The New Style Influencers: Meet The Content Creators Changing The Way We Dress, Shop + See Fashion

(SPOT.ph) What happens when fashion influencers stop chasing trends and start thinking purpose? When GRWMs no longer cut it and OOTDs have become a drag? When they just really need to add a little more substance to the style?

Welcome to the social media world of content creators John Parungao a.k.a. Johnperuuuu, Maronne Cruz a.k.a. Altcedo Girl, Johan Kyle, Gela Muñoz and Arvic Alvarez. They belong to a new breed of style influencers whose content go beyond unboxing their latest purchases and PR swags, or flexing their nth shopping spree; these guys actually offer useful information, tips, advice, even outright fashion reportage—but packaged with a healthy dose of creativity, ingenuity, (the occasional) practicality and entertainment.

Because let’s face it: we can only really take so much of glamour pusses prancing about in front of mirrors, serving nothing but designer duds and little else. Which is why these guys on this edition of Spot Weekender are such a breath of fresh air. We love it when @Johnperuuu introduces us to his latest local find and when he styles his outfits by the rules of some obscure Japanese book on color matching. Or when @Johan_Kyle makes the rounds backstage of a fashion show and gets the most candid answers from the fashion industry’s most beautiful denizens.

We are charmed by @maronnecruz’s reimagining of the Salcedo Girl from sundress-wearing, bouquet-carrying fairy to the more exciting anime-meets-rockstar fashion girlie. We take notes when @gelabeef shares her Purveyr fair wishlist expertly curated like the former Cosmo stylist that she is. And who won’t be disarmed by the sweetness that is @arvic_alvarez showing us how he’ll dress up like his dad on Father’s Day while dishing out his old man’s personal style rules?

Are you following them yet? To rephrase Johan Kyle’s videos a little, theirs are the social media accounts na dapat alam mo.

Hard to believe that behind John Parungao’s bright and sunny fashion videos is an extremely shy content creator: himself. "It took me awhile to get over my shyness," he tells SPOT.ph. "I would always avoid events back then. I would say I'm unavailable." But whatever the 28-year-old is unable to express in social situations, his clothes communicate them for him. His outfits are often bold statements—starting with those thick, stylish frames—always well-considered, and sometimes even based on a Japanese book of color combinations.

Asserting his individuality is a big thing for John, albeit he does it quietly: in high school and college (in UST where he took his pre-med studies), frustrated with only being able to wear uniforms, he’d put on a different jacket every day. (He is also, admittedly, lamigin.) Nothing fancy: just something from Uniqlo or something pre-loved. Who knew it will become the foundation of his content creation when he started doing videos during the pandemic? His friends encouraged him to do TikTok. “But isn’t that for dancing?” John remembers asking. And then they showed him the guys doing fashion content, and voila: “I started in a small corner of my room and just started posting.”

Today, Johnperuuuu on TikTok has 100,100 followers and on Instagram, there’s 28,900 more. His social media accounts are colorful diaries that record his evolution from being a minimalist to maximalist ("I still smile when I see my old videos.")—a shift brought about by one wonderful gift from local brand De.Tsino, a brocade shirt that opened his eyes to the bounty that is Philippine fashion.

John produces some of the most thoughtful fashion content online, taking the usual GRWMs and OOTDs to a more mindful, exploratory level, inspiring his followers to experiment with shades and silhouettes themselves. Big thanks go to his big sister whose penchant for watching Project Runway opened little John’s eyes to fashion—she’d even buy him clothes!

“Fashion is my way of expressing myself," says John. "I feel like it’s my personal language. It’s an art for me and I’m the artist. It really makes me happy whenever I wear something I really love and I get to show fully who I am."

For Maronne Cruz, fashion has always been a little bit magical. 

“I feel like this thing was injected into my veins by anime,” she says, tracing her love of fashion back to childhood. Growing up watching Cardcaptor Sakura, she became fascinated by its heroine’s elaborate outfits and the idea of a girl who could be both powerful and beautifully dressed. “I think I always dress up with a sense of like, ‘Could I have magic powers today?’”

