Valentino's Philippine Screening

It’s been months, but success of the Valentino screenings in Manila, Davao, and Cebu lingers. The denizens of Manila’s fashionable set came in full force to watch the film of iconic Valentino. First to arrive at the pre-show cocktails was no less than national Artist for Fashion Design, Pitoy Moreno a Philippine fashion icon himself.

To give you a backgrounder, Pitoy’s spectacular career that has reached its golden years, has made an indelible mark in fashion industry. The beautiful embroidery, exquisite beadwork, and luxurious hand paintings of his highly praised collections have been toured around the globe: from Malaysia to Moscow, Japan to Paris and Bangkok to Barcelona.

Ramon Valera, the first Filipino fashion designer to be given the recognition of National Artist, created the butterfly sleeves of the Terno today, but it is Pitoy Moreno who made the country proud with his introduction of Filipiniana silhouettes and styles, and the words jusi, piña and lepanto to mainstream fashion through his international shows and clientele. 

 if i

…were seated at an intimate dinner for eight hosted by the president’s designer, would I mince words at how ghastly one lady looked at fashion magazine’s event in Manila? 

Filippo's Iberian Beauties

fiona king

At the show for the World Tourism Organization held at the Atrium of the Northwing SM City Cebu, The Fashion Council of Cebu presented collections inspired by cultures that have become part of Filipino heritage. Cary Santiago and this jotter opened the show with Indo-Malay influenced collections, Arcy Gayatin and Albert Arriba showed American influenced clothes, Jun Escario and Jojo Romoff showed Chinese influenced designs while Felix Yu ended the show with a collection of present day Filipiniana dresses.

tasseled rhumba dress 

Everyone showed what's elegant and beautifully Filipino, most cohesive and memorable however, were the Spanish influenced clothes presented by Philip Rodriguez. There was a white toreador jacket in moiré embellished with black guipure lace appliqué that was so chic; a black gown with tasseled sleeves and red rose embroidery that reeked of romance and a silk organdy shirt with puffed and book-leaf sleeves worn with unmatched style by the elegant Fiona King.

toreador look

“I was thinking of Chinese/Spanish Mestizas of the past and how they would dress up today. The look is Hispanic, elaborated with fine details, which is a rich mixture east and west.  And as you can see, they’re totally wearable for big parties and in tune with the global trends today,” Rodriguez reveals.

 rose embroidered dress

cuisine+couture

haute cuisine plus haute couture happens tonight and I stole some shots of the clothes which will be unveiled later...

 

your blogger worked with the chefs of waterfront cebu city hotel to come up with a course that will emulate the elegantly austere style of Balenciaga. Other participating designers are jun escario doing an yves saint laurent soup, arcy gayatin doing an interpretation of coco chanel purse as pie, philip Rodriguez doing a valentino sorbet, albert arriba doing the christian dior main course and cary santiago doing a christian lacroix inspired dessert.

keeping fingers crossed,i'm hoping the gourmands will love the taste as well as the presentation of the food.