WHEN the venue for a fashion show is as grand as the National Gallery Singapore, the clothes must be worthy of the artworks on display.
Three Filipino designers stepped up to that daunting challenge during the “Asian Designers Showcase,” one of the exhilarating shows at Singapore Fashion Week (SGFW), at the gallery’s Supreme Court Terraces on October 27.
Albert Andrada, Steffy Misoles-Dacalus and Mimi Parrel-Pimentel presented capsule collections alongside the best in the region. Our three representatives were chosen by Dong Omaga-Diaz, former president of the Fashion and Design Council of the Philippines, who was, in turn, asked by Timothy Chen, one of SGFW’s organizers.
“As always, from the start of our participation at the Asia Fashion Week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the Filipino designers I’ve chosen to represent the country have always made me proud,” Omaga-Diza said. “It was not compulsory, though, to use local materials but it’s also good if we incorporated it to the pieces. These give a collection some form of uniqueness and individuality.”
Parrel-Pimentel, who hails from Cagayan de Oro, advocates for the Mindanao Silk and made it an important component of her pieces. She created a knee-length dress in pleated Mindanao Silk and abaca-cocoon blend in pinstripe with black stiff tulle embroidered and topped with black pearls.
She also sent down tailored, haltered and sheer looks in reversible linen, leather lace, brocade and matte gold silk gazar.
“My collection proudly shows that our local indigenous materials can blend into any fabric that can create glamorous evening pieces,” said Parrel-Pimentel, who spearheads the global promotion of Mindanao Silk with the help and support of Tourism Promotion Board COO Cesar Montano.
For her part, Misoles-Dacalus unveiled her label Steffy de Mylo to the Asian scene after a series of shows in Canada. Hailing from Davao City in Mindanao, she wanted to celebrate the malong.
With tweaking and experimenting on her previous outputs, Misoles-Dacalus came up with cocktails-to-long-gowns looks that are simple, chic and refreshing by placing the geometric patterns of the malong in strategic places.
For haute-couture flair, Andrada delivered figure-flattering and billowing ballgowns. Bedecked with Swarovski crystals, floral embellishments and sparkling beads, the collection will no doubt find favor among the red-carpet, high-flying and perfumed set. After the successful staging of Singapore Fashion Week, however, news coming out of the Lion City indicated that this will be the last edition as we know it.
“The current model is not sustainable…. It’s a question of cost,” Tjin Lee, SGFW chairman and managing director of public relations and events firm Mercury Marketing and Communication, the organizer of SGFW for the past 11 years, told Singapore’s Straits Times.
She added to Singapore’s biggest newspaper that she will broaden her focus to Asia. “It’s not
that I’m giving up on Singapore designers. I think the best way I can help them is to help our fashion week build something viable, that is actually sustainable,” Lee said. “Let’s look on the bright side. Maybe we are too small to have our own fashion week. Maybe we have to think bigger and be bigger than we are. That’s why there is room for a bigger, more collaborative fashion week that engages and works with and supports the neighboring fashion weeks as well.”
So, it will be back to Kuala Lumpur next year, a prospect that still excites Omaga-Diaz: “Hopefully we will still be invited. If so, I’d like to bring more designers, especially from outside Manila. I’d like our major islands to be represented. I hope I can bring more designers to the event, but their professionalism and attitudes toward their art have to be considered first.”
Image credits: Photos from Mercury Marketing and Communication