Art Fashion and its Filipino in-house designer

CEBU, Philippines - Clothes can speak highly or poorly of a person. It can either make or break the wearer.

That's why New Fashion Tailoring LLC in Abu Dhabi has always observed religiously the standards it has set, so discriminating customers would only get the best – in materials, accessories, fitting, and finished products.

Philippine-born haute couture specialist Aldwin Guardiana Ornopia is on top of handling client concerns through his set of designers. He makes sure the artisans will continue to stick to the blueprint of excellence the tailoring shop has been known for since 1968.

Initially, it was a men's shop ran as a family enterprise, started of course by the patriarch of the house – Mushtaq Ahmed Abbasi.

New Fashion started catering exclusively for men's garments like kandura, pants, shirts, and coasts. In United Arab Emirates, the kandura is the national dress for males. This is the long white cloak also referred to as a dishdash.

In 1985, the tailoring shop underwent a reinvention of sorts. It was named as Art Fashion Tailoring LLC, which has since catered to include women and children. So now, the shop sews not only kanduras but abayas, shelas, jalabiyas, and kid's habiliments, as well.

Abayas are women's traditional dress. This is that long, flowing black gown, while shelas are head coverings. Jalabiyas are colorful flowing gowns worn in special occasions like weddings.

The making of haute couture dresses, party outfits, and wedding gowns is a young venture, yet it has picked up pretty well with more open ideas at hand and the acceptance as well for the community to evolve. In fact, because of the ever-growing demand for haute couture garments and the ability of the UAE community to adapt to an east-meets-west-like convergence in fashion ideas, an annex shop named Samari Fashion Tailoring LLC was started in 1992. This now specializes in the innovations introduced into the materials and prints of the shelas and abayas.

Two years ago, Art Fashion Tailoring LLC was officially renamed Art Fashion Tailoring Company LLC, giving high regard to human resources essential in driving the firm to a new level of success.

And yes, like most successful ventures, there always is a Filipino behind and "in" it, as in-house fashion designer, in this case.

Through Ornopia's penchant for blowing up the femininity and romanticism in each haute couture piece, it can be told that indeed the house has moved on to adopting changes in technology, looking forward to surpass the quality of service offered in four decades; to extend beyond the reach - not only in the Gulf countries but on a global scale.

This move has been achieved with ease as there is the touch of that Filipino ingenuity. Ornopia's works are described to be "elaborate and embellished with beautiful accents of silk, tulles, laces, delicate crystals and beads."

Materials are sourced from France and Italy, great names in the fashion industry; which means a client can never go wrong at Art Fashion and can never go less.

Like most artists, Ornopia has established this deep relationship with his canvas (the drawing board) and palette (the textile itself), the creation turns out to be vibrant without being too loud. A one-liner had it that Ornopia's designs "speak overall class."

His passion led him to a full-length feature story in Illustrado, the magazine for international Filipino designers whose creations are said to be "mind blowing."

The trust of the sheika (royal family) is a feather to Ornopia's cap. His works have endeared members of the family to giving their full-fledged support to Art Fashion when it comes to their needs for shelas, abayas, and jalabiyas. Because of this, orders have expanded to include customized uniforms and logos for big schools and companies in Abu Dhabi that have also seen the potential of the house to feed the hunger pangs for being stylish, modish, and conforming to fashion trends.

Another detail worth-noticing is Art Fashion's elegant, swanky, vogue method of putting a great deal of work on embroidery – a skillful, tangible evidence of what it's like to labor with much love. (FREEMAN)