FROM Copenhagen to Chicago, Moscow to Morocco, Tehran to Tokyo, Barcelona to Beijing, London to Los Angeles, Rome to Stockholm, Jose “Pitoy” Moreno conquered them all with his collections of couture creations and indigenous costumes.
The fashion designer, philanthropist and society figure, 89, was laid to rest over the weekend, passing after a lingering illness that felled him for years. His legacy to fashion and the arts can’t be appreciated enough, and the colorful life he led will now pass on into folklore.
“Nobody knew about Philippine fashion until I came,” he told me in 2004 before his two-night tribute, Ginintuang Moreno, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, mounted by his muses Imelda Cojuangco and Tingting Cojuangco. “No one knew we can make beautiful clothes.”
Before Hanae Mori, Issey Miyaki or Yohji Yamamoto thought Paris was a good idea, Moreno had the style capital worshipping at his diminutive feet, the Oriental Napoleon of fashion.
Owing to his remarkable showing, the French publication Le Figaro, as he told me in a 2005 interview with a defunct lifestyle magazine, bestowed him the honorific that stuck with him ever since: “The Fashion Czar of Asia comes to Paris to be crowned.”
Some writers, though, have credited this tag to Paris Match or the Honolulu Standard. If his sister, the poet Virginia, would allow, I would love to peruse the voluminous scrapbooks that Moreno fastidiously kept of his press clippings and verify the real origins of his title. That distinction, however, Moreno dismissed casually whenever his friends would tease him: “Czar! Czar!” Annoyed but amused at the same time, Moreno would counter with a hearty laugh: “Ay naku! Pang-asar lang ’yan!”
Besides his unquestionable design skills, it was his humility that endeared him to an industry not known for its sincerity.
I remember in 2002, when Ben Farrales, the “Dean of Filipino Designers,” hosted a press conference for his then-upcoming Fifty Years In My Fashion gala. Moreno was there, happily joining his contemporary and rival at the door in welcoming the guests.
Moreno’s muses included women in power and with powerful personalities, the first ladies of politics (Imelda Marcos, Eva Macapagal, Ming Ramos) to the screen (Gloria Romero at the international Karilagan shows, Susan Roces at her wedding to Fernando Poe Jr.; Rita Moreno on an Oscar night); from society swans (Isabel Preysler; the Cojuangco women Imelda, Gretchen and Tingting) to grand dames (Margot Fonteyn, Ingrid Sala Santamaria).
He dressed up beauty queens (Maita Gomez, Aurora Pijuan, Gloria Diaz, Stella Araneta, Melanie Marquez, Charlene Gonzalez) and real queens (Sophia of Spain, Margarette of Bulgaria, Sirikit of Thailand); along with princesses (Margaret of Britain, Suga of Japan) and future presidents (Cory Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo). As a board member of the Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc., Moreno molded fair Filipinas into becoming our country’s beauty and tourism ambassadors. For his J. Moreno Foundation, he supported less fortunate but talented students to pursue their passion for the arts.
After the Metro Society tribute-gala to him in 2011, Moreno became a virtual recluse. Even so, local fashion is eternally indebted to him for paving the way for younger Filipino designers to be admired the world over. How did he explain his longevity in such a fickle business? “I am very conscious of my work. I make the best of it. I am very Filipino and I am very loyal to my heritage,” he said in 2005.
Give him the award for National Artist for Fashion already.
Image credits: PHOTO BY EDWARD ROBERTS JR., PHOTOS FROM THE BOOK “PHILIPPINE COSTUME” BY J. MORENO