MANILA, Philippines — If the ongoing New York Fashion Week boasts of speaking models and exotic venues like an immigrant center to advance the plight of immigrants in America, in the Philippines, “community models” or ordinary people on the catwalk are on trend.
In the recent Emoticonic fashion show at Ayala Malls, for example, the petites, the shapely, the scarred, the unshaven, and everything that is what fashion dictates is not "in," ramped down the runway together with conventional six-foot, size two models and social media darlings like Janeena Chan, Adela Mae Marshall, Tricia Santos, Maureen Schrivers, Aryanna Epperson, Jodilly Pendre, LA Aguinaldo, Santino Rosales, Marco Suarez, Claudio Gutierrez, Mauritius Joseph Loosli, and Joshua Desequera.
The highlight of the fashion show series, however, was James Reid’s performance last September 3 in Trinoma. The award-winning singer-actor performed his chart-topping single, “Cool Down.”
Two days before the fashion soiree, James tweeted the fans of his and his love team partner, Nadine Lustre, and asked them to ignore bashers or give them love.
JaDines favor pls? If you see hateful comments about us, don't worry we can handle it. Just ignore it. Or give them love. They need it.
— James Reid (@JayeHanash) September 2, 2017
Like James, Style Origin aims to encourage people to show their true emotions and express these via fashion - because fashion is all about having fun being you.
The fashion show series, co-presented by The Philippine Star to mark The STAR’s 31st anniversary, continues at Market! Market! on September 16 and at Harbor Point on September 17.