Cebu’s Fashion Highs in August

CEBU, Philippines — With several fashion shows and runway events set to take place in September, Cebu’s fashion circuit treads into the ber months on a high note this year.

But before we dip into the many fashion highs that’re slated to happen this month, let’s look back on fashion events that took place last month – some of Cebu’s fashion highs in August, if you will.

Design by Jan Tiong

Pagpadayon

Seda Ayala Center Cebu celebrated its 5th anniversary in style last August 18 with a grand anniversary gala at the hotel’s Sampaguita Ballroom. Billed “Pagpadayon: Celebrating the Past and Embracing the Future”, a fashion presentation that featured pieces by five up-and-coming designers served as one of the anniversary celebration’s highlights.

Design by Eyla Orais

Each piece was made to embody the five core values of Seda Ayala Center Cebu – leadership, integrity, vision, excellence and malasakit – and was unveiled at the pace of an exceptional five-course dinner.

Collectively, the pieces bore contemporary allusions to the traditional conventions of the terno.

Design by Paco Serafica

They were made by designers affiliated with the Cebu-founded FACET organization, and the runway show largely clinched how a crop of up-and-coming Cebuano designers are keen on integrating aspects of their creative identity into what’s widely considered the Philippines’ national dress.

This aspect to the occasion served as an allusion to the signature progressive shifts that Seda Ayala Center Cebu has and is intent on causing in the metro’s hospitality and accommodation sectors.

The Festival Costumes worn by the Entrants of the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo Festival Queen 2023 Tilt

Design by Pearl Arandia

This year’s Pasigarbo sa Sugbo effectively lived up to its distinction in being the festival of festivals in Cebu Province.

One of its highlights took form in the search for the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo 2023 Festival Queen which, in turn, drew all sights to the creative prowess of Cebuano costumers and crafters who designed the festival costumes of the entrants to the bespoke beauty tilt.

Standout costumes were showcased during the event, but as impressive as they were, there were a few which couldn’t be described as costumes per se, as they could pass as runway-worthy haute couture ensembles.

A balintawak dress-inspired piece designed by Verz Layos worn by Mary May Yonson (Kuyayang Festival, Bogo City) would be a good example, while a terno infused with elements of Victorian Era dresses worn by Rachel Anne Tingal (Lingaw Sadya Festival, Balamban) would be another.

A banig-based dress worn by Kameron Zoe Cameron (Banig Festival, Badian) also drew engaging points in utilizing traditional woven mats as materials for dresses, and a piece designed by Malayka Yamas worn by Kate Monica Conejos (Tubod Festival, Tuburan) also stood out in the way it ambivalently plays the role of a costume and a couture piece that’s reflective of Tuburan’s festival

Underscored in the form of a beautifully crafted terno, fabric voluming and manipulating plays a central role in setting the piece as a mode of costume couture, which, all in all, alludes to how out-of-the box its creative inclinations are.

Though technical issues marred a huge part of this year’s holding of the festival itself, these issues didn’t dampen the sharp design delineations that Cebuano costumers and crafters are capable of. — (FREEMAN)