That fascination for the otherworldly has stayed with her. A longtime consumer of fantasy literature and a fan of Dungeons & Dragons, Maronne describes her personal style as “playful and experimental,” drawing inspiration from the many worlds—real and imagined—that have shaped her taste.

As a tween, she discovered FRUiTS Magazine, the Japanese street-style publication documenting the fashion of Harajuku. “That was it. That was my gateway,” she recalls. Through the magazine, she discovered designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons, while developing an enduring fascination with Japanese fashion subcultures, particularly Elegant Gothic Lolita.

But embracing an unconventional style hasn’t always been easy. Working in theater, Maronne once felt that she had to tone herself down to be taken seriously professionally. “I felt like… I had to separate that side of myself that was into more experimental, more alternative styles,” she says. For a time, she admits laughing, “I unfortunately succumbed to the male gaze.”

The pandemic became something of a reset. As she grew more comfortable with herself, both personally and professionally, she began reclaiming the parts of her style she had once suppressed. “Life’s way too short,” she says. “I think we all realized that during that time.”

Her fashion content creation grew alongside that rediscovery. She began making cosplay and anime-related content during the early days of TikTok, initially just for fun. Eventually, she realized that fashion was where she really came alive. Today, content creation occupies roughly half of her professional life alongside theater, which also includes voice acting, voiceover work, and performance.

While Maronne doesn’t necessarily consider herself part of the fashion industry, she has found her own place within its growing local scene. “I’m very happy to enjoy it and share my enjoyment with people,” she says. Rather than position herself as an authority, she sees herself as “an enthusiastic newbie with everyone else,” discovering Filipino designers and inviting others to discover them with her.

That enthusiasm is particularly evident in her love for local fashion. She names Carl Jan Cruz, HÅ.MÜ, Yana Kalaw, and Rod Malanao among her favorite Filipino brands, and says she can now build entire outfits from local designers—something that once felt much more difficult when her specific taste meant sourcing clothes from abroad.

Her most treasured fashion purchase, however, is decidedly British: a pair of Vivienne Westwood Rocking Horse shoes bought secondhand through Mercari Japan. Inspired by Elegant Gothic Lolita, the shoes are dramatic, heavy, and surprisingly wearable. “I love a fun shoe!” she says.

And ultimately, fun is exactly what Maronne hopes to bring back to fashion. Her favorite part of creating content is the people she meets and the inspiration that comes from sharing a love of clothes with others. Some of the most meaningful feedback she receives are from people who tell her she has encouraged them to experiment more with their own style.

“Hell yeah! Like, that’s what life’s all about!” she says. “And also, them saying that to me reminds me that, yeah, it should be fun!”

Johan Kyle is a showman. He knows this and, without a missing a beat, brings up the fact that even stylist-to-Zendaya Law Roach deems himself an entertainer. “I never thought of myself as an entertainer,” says Johan. “I just dress up—but I realize it’s a way of entertaining people.” That’s why he’s never shied away from wearing showstoppers: a floor-length dress that looks like pastillas wrapper and totally made of hair, a giant striped palengke plastic bag by Jaggy Glarino, an over-the-top fluffy heart-shaped confection of a vest by Randolf, the red velvet Gucci suit made famous by Gwyneth Paltrow back in the 1990s.

But it won’t be wrong to also call Johan Kyle a fashion reporter. He interviews the big designers, does incredibly watchable backstage coverage of fashion shows, and knows how to put a journalistic approach to hot fashion topics—ex: 1) the designer of the popular anthurium polo shirt worn by Leni Robredo and Will Ashley also designed the new Jollibee crew uniforms (it’s Nicolo Perez). 2) Instead of just blabbing about the wedding dress of fashion influencer Angelique Manto, he interviews its designer Cheetah Rivera, therefore offering his followers a more substantial story.

