Anna of a Thousand Sighs

Have things changed so much in seven years?

When I first interviewed Anna Bayle in 1998 at a cozy cafe a block away from her pad on No. 1 Fifth Avenue, she was two years into what appeared to be a fairy-tale marriage solemnized at Villa Escudero in Quezon Province, capping a "tornado, not just whirlwind, courtship" that started with a chance encounter at Giraffe in Manila. The good-looking guy was Simon Spence from New Zealand. He courted Anna with a passion. They ended up at the altar six weeks after they met.

Barely two years later, Anna gave birth to Callum. She was five years into retirement, devoting her time to being plain housewife. At that time, she had just launched a line of lipsticks, simply named Anna Bayle. Even on the streets of New York, on our way from her pad to the cafe and then to the Washington Square Park nearby where we had a pictorial, Anna walked with the famous catwalk that drew a thousand sighs on the ramp from Europe to America. She was dressed very simply, without any makeup.

At 5’10" and beautifully brown (kayumangging kaligatan), Anna was the favorite model of top designers who included YSL, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Valentino, Gianfranco Ferre, Emanuel Ungaro, Renata Balestra, Rocco Barocco, Lanvin, Nina Ricci, Pierre Cardin, Jacqueline de Ribes, Lancetti, ETC, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Azzedine Alaia, Karl Lagerfeld, Sonia Rykiel, Gianni Versace, Issey Miyake, Kenzo, Angelo Tarlazzi, Dorothy Bis, Herve Leger, Byblos, Mila Schon, Vivienne Westwood, Laura Biagiotti and many others.

Have things really changed in seven years?

So much and yet not much.

Last month, Conversations had a reunion with Anna who still lives in the same address. With me were New York-based The Filipino Reporter staffers Raoul Tidalgo and Edmund Silvestre who arranged the visit. Anna looked the same as she did seven years earlier. Her son Callum has grown up to be a handsome boy. There are only the two of them now in the house. Anna and Simon separated a few years ago. Anna’s line of lipsticks is doing well. Nothing much has changed, really.

She welcomed us with a bottle of champagne. After the pictorial, we insisted that she play the piano. But she smilingly refused to give us, no matter if Raoul prodded her, a sample of her famous catwalk. And then it was nostalgia time as we went over piles of albums that showed Anna at her prime. How we sighed over photos of Anna on the covers of top fashion magazines, shining on her own beside fair-complexioned models.

We didn’t talk about her failed marriage (what for?) and concentrated on her life in The Big Apple and how she’s coping as a single mom.

How are you as a mom?

"Oh, I’m great – according to my son!"

Are you a single mom now?

"Yes, I am."

Oh, since when?

"Ahhh...Since six years ago."

You were newly-married the last time I talked to you. You mind if I ask what happened since then?

"You know, marriage is great if it works. If it doesn’t, it’s hell!"

How’s life as a single mom?

"There are advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you make decisions for yourself and for your child by yourself. You don’t have to argue with somebody. The disadvantage is, of course, it’s isolating. You get double the problem. I’m both mother and father to my son; I play two roles and it’s a balancing act because most of the time fathers are the strict ones and mothers are the nurturing ones. So I go from strict to nurturing, back and forth."

Is Callum’s father doing his obligation and responsibility as a father?

"He calls my son every now and then but I’m a single mom all the way."

Does Callum go to school?

"Yeah. He’s in grade school in one of the best schools here in New York City. It’s a seminary, one of the top three academically."

Describe a day in your life...

"You know, the great thing about New York is that everything is just around the corner, within walking distance from my home. I live in the best possible address in New York. Callum’s school is just a few blocks away. A school bus picks him up and drops him right in front of this building."

So you do the household chores yourself just like most everybody.

"Well, I have a housekeeper, a Filipina whose name is Vicky. She’s retired and she cooks for us. Callum loves her cooking! The three of us are kind of making bahay-bahayan, you know."

You’re now completely a New Yorker. Don’t you miss the Philippines?

"We were just there two Christmases ago. I go to the Philippines as often as I can. I miss the food and my friends."

Aside from mothering, what are you busy with?

"Actually, I do some ‘consulting’ work for models, would-be models and beauty queens. I train them."

Oh, giving back what you have learned.

"I enjoy it. It’s a challenge for me. I’ve been into it only recently, wala pang one year."

What happened to your lipstick line?

"It’s still going on. I distribute my lipsticks to boutiques all over the United States."

Don’t you miss modeling?

"Not really. But I miss the good clothes."

I’m sure you have a lot in your cabinet.

"Not as many as I used to. I mean, it’s different. Your life changes radically when you’re a mom. I’d rather run around with my son than keep on walking on the ramp."

