PFW: slim's at 50

uh-oh. it's almost midnight and i decided to scroll through facebook before i went to bed and saw all the photos of men on the runway. it was the closing show of philippine fashion week. uh-oh because i actually forgot all about it. sigh... can't blame me. while most working stiffs were going off on their long-weekend holiday (long weekend? what long weekend??), i was in the office closing next friday's issue. so when sunday rolls around, all i want to do is lounge around the house in my jammies doing nothing! and i didn't even get to do that today!! family obligations beckoned!!! so don't blame me if philippine fashion week was the last thing (or actually not at all) on my mind. but i'm so glad i got to catch the last show last night! (late as in it started at 10pm!) it was the slim's at 50 show—slim being the late designer salvacion lim higgins, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the design school she started called slim's. ten designers sent around 6-8 models down the catwalk in their creations inspired by slim's—or maybe they had all graduated from slim's? it wasn't that clear to me. there was cesar gaupo:
ezra santos (the back of every outfit had a surprise):
james reyes:
the late joe salazar:
joey samson:
martin bautista:
michael cinco:
two designers i had never heard of before—erika adona:
and riza bulawan:
but clearly, the standout collection that night, the one that got the most reaction from the audience, was chito vijandre. ohmygod, the collection was gasp-inducing, the impact of the styling was jaw-dropping, and each time a model would walk down, all i heard was ohmygod... and i was one of them! i can't recall the last time i was this excited about a collection:
most people know chito vijandre as one-half of firma in greenbelt 3 (the other half being ricky toledo). but what most people don't know—or at least the "younger generation" (meaning i'm from the older one??)—is that chito used to be a fashion designer. he must have stopped designing in the 80s because i can't recall seeing any show of his when i joined mega magazine back in 1993. the pieces he showed were totally unexpected: the rich brocades, the basically slim silhouette punctuated with protrusions, the combination of colors, prints, and textures, and the styling! oh, how i wish i could dress this way every day!!
i certainly hope this is not the last we see of chito's work as a designer. what he showed last night was refreshing, fun, original, and i would say even personal. it looked like he produced a collection that he liked and from the heart and soul—spring/summer trends be damned! (and yet he was very on-trend.) could this be THE comeback?? chito, please say it is so!