As a 24-year-old kid who just started taking his fashion content a year and a half ago seriously, how did he get to have all this access? "I think it's just because they trust me," he says, "and they like my work." Well, this boyish-looking influencer has actually also been around for a while. He started designing clothes when he was 14, putting streetwear ‘fits on the backs of such boldfaced names as Vice Ganda, LA Aguinaldo, Poor Taste, even Jaden Smith. It was Kanye West's Yeezy that got him interested in fashion, but it was Alessandro Michele at Gucci that made him fall in love with the business of clothes ("I wanted to understand his collections. There was something ugly about them but also very alluring.").

He also used to make music and has clinched a couple of Aliw Awards nominations. (Google his name and you’ll find he’s still described as a singer). He was supposed to go to the New York Film School with a scholarship but the pandemic happened. “It was heartbreaking. But no, I feel like everything happens for a reason. Because I met so many people and I’m where I am now.”

Today, Johan is a familiar face in fashion events. He has 131K+ followers on TikTok and some 83,000 followers on Instagram. He just graduated last month from his marketing course at the UA&P, but while he’s not completely against pursuing a corporate job, he just wants to keep doing what he’s doing now: making videos, editing, being creative—while applying his learnings on branding and consistency from his marketing degree.

“Honestly, I'm just making videos that I want to watch,” Johan tells Spot. “These are the videos I wish I could be watching. When I interview a designer, it's because this is a designer I'm interested in, who I want to see and learn about…The best thing about my job is that I get to do what I love.”

“My favorite thing about what I do is getting to live out the dreams that I thought I no longer had,” says Gela Muñoz.

Gela is anything but new to the fashion scene. Long before Instagram and TikTok, when Lookbook and Tumblr were the go-to platforms for documenting personal style, she was already photographing her outfits and keeping a record of what she wore. It was never about building an audience or creating content for followers; she simply wanted to document her own style. Her fashion background extends beyond the camera, too—she previously worked as a stylist for Candy Magazine and Cosmo. “OG talaga!” she laughs.

“I was a sneaker girl!” she adds, remembering the period during the pandemic when she and friends ran a sneaker YouTube channel dedicated to shoe releases and the latest sneaker drops. Eventually, however, the sneakers led her back to clothes. “When your sneakers are no longer cool anymore, I have to think about…” she says, laughing. “The rest of the outfit.”

Needless to say, Gela’s relationship with style has taken several forms. If anything,  her career seems to operate in cycles: stepping away, discovering something new, and inevitably finding her way back.
That sense of reinvention is also reflected in how she dresses. She describes her style as “high street, with a touch of feminine, playfulness,” with a little preppy influence thrown in. She likes combining contemporary pieces with thrifted finds, and, of course, sneakers. 

She doesn't believe inspiration has to come from fashion icons, either. Her husband, Paolo Salgado, introduced her to Japanese city-boy fashion, which encouraged her to experiment with silhouettes and ideas outside her usual wardrobe. But some of her favorite references come from much more unexpected places.

Recently, she spotted a lolo at the mall wearing a track jacket, white pants, and sneakers. She wanted to tell him how much she liked his outfit but couldn't quite catch him on the escalator. Instead, she kept the image in mind. She remembers thinking, “You can look cool wearing those things together.” For her, fashion is everywhere if you pay attention.

That instinct to look, collect, and reinterpret is perhaps what connects her different careers. Today, she works across content creation, styling, and creative direction, while also running a graphic design studio with her husband. 

From there, she began exploring her personal style more deliberately. Her content now revolves around ukay-ukay finds, outfits, sneakers, and even the occasional matcha store visit. But there is a larger idea behind it: fashion doesn't have to mean constantly buying new things.

“You can save and still be stylish!” she says. That philosophy extends to what she hopes to do with her platform. While fashion may be the entry point, she wants her content to have a purpose beyond herself. She hopes to eventually use her platform to advocate for animals and encourage people to be kinder, while showing that social media can be a space for information, entertainment, and inspiration.

She has also witnessed firsthand how much the fashion landscape has changed since her early days online. “People are more sure of who they are now compared to before,” she says. Rather than simply following whatever is trending, she sees people becoming more confident in honing their own identities through what they wear. Perhaps that is why returning to her own fashion dreams feels less like going backward and more like arriving somewhere new.

