Girls in LBD's

joy onglatco, tricia gullas

What did Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s wear at the opening scene of said movie? This garment was designed by Hubert de Givenchy and accessorized with pearls. It is the Little Black Dress of course.

agnes heuttel, arcy gayatin

Wallis Warfield Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, was also known to own several and said much in praise of the dress declaring, “When a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place.” Even the French folk icon, Edith Piaf, consistently performed in a black sheath dress throughout her career and was nicknamed “little black sparrow” for doing so. It was acknowledged that the dress made the audiences focus more on Piaf's singing and less on her appearance.

tess lampert, lani osmena

The Little Black Dress, an evening or cocktail dress, cut simply and often with a short skirt, was originally made popular in the 1920s by the fashion designer Coco Chanel when she published a picture of a short, simple black dress in Vogue. It was calf-length, straight, and decorated only by a few diagonal lines. Vogue called it “Chanel’s Ford.” It was intended by Chanel to be long lasting, versatile, affordable, and accessible to the widest market possible and in a neutral color. Its continued ubiquity is such that many refer to it by the abbreviation LBD.

june alegrado, luisa robinson

The Little Black Dress is considered essential to a complete wardrobe by many women and fashion observers: "rule of fashion" now is that every woman should own a simple, elegant black dress that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. A staple of the wardrobe for years, the style of the little black dress, ideally, is as simple as possible: a short black dress that is too clearly part of a trend would not qualify because it would soon appear dated.

this jotter, marco protacio

Appearing fashionably dated, one summer more, was your style jotter. Thus, when Marco Protacio, Waterfront Hotel’s style savvy General Manager, hosted impromptu dinner to celebrate friendship, I did not hesitate to call on my favorite girl friends for a night of gustatory fun and stylish, light chatter.

joy onglatco in helix dress, shagreen cuffs and menudier

I chanced upon photos of my favorite dresses and here’s one from my helix line. I made this for my friend Joy Onglatco who has recently inspired me to work on a fashion illustrations exhibit which i will be putting up in November.

full -scale muslin (back detail)

I constructed this dress using the drape method, starting the drape process on a half scale draping form which i had specifically made, then working on a full scale form. I carefully calculated the folds, building up the stiffness of the fabric to maximize its hand and fall then made the actual dress in taffeta and refitted it on Joy. The result, as you can see, is subtly sculptural.

half-scale muslin

I sketched Joy in a nocturnal blue taffeta gown similar to this one. It was for a designer-muse shoot for Metro Society magazine. The sketch did not get published with our photo but provided the incipient idea for a series of illustrations.

I haven't had a one-man show since 2000. back then, i did Soul Light Portraits--portrait abstractions. i used color to convey the feelings and thoughts that each of my subjects inspired while meditating and the resulting images were well-received; almost all the hue-infused paintings sold.

This time, i'm going to try to capture the style of each of my fifteen sitters and hopefully put smiles not just on their faces but on the viewers as well.