Aside from good clothes, what else do you miss about modeling?

"Being around with very creative people, like Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, Valentino and all of them. They’re funny and great to be around with. I miss their company. And also, the traveling."

So after all the traveling and the modeling and having the best of everything, has the basic Anna Bayle remained intact?

"Come to think of it, I’m still the way I was more than two decades ago. I am still Pinoy at heart, a Panggalatok through and through (from Pangasinan). Many things have happened to me, but nothing in me has really changed. I guess a person doesn’t really change. She remains what she really is."

Your prime lasted for more than 20 years, ‘no? You were discovered after you finished runner-up to Suzanne Gonzalez in the 1975 Miss Republic of the Philippines contest, right?

"I was in college at that time (A scholar at UP, after graduating also a scholar from Philippine Science High School.–RFL) and modeling at the same time. I was taking up Pre-Med but I never got to Medicine Proper because I got stuck in modeling. We were dissecting frogs and then horses and we were supposed to start dissecting human cadavers. I said, ‘Oh no, ayoko na!’"

How did you get into modeling?

"I modeled for the young designers then – Chito Vijandre, Larrie Leviste, etc. – in their shows at the Philippine Village Hotel. From there, I moved to Hyatt where I modeled for Joe Salazar. Oh, how I loved that guy!"

How did you get into the international fashion scene?

"I was working for a while in Manila, with Auggie Cordero who’s very close to me. I’m constantly in touch with him. He’s my mentor, the one who was pushing me. I got my big break in Hong Kong where I lived for a while, with Auggie’s group. Every year they had this gala show where they hired big-name models from around the world. Mga stars talaga, like Billy Blair, Jerry Hall and others. Now, the star model fell down the stairs during the rehearsals and she broke her leg. I was shooting in Macao then. One of the organizers saw me and asked if I could replace the star model. ‘Why not,’ I said."

Were you the only Asian on that show?

"Most of the models were Chinese but six of the star models were dark girls, including the one who quit. So they wanted a dark model as replacement. I guess I was at the right place at the right time. Somebody must have told one of the organizers, ‘There’s a girl in Hong Kong who’s dark and who can walk. Find her!’ And she found me."

What happened after the Hong Kong show?

"Well, there was a big press conference and the next day, my pictures were on the front pages of the Hong Kong newspapers. After that gala show, I told myself, ‘You could do it!’ So I went for it."

Next stop, Elite Modeling Agency (which holds the annual Look of the Year search).

"I told Auggie, ‘I want to try my luck in New York.’ He said, ‘Go, go, go!’ He was always there behind me."

Was it hard breaking into the New York fashion scene? The competition must have been tough.

"It was kind of hard. The stars then were Renee Russo (who became a Hollywood actress), Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley and others. So I decided to start in Paris first. Thank God naman I made it there. When I went back to New York, ako na ang star."

How long were you in Paris?

"I lived there for four years. My first show in Europe was for Thierry Mugler. It was the biggest show there at that time. Nagustuhan niya ako. He told me, ‘You know, I’m gonna make you a star, so listen to every single thing I say.’ He took me under his wing. He would tell me, ‘Don’t you ever wear this, don’t you ever wear that.’ Before long, I was being featured on the cover of fashion magazines – WWD (Women’s Wear Daily), etc. I was a runway model and I can claim that I had the most number of pictures on the covers of fashion dailies."

You had a certain kind of walk that was distinctly yours – the Anna Bayle catwalk. You seemed to glide on the ramp, as if your feet were not touching the floor, as if you were floating.

(Laughs) "I call it my batis walk. Di ba ‘yung mga labandera natin sa batis, they look so graceful when they walk while balancing a basinful of labada on their heads? I also copied the gracefulness of the singkil dancers. They are so poised, so gracious. When everybody else was making pabongga on the ramp, I would resort to my batis-singkil style and it worked. Hindi nila alam ‘yon! I succeeded not because I tried to copy anybody else but because I stuck to being myself. I would psyche myself, ‘Everybody is beautiful but hey, maganda ka rin in your own right.’ That gave me the encouragement and the inspiration that I needed."

How long have you been in retirement?

"Oh my God, 12 years! Friends have been asking me to do their ’50th anniversary’ shows – you know, for Christian Dior, Valentino, Mugler – and I said, ‘No.’ I have had enough of modeling, you know. My farewell show was for Christian Lacroix. That was it. I didn’t want to be 50 and still modeling. I wanted to quit while I was on top."

What little tip can you give aspiring models?

"Be yourself, be proud that you are Filipina, feel beautiful!"

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