Friday, July 11, 2008 Rock, Baby, Rock By Clint Holton P. Potestas
WHEN the "rock" gets tough, the glam gets going. One young designer combines two opposite flavors in honor of the Queen of Pop.
In fashion, "rock" is recognized as one of the most rebellious evolutions. It has a wide variation of constructions: multi-colored to metallic, skinny jeans to fishnets, conservative to eclectic.
Glamour or glam, on the other hand, subdues the rebellion. It maintains the feminine and softer delivery of both the construction and the materials.
And when the Queen of Pop, Madonna, declared Viva Glam, she meant everything that sparkles. Considered as the safest style, glam can be any woman’s best buddy since it does not compete with the wearer (no wonder why diamonds are forever — glamorous).
Rock and glam may collide in themes, but fashion designer Carl Miñoza has managed to meet both ends, so to say, in his latest collection.
Glamrock, he adds, is the convergence of the two opposing techniques
“My inspiration in this collection is the terno-terno, Madonna’s glamor, and those women who love to express themselves in the way they dress, unafraid of wearing something that can deviate attention,” explains Miñoza. “(My designs are) futuristic, uncanny, yet, wearable.”
In our local tongue, terno refers to the detail matching of clothes and accessories, aside from the dress with butterfly sleeves. Let’s borrow from Heidi Klum: “The ‘matchy matchy’ outfits.”
“For me, Madonna is a paragon of what glamrock is since not all people (can) see the deep beauty of glamour. She can stand alone no matter how deviant she is in the eyes of ordinary people,” he continues.
For Miñoza, glamrock has the combination of free styling and flamboyance. A fashionista can determine its graceful entrance when there are striking colors, metallic skinny jeans, misery shrugs, fishnets, and pointed shoes. These are the trademarks of the famous fusion.
Contributing to its “shock value,” colors are also mixed in light to dark, the designer’s take on his favorite colors.
The empire silhouettes are dominantly used to emphasize the fluidity (or the flow) of the fabric and design. Though he follows a cohesive pattern in his collection, Miñoza defies some pieces, and instead, obeys his creativity.
He reconstructed and distressed sheered pleats, shrugs, skirts, and tops. “I let the cloth speak for itself,” he says. “Fashion is eclectic.”
Fabrics can also be his major inspiration. The best materials that fit his concepts are silk taffeta, stretched fabrics, and velvet.
“Every fashion designer has his own identity. Since I am a young designer, I keep on inventing, experimenting, and reading magazines for me to abreast on fashion; and sometimes, I ask my mentors, Marlowe Dacules and Ray Kuan.”
Fashion remains to be unpredictable: never say “never” for it might be where life’s greatest ironies lie. Carl Miñoza has already proven that.
