Background In interviews, Tumang shared that his interest in fashion started through his grandmother's skills in dressmaking, his voluntary design work in stage plays during high school, and experience in creating vestments for religious statues.''' In college, he was part of a theater group who introduced him and invited him to attend fashion events.
Beauty pageant gowns Gray wore his dress called "Sinag" gown during the Binibining Pilipinas 2018 contest where she won Best in Long Gown special prize. Tumang became popular for the dresses he made for Catriona Gray for the Miss Universe 2018 pageant and that partly contributed to her success in the said contest.'''''' Voltaire Tayag of Rappler commented that the
Mayon gown, the dress Gray wore during the evening gown contest, made him a household name. Another creation known as the Ibong Adarna gown, which Gray wore in the preliminary round, received media coverage and became popular on social media. After the pageant, Gray wore Tumang's
sampaguita-inspired dress in her homecoming, "Perla Oriente" gown during a special event at
Smart Araneta Coliseum, coral jumpsuit for her Manila press conference and "Alon" gown during a street parade held in
Cubao. Tumang designed
Ahtisa Manalo’s gowns for the
Miss Universe 2025 preliminary competition. For the preliminary evening gown segment, Manalo wore Tumang’s “Pinctada” gown, a midnight blue piece embellished with gold accents and inspired by the
Pinctada Maxima shell, which produces South Sea pearls. Tumang described the silhouette as radiating “sunburst-like rays” in reference to the Miss Universe crown, and the look was completed with
Jewelmer jewelry and soft, flowing waves of hair. For the National Costume competition, Tumang designed “FESTEJADA,” a reinterpretation of the
traje de mestiza inspired by Philippine cultural traditions and festivals. The ensemble featured a softly structured camisa and saya made of handmade piña fabric embroidered with abanico and
palay motifs. Its most prominent element was a three-tiered skirt composed of more than 65,000 hand-cut petals, incorporating visual references to the
Pahiyas Festival of
Lucban,
Baguio’s
Panagbenga Festival, and the parol structures—Tambur, Siku-Siku, and Palimbun—of
Pampanga’s
Giant Lantern Festival. The look was completed with a filigree-inspired peineta. Tumang conceived the costume as a contemporary presentation of Filipino cultural memory and craftsmanship.
Notable dresses Other notable dresses that drew coverage in the media include
Maymay Entrata's lava-inspired gown,
Kylie Padilla's wedding dress,
Imee Marcos' "La Filigrina" gown worn during President
Rodrigo Duterte's State of the Nation Address on July 22, 2019, and
Jillian Ward's galaxy-inspired gown worn during her
Debut on February 25, 2023.
Exhibit The Mayon gown, Ibong Adarna gown, and Sinag gown were displayed on an exhibit held at
SM City Pampanga in December 2018. From March 16 to 23, his dresses were on an
SM Mall of Asia exhibit called Universe: Celebration of World Class Talent. == Reception ==