The new architecture in fashion

When women shop for clothing, we’re looking for that certain, ineffable something that jumps out at us and commands, “Buy me!” It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s love at first sight — you were meant to meet, fated to be together, and buyer’s remorse doesn’t even enter the picture.

The fashion racks at Rustan’s got a dose of that certain something, thanks to designer Jojie Lloren, who was recently hired to be the creative force behind two in-house labels, Jill and Luna.

Lloren, who dresses many of the young, beautiful and fashionable women in the Rustan’s family — Nina Huang, Katrina Lobregat and Crickette Tantoco, among them — brings a haute-couture approach and “jump out at you” edge you rarely find in ready to wear.

“Jojie is one of the foremost Philippine designers today and he’s multi-awarded and extremely talented,” says Anton Huang, executive vice president of Stores Specialists, Inc. “I’ve known his work through my wife, Nina, and through my family and friends for many years.”

Huang had always been really impressed with Lloren’s work, so when he and the Rustan’s team were rethinking their private-label business, Jojie, who began his career by winning the Young Designers Competition in 1998, naturally came to mind.

“We really wanted to reinvigorate it and give it a fresh feel and trained eye in terms of looking after it, and Jojie’s name immediately came up,” Huang says. “We approached him and had discussions with him for a while, and we’re really very happy and very honored that he decided to work with us.”

Lloren was busy juggling the duties of his own line as well as being the Pinoy equivalent of Tim Gunn on the reality show Project Runway Philippines, where he dispenses sage advice to today’s crop of aspiring young designers. (He’s currently wrapping up the second season.)

“Rhoda (Campos-Aldanese of Rustan’s) called and told me they really wanted a designer,” Lloren explains. “Anton’s wife, Nina, who is a client of mine, was so excited and urged me to join. I didn’t want to shortchange them so before agreeing, I thought of it — not only twice — but so many times.”

At Rustan’s, Jill has traditionally been the casual line while Luna is for eveningwear. Huang remembers Jill as being part of Rustan’s Department Store offering as far back as four years ago. “This was the successor of Due, if I’m not mistaken,” he says. “Luna is newer, and had a designer, but Jill only had merchandisers.”

The target market for both labels are young women 23 and above, “so these are the young mothers,” Lloren notes. Given that his singular aesthetic informs both lines, Jill and Luna actually end up complementing one another. Both offer the architectural silhouettes and pin-sharp tailoring Lloren is known for, but in subtle and markedly different ways.

For Luna’s holiday collection, bright swirls of color adorn the necklines and sleeves of simply shaped black crepe dresses, and the stark contrast is striking, to say the least. One mini-dress, for example, features a fuchsia bodice cut on the diagonal against the black, so the effect is that of an LBD emerging from a vivid wall of color.

“The title of the collection is Complex Geometry,” Jojie says. “I merged ’50s fashion and modern architecture, so I made use of electric pleated chiffon for the swirls and sculptural effects of the dresses.”

Offered alongside the glamorous evening dresses are separates, like beaded short-shorts “for the younger set, more mature pieces and others in between,” he adds.

For Jill, Lloren was inspired by Blobitecture, an architectural movement that’s been spawning organic-looking buildings that bulge with wavy forms: “Like the Bird’s Nest in China, that’s Blobitecture — it’s rounded, protruding,” Jojie says.

Thus, you’ll find pieces like a hot pink button-down with long sleeves that bubble out intriguingly at the elbow. “The pieces for Jill have those protruding parts, