Lightness of being

BARBIE Alvez had to step on her seat and balance her weight on my shoulder, so she could grasp a clearer view of the stage.

It was not a question of height—she stood taller than average in killer stilettos, and amusingly, still in size two, high-waist pants after pregnancy.

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Across, putting on a pair of Dolce and Gabbana eyeglasses, Wendell Quisido worked his view through a crowd that was in a sort of anticipating someone to come down from the second floor.

Of course, who would want to sit and miss the arrival of beautiful things that would lead you to what you like most about yourself?

As fashion designers, Barbie and Wendell were cheering for their colleagues who surprised or—in a rather appropriate language in a venue like Vudu—brought the house down with couture execution in a fashion show, dubbed Fabric, coinciding the kick-off of the club’s ninth anniversary on Feb. 24.

Donating life to the concept were the models from Models Association of Cebu and AD Models Homme et Femme while a triumvirate of artists, Emi Ayag, Jessie Glova, and Gari Son, featured a different definition of beauty. Accessories were from Noreen Tseng and Oro Time.

In layman’s tongue, a couture outfit needs to be augmented with incredibly high spirit.

But the curtain-raiser, Arcy Gayatin, who was the lone female of the five participants, may appear to give another meaning to avante garde. With her signature draping, this concept became an easy piece on a woman’s body: mini dresses with cowl neckline, metallic shoulder, and cinched waist in turquoise, magenta, and black.

Well, to begin with, she would not design a dress that she herself would repel.

The men, on the other hand, may find Oj Hofer’s line a bit easy on the skin. Hofer transformed women’s jersey stretch into masculine tops with extended sleeves, turtle and Sabrina necklines. Glam-rock embellishments created a twist on a number that resembled a Japanese kimono.

“I showed what the basics are about now—t-shirts and jeans. I tweaked the shape, fit, and proportions so that the pieces would be simple but not common,” said Hofer.

“These are ‘bespoke jeans’ and shirts that are luxurious.

A shirt in fine multi-stretch cotton, easily takes up three meters because of its concentric pattern while stretch cotton jeans, whether in croissant shape or drop-crotch, will take 3.5 meters.

The fit and the feel of the fabrics are nothing you can pull out from the malls,” he continued.

From easy to turning up something imaginative—Jun Escario played around with architectural silhouettes and pushed a little more on details: a faux black bird on each of his model’s head.

It was nothing like Lady Gaga, though, as he has been consistent with his love for sophisticated lines.

Of the designers, Protacio seemed to be in the mood for romance.

By the look of his line, he veered into the romantic side of designing—mini dresses with draping and pleating the bodice.

Then, for the finale, Philip Rodriguez gave his feminine signatures and went for designs that a follower may not instantly recognize—black dresses with oversized headpieces, or shall I say, a fresh angle on haute couture.