chose what could make more impact (but with less production time).
Watch SB19’s “Gento” music video here:
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