Through political changes and design challenges, the terno has continuously evolved, remaining relevant and visible. In the 2015 coffee-table book Fashionable Filipinas: An Evolution of the Philippine National Dress in Photographs 1860-1960 by Gino Gonzales and Mark Lewis Higgins, the terno began as “a dress with identical embroidery on the camisa and pañuelo (1890 to 1900)” and became “a dress of any cut or style with ‘butterfly’ sleeves (1940s).”
Gonzales, a set designer and heir apparent to National Artist for Theater Design Salvador Bernal, reinforced the terno’s resurgence with the “Fashioning the Terno” workshop series, educating young design talents about its virtues at the Ateneo Art Gallery in 2016.
In 2017, the idea of promoting the terno on a bigger scale came into fruition—the TernoCon, “a terno-making convention and contest with the aim of promoting the use of the Philippine National Dress and allowing regional participants to shine on a national level.”
The project was an initiative of retail behemoth Bench and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). As an artistic director, Gonzales hopes TernoCon will be an annual undertaking. Thirty participants from the workshop series were asked to create one cocktail terno (balintawak) and one formal terno.
Gonzales tapped industry stalwarts to mentor the upstarts: Inno Sotto as chief mentor, JC Buendia for Luzon, Cary Santiago for the Visayas and Len Cabili for Mindanao. The culminating activity was a cultural and fashion spectacle at the CCP directed by Dexter Martinez Santos, with the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo stage itself. The audience side was used as a display area for Sotto’s ostentatious ternos.
CHAMPIONS OF THE TERNO
TernoCon is the year’s best design competition, and the finals night on November 11 was truly unforgettable. With performances by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra String Ensemble, Male Ensemble Nine and the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, the 30 participants outdid each other in the two categories. Mentors Buendia, Santiago and Cabili also presented astonishing collections (which merits a separate feature).
It was an evening when the exceptional entries on the runway were at par with the couture creations worn by the audience, like contest judge Myrza Sison clad in a vintage Ramon Valera owned by Rajo Laurel’s grandmother. Another lady in a well-preserved Valera she matched with precolonial jewelry. And a millennial proudly dressed in Christian Espiritu.
Marlon Tuazon of Angeles City, Pampanga, in a remarkable feat, was a double gold-medal winner. He created a column dress of Mikado silk overlaid with an illusion tulle, which drops from the butterfly sleeves embellished with white pearls. His winning balintawak was a “pale pink sheath dress partially concealed by a black lace bouffant overlay.” The back was “fastened by three straps with bows.”
Nenita Morden of Villasis, Pangasinan, won silver for her formal terno: “The tattooed images in the Boxer Codex was the inspiration for the beaded and stitched terno top with a contemporary red patadyong.”
Bronze winner was Joseph Bawar of Santa Maria, Bulacan: “Solihiya pattern (traditionally used for Philippine furniture) was the inspiration for this handcrafted ensemble of gray fabrics.”
Dan Ryan Duran of Siaton, Negros Oriental, won the silver medal for the balintawak category: “Built like a suit with stylized lapels, pockets and separate metallic houndstooth trousers. The back portion has ruching that hints at an alampay.”
Santi Obcena of Quezon City, a Project Runway Philippines finalist, won bronze: “Beaded scales were hand-stitched on a nude fabric. Swathes of strung bugle beads were attached on the shoulder and waist to suggest the alampay and pañuelo.”
PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
Bench bigwig Ben Chan produced or lent his support to the biggest fashion shows of 2018: the biannual Bench Fashion Week, Bench Design Awards, Worldclass: Weddings at the Waterfront, Red Charity Gala, Miss World Philippines and TernoCon.
“TernoCon is a collaboration between Bench and CCP that aims to save the terno by promoting the knowledge and skills involved in producing it. I am fortunate to be working with this team of passionate individuals for this cause. Inno Sotto for mentoring and inspiring the participants, always pushing them to do their best in expressing their creativity. Gino Gonzales for planting the seeds of wisdom that inspired all of us to support this project. [His] enthusiasm and dedication is infectious indeed,” Chan said in an Instagram post.
He is grateful to CCP Chairman Margie Moran “for opening the doors of the CCP to be the breeding ground to harness the skills of so many Filipino talents. You always give 100 percent in everything you do. A true mark of a queen,” Chan said of Miss Universe 1973.
For lending their time, talent and expertise to promote our national heritage, Chan thanked the TernoCon mentors: “Your selflessness in teaching the craft to bring the terno forward so that the young designers may continue taking pride on it, I commend everyone for doing a wonderful job and hope [we will] be working together again in the future.”
Image credits: THE BENCH LIFESTYLE+CLOTHING FACEBOOK PAGE AND BENCHTM INSTAGRAM