Couture Culture

CEBU, Philippines - With brilliantly cut chiffon and yards and yards of that fabric, couturier Cary Santiago was shooting for “modern elegance.” In his recent whopping success for Samsung Metrowear Bridal, his cleverest conceit was an unexpected play between color and texture: all muted shades with nary a vibrant color. For example, his first face greeted the audience in a 50s inspired tutu dress, but when she turned and headed back up the runway to the tune of the Swan Lake theme, she was followed by fabulously diverse silhouetted yet pulled thru collection in epic proportions. And yes, all of them had plisse details.

Focusing on the intricacy of these silhouettes and textures, Santiago kept bead decoration nil, indulging mainly in pleats of various forms and sizes on the pretty (if too extravagant and laborious) chiffon frocks. There were accordion pleats, cartridge pleats, fluted pleats, Fortuny pleats, honeycomb pleats, knife pleats, organ pleats, rolled pleats and Watteau pleats. All pieces of the 35 bridal and formal collection were standouts on their own and as a whole. Personally I think nothing was as pretty as the wood-grain silk chiffon he draped and swagged into a standout gown with the shoulders sprouting floralia of the same fabrication that cascaded into the bodice, sparse yet luxuriant in quantity. And the statuesque model Ria Bolivar was trailing a waft of chiffon.

Archi-textural draping and pleating was the focus, be it of a one-shoulder silk dress, a goddess gown, or bouffant cathedral bridal gown that had veteran model Marina Benipayo floating (yes, she just floated on the vinyl runway) as Tchaikovsky’s most famous composition crescendo-ed to a finale. Silhouetted against the Swan Lake inspired backdrop complete with a setting sun, she came to a full stop. It was all done more dramatically, it was like watching an epic movie. Calculated pandemonium ensued as the invited select guests erupted into a thunderous applause! Bravissimo! (THE FREEMAN)