THEY have disparate sensibilities in fashion design yet the two great friends—Ivarluski Aseron and Dennis Lustico—have a similar inclination toward the subversion of the contemporary ideals of dressing.
Aseron is innovative; his reverse-pleating method is a technical marvel. Lustico is imaginative; his grounded rendition of a whimsical Wes Anderson character is a visual feast.
For their recent collections, the two designers opted to show at Bench Fashion Week (BFW) Holiday 2018. “I have tremendous respect for Ben Chan as a person, a visionnaire and a businessman. I look up to him like a superhero, and the family of [Chan relative] Nenita Lim, who’s a client of mine, is extremely kind and so down to earth,” Lustico said. “I haven’t had a show for three years and when Bench approached me last year, I immediately got excited. When you’re given a platform by a prestigious global homegrown company, you say yes at once.”
Aseron echoed the sentiment: “I got excited when Ben Chan invited me to be a part of BFW. I think it’s a very nice platform to show a collection.”
The clothes of the elite Fashion and Design Council of the Philippines members offered a contrast in palette, persuasion and perspective. But both collections, in terms of Lustico’s scale and Aseron’s construction, offer women more avant-garde, radical alternatives for their boring wardrobe.
“I’ve always been drawn to somber palettes because they show my details more,” Aseron explained of his “Off-Center” collection, a mix of close-to-the-body and oversize silhouettes. “I used wool, crinoline and cotton.” Aseron admitted that he had always been drawn to something a bit off or off-center even when he was young and not yet a fashion designer. “I would arrange things in my room off-centered and I noticed I liked asymmetry whenever I browsed magazines whether on fashion or interior design,” he said.
Aseron showed woven labels of his name in several of his ensembles. It’s a stroke that’s both ingenious and unapologetic for the laconic designer, who lets his awesome work, which has a wide vocabulary, speak for itself.
Lustico, meanwhile, titled his collection, “The Imagined Life of Madame D,” inspired by the geriatric character played by Tilda Swinton in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
“I was guided by the essence of how to be a real woman, that is with grace, glamour and refinement,” Lustico explained. “I played with a wide variety of palettes.
There was actually no limit for as long as the shade is within the Wes Anderson kingdom of color. The silhouettes are mostly from the 1970s and 1980s but tweaked to become more current.”
The film swept all the industry awards in costume design in 2015, with Milena Canonero winning the Oscar, Bafta, guild and critic trophies. The costume designer also worked in A Clockwork Orange, Out of Africa, Dick Tracy and Marie Antoinette.
For Madame Celine Villeneuve Desgoffe und Taxis (a role originally offered to Angela Lansbury), Anderson envisioned an eccentric beauty and an art collector who belongs outside the fashion of her era (which was between the two world wars), so Canonero dressed her in retro style 1920s.
But Lustico furthered the idea. “I intentionally designed my pieces sexier, even if they’re covered, to make them look modern but at the same time retaining that old-world essence of glamour. This is the same feel that the fabrics have. They look vintage but new at the same time.”
Canonero enlisted Fendi to make the fur cape for Madame D while Prada provided her brown suitcases.
“I didn’t think much of the brands that Madame D wore in the film. In fact, I didn’t know there was a Fendi or Prada,” Lustico bared. “What I did was to compare her character to real-life glamour women like Wallis Simpson or Babe Paley. I also imagined her to be real and I asked myself, ‘What would she wear if she lived today?’”
Madame D is also an avid collector of Gustav Klimt, whose most famous work is Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, known more as A Woman in Gold.” Lustico, by kismet, created a tulip pantsuit with lilac combination in duchesse gold satin.
“I was very conscious of the Wes Anderson aesthetics. I’m completely hooked on how he framed each Madame D scene, so elegant and rich with colors and always sprinkled with humor. And I wanted the collection to do the same, to evoke ease and luxury,” Lustico cooed.
Among the standout pieces, which even the red-carpet rebel Tilda Swinton would wear in a heartbeat, are an electric-pleated Italian lamè goddess gown, a hot-pink silk organdy ball gown, a tiered doted tulle empire gown and a 1970s-inspired printed organdy pantsuit with hyper band.
“My direction for pantsuits is to strike a balance between severity and wearability, hence the use of single not-your-usual color or printed fabric,” Lustico said. “While each of the gowns has a tulle support underneath to give it a floating effect, I got rid of unnecessary layers and lining as I wanted them to be literally light.”
Image credits: Ivarluski Aseron, Dennis Lustico