We are the future

CEBU, Philippines - Starting today, three Fridays of November are devoted to The Freeman Lifestyle’s extensive coverage of The Philippine Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2014 in Manila, the delivery room where we gather to welcome the birth of new things.

The Strong Shall Live, we call it: a moniker that best describes all the key trends emerging from over 30 fashion designers and labels in the country.

Thanks to General Manager Melandro Mendoza and Executive Editor Marlinda Angbetic Tan who have stayed faithful to the team’s objectives. After all, Fashion Weeks around the world (New York, Paris, Milan) are the heart of fashion journalism.

As much as I am tempted to configure our pages into a photo album of all participants—even more tempting since my eyes were fed with beautiful clothes, my spirit soaring with optimism about the industry’s business capital—I’ve condensed them according to how everyone should dissect fashion shows.

Expect these three subjects to appear this month:

a.         Colors (today): What will be Summer’s strongest colors?

b.         Men (Nov. 15): Can they wear box t-shirt now?

c.         Silhouettes, inspiration, beauty (Nov. 22): Are the cuts now unforgiving, tight-fitting pieces?

Review the collections of the Cebuanos—Dexter Alazas, Yvonne Quisumbing, Vania Romoff, Harley Ruedas, and Philipp Tampus—who thrilled the audience.

Arriving from the shows, I went home with a new found philosophy: Every time you spend a single cent of thought in front of your closet, you become a fashion editor.

You’re taking control of how you should look. It’s the power of presenting yourself to the world; it’s the first line of communication before you even start to utter words.

In the front rows, I was seated with magazine editors and bloggers who barely spoke to each other. Yet still, what made us familial is co-existing harmoniously in a world without dress codes. Whatever we wore—old jeans or Oscar dela Renta—it always fitted in.

I embrace both fad icons and victims. I do not suggest that you wear exactly what you see here. We only tell you about the evolution—a springboard, a buffet of options.

But I hope you will be inspired to spruce up your wardrobe with hints of trends, combined with your own taste.

Also, once you place your order with any Filipino designers, you’re actually banking profit into the industry: more jobs for seamstresses and tailors and another platform for young players.

I believe by strengthening media exposure, we market Filipino products, which will commence a new wave of positive domino effect.

Let us begin here.