The fashion plate is a proud mom

Gretchen Barretto is visibly pleased.

"This past year," Gretchen gushes about her eight-year-old daughter Dominique, "she really got out of her shell. She’d say, ‘I’m gonna be an actress! I’m gonna be a singer! I’m gonna be everything’!" Now, seeing Dom (as Gretchen calls Dominique) gamely modeling Plains & Prints’ latest collection alongside her, Gretchen is even more thrilled.

"I didn’t even ask her to pose," Gretchen relates. "She was the one who told me to tell Roxanne (Farillas, the moving force behind Plains & Prints) that she wanted to pose if we had a pictorial. So this is the very first time Dom is coming out in a pictorial."

Gretchen adds that Dom, who has been taking painting lessons, will have an art exhibit before the year is over.

If there’s one thing the blooming young lady has inherited from her mom, it is her love for dressing up.

"Dominique chooses her own clothes," Gretchen relates. "She’s got her own fashion style. In the beginning we’d fight a lot because when she was young I’d want her to dress in a certain way; I wanted her to be cute but she wanted to wear a different outfit. Until her dad (Tonyboy Cojuangco) told me, ‘You have to let her be because she has to develop her own style.’ So sometimes you’d see her not so nice, sometimes you’d see her so cute. But she’s still young, she makes mistakes, so I just let her be. Except sometimes she wants to wear boots and I tell her it’s so hot here in the Philippines! She feels kasi that wearing boots is dressy."

One then asks Dom, who chats and giggles animatedly with two girl friends in between takes, if she is enjoying herself during the pictorial. Though Dom sheepishly nods her head, there’s no denying the sparkle in her eyes when she is asked to choose which outfits she prefers to wear. Dom clearly knows what she wants even at her young age.

One tells Gretchen that she seems so happy for her daughter and she replies, "Siyempre naman, I’m her mom." We ask Gretchen if Dom’s dad will allow his daughter to pursue her interests in performing or modeling, if ever, and Gretchen replies with a guffaw, "Of course, basta si Dom. Basta wag lang akong sapawan!" ("As long as she does not upstage me!")

Upstaging Gretchen Barretto, of course, will likely pose a challenge to anyone, fashion-wise. Considered as one of showbiz’s best dressers, Gretchen continues to make heads turn especially during awards nights when she invariably makes grand entrances with show-stopping gowns and jewelry.

"How do I make a grand entrance? I just enter and it’s grand already!" Gretchen says in jest. Kidding aside, however, one tends to agree that there is truth in this statement.

"Humbly speaking," Gretchen elaborates, "it’s not just the outfit or the jewelry you wear – it’s the attitude, the confidence you have in yourself. I’ve been retired for almost nine years from showbiz and the fact that I’m still invited to awards nights makes me so happy."

Roxanne Farillas paraphrases Gretchen’s take on making a grand entrance by explaining, "When you see Gretchen, she catches your attention. When she walks into a room, mapapatingin ka whether you’re a man or a woman. You just have to see her face and what she’s wearing. And she carries herself really well which is really important; her presence is very strong. She has a very good fashion sense. That’s why when we planned to do marketing and advertising, I told my husband Erickson that if we’re going to invest so much, I only want Gretchen because yung iba pretty pero walang dating."

For all her reputation as a fashion plate, however, Gretchen says she never intentionally aims to become one.

"I never thought of ‘being fashionable’," she explains. "It was never in my head. I don’t think, ‘I’m going to this place to be fashionable.’ I just dress how I feel for the moment. That’s just how it goes. But it’s my passion to look good. I cannot deny that. I just want to look right all the time."

While she says she is an "everything person," someone who can be comfortable wearing jeans as she can be wearing gowns, as far as the latter is concerned, Gretchen says, "I’ll go for Inno Sotto without thinking twice. His outfits always stand out in a crowd even if there are 100 stars or a hundred different colors. He can go simple or not so simple. I just feel so good in his outfits."

Still, Gretchen does admit to having fashion do’s and don’t’s.

Here are some of her do’s:

• "Keep things simple. I’m more of a classic dresser. I’d go for the clean lines all the time. I also try not to overdo things."

• "You should know what fits you. Know what you should flaunt and what you should hide. Use what fits, not what’s uso."

• "Be particular about the bagsak. How the outfit falls on your body will matter a lot."

• "Do dress appropriately for our weather. I would never dress winter-like in our country when it’s really so hot. Even when there’s a storm, people think they can dress wintery – they wear boots, long coats."

• "Do wear prints during summer when it’s so nice to wear white pants with a printed top."

And her don’t’s:

• "I wouldn’t wear a watch with a gown. I wouldn’t make that mistake. That’s my super no-no."

• "I wouldn’t wear a ribbon on my hair. I think ribbons are for gifts!"

• "Don’t always look the same; that’s boring. I don’t like anything that’s the same; it has to vary – in cut, in color – all the time."

• "Don’t be brand-conscious. Hindi naman porke branded siya, maganda. There are brands that won’t fit you."

• "Never try hard. Some people want to put everything in themselves. They want more makeup, more accessories – lalong masisira. I’ve always believed that less is more."

"How would I like to be remembered as a fashion icon?" Gretchen asks. "For being simple, not overdoing things, for using clean, nice and simple lines."

Gretchen soon bids everyone in the room goodbye, for she has set aside the rest of the afternoon for a family day with Dominique and Tonyboy. This fashion plate, after all, is first and foremost a mom. –With Jerry Donato

(There are now two new Plains & Prints stores – in Alabang Town Center and SM Bacoor). (E-mail the author at annmondo@yahoo.com)