The BoF 500 Class of 2026: Philippine Fashion Media Has Come a Long Way

The Business of Fashion’s annual selection of influential figures brings good news for us.

Archie G. Carrasco, Chairman and CEO of AGC Power Holdings Corp., joins The BoF 500 Class of 2026 under Media, becoming the fifth Filipino inducted after Stephen Gan, Bryan Yambao, Mark “Jappy” Gonzalez, and Anton Tantoco Huang. His place among this year’s 100 new members gives the Philippines its own milestone, one shared with a considerable Asian presence in this year’s class.

RELATED: Archie G. Carrasco, the Original MEGA Man, Is Named to The BoF 500

Aespa enters from South Korea, with Karina, Giselle, Winter, and Ningning already developing individual fashion identities alongside Prada, Loewe, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Gucci, respectively. Thailand celebrates Lingling Kwong and Orm Kornnaphat. Japan is represented by Nigo and 2025 LVMH Prize winner Soshi Otsuki, with Naomi Osaka and Eileen Gu also included. Beyond Asia, Teyana Taylor and Heated Rivalry stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams come from entertainment, joining a class that represents forty-seven nationalities.

MEGA: 34 Years of Fashion Journalism and Counting

Carrasco’s inclusion through Media brings the story back to the industry he leads at home. When Sari Yap founded MEGA in 1992 as the Philippines’ first homegrown glossy fashion magazine, there was no way of knowing which designers would eventually become institutions or how completely the way we consume fashion would change. MEGA could, however, make its own bets on what came next and introduce readers to the designers its editors saw a future in.

Philippine fashion media grew with the industry, and more publications developed their own points of view. Across thirty-four years and counting, MEGA has stayed in step with that evolution: young designers in its pages became established names, new ones followed, and the magazine changed with them. Readers who once encountered MEGA primarily through a monthly issue eventually found it within a much faster way of consuming fashion: digital.

A perspective formed here can now travel farther without losing where it comes from. MEGA can look outward while bringing the fashion produced here into a much bigger conversation.

The Philippines is represented in The BoF 500 Class of 2026 through a media leader, among an Asian cohort with considerable reason to celebrate. Back home, the magazines behind him, including us—the title that started it all—are already shaping what comes after.

Photos: THE BUSINESS OF FASHION (via Website) and AGC POWER HOLDINGS CORP. (via Website)

Anya Oxyn

Senior Fashion Writer

Formerly a stylist who immersed herself intimately within the Philippine fashion circuit for over three years, Anya has refined her transformative, hands-on experience into an insightful voice for MEGA Asia as a Senior Fashion Writer.

Her editorial pursuit possesses three facets: her time as an essayist during her education at Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, her extensive experience in digital media and strategic storytelling, and her belief that fashion has a beating heart deeply intertwined with art, culture, society, and humanity itself that is worth uncovering.

Anya’s versatile pen spans a dynamic range of subjects, including emerging local designers, global luxury houses, beauty trends, film and television fashion analysis, cultural op-eds, major events, and beyond.

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