“I was an OG, and then kind of wasn't sure about life, and then the pandemic happened, and now I'm back!” she says. And if her story is anything to go by, an old dream doesn't necessarily disappear just because you stop chasing it.

“Life doesn’t end in your 30s,” she says. “In fact, I think it’s only the beginning.”

Arvic Alvarez came to fashion through clothes, but stayed for everything around them. These days, a good outfit is only the starting point for his curiosity about the designers, makers, models, and stories that make up the industry.

He notices the cut, the construction, the detail that makes an otherwise classic piece interesting. It is perhaps unsurprising that fashion found its way into his life alongside architecture and graphic design—three disciplines that, for him, are less separate than they might seem. 

As a kid, he would accompany his mother while she shopped and offer unsolicited opinions. “It was me who would assist her and tell her, ‘Parang don’t wear that, don’t wear that,’” he says, laughing.

For his architecture school oath-taking, Arvic initially planned to commission a designer. Instead, time constraints sent him to Kamuning Market, where he had a barong made and customised to his specifications. The place already had a history with his family—his grandfather had his clothes made there, and his mother had taken him there for his own prom.

“I think that’s where I was really like, ‘Oh, this is really something interesting,’” he says. “‘This is really a craft.’”

That word—craft—is important to Arvic. His interest in fashion extends well beyond the finished outfit. He is fascinated by collections, the process behind them, the people who make them, and everything that happens before a garment reaches the runway.

It has also changed the way he makes content. His early posts were straightforward fit checks, essentially a digital record of what he happened to be wearing. Now, the clothes are more of an entry point. He uses himself as the medium, but increasingly turns the camera outward.

At Manila Fashion Week, that might mean talking to a designer, a model, or someone working backstage. “When I say fashion industry, that just doesn’t mean fashion content creators,” he says. “Designers have so much heart when they make fashion collections. The mga mananahi have so many stories. … The models … have so many stories to tell.”

It is this access that excites him most: being able to enter spaces occupied by people who are just as consumed by fashion as he is.

“I think that’s where I was really like, ‘Oh, this is really something interesting,’” he says. “‘This is really a craft.’”

That word—craft—is important to Arvic. His interest in fashion extends well beyond the finished outfit. He is fascinated by collections, the process behind them, the people who make them, and everything that happens before a garment reaches the runway.

It has also changed the way he makes content. His early posts were straightforward fit checks, essentially a digital record of what he happened to be wearing. Now, the clothes are more of an entry point. He uses himself as the medium, but increasingly turns the camera outward.

At Manila Fashion Week, that might mean talking to a designer, a model, or someone working backstage. “When I say fashion industry, that just doesn’t mean fashion content creators,” he says. “Designers have so much heart when they make fashion collections. The mga mananahi have so many stories. … The models … have so many stories to tell.”

It is this access that excites him most: being able to enter spaces occupied by people who are just as consumed by fashion as he is.

He trails off laughing, but the moment says something about how Arvic engages with fashion. He can be deeply interested in the history, construction and ideas behind a garment, while still allowing himself to have fun with it. 

That confidence took time. He was once nervous about speaking on camera, worrying about his voice, his lighting, even whether his room looked too messy. Then someone gave him a line he still remembers: “Nobody is watching, but the right eyes are watching.”

Arvic still works full-time as a graphic designer and architect, taking on branding and architectural projects on the side. Fashion remains one part of a busy creative life, but increasingly, he sees it as a way to tell stories—particularly the stories of people who don't always get to tell them themselves.

At 28, he is still figuring out exactly what that looks like. For a while, he thought perhaps he had run out of time to pursue certain ambitions. Now he has arrived at a simpler conclusion: “Yeah, okay, fine. I still have time.”

Maybe that is the point of fashion for Arvic. Not simply to be noticed, but to notice—to look closely enough at the clothes, the craft and the people behind them, and then find a way to make others look, too.

All portraits by Arabella Paner

Produced by Jerome Gomez

Photographed at Everyday and Archivo 1984, Karrivin Studios, Karrivin Plaza, Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City
Videographer JB Mataro
Cover design Warren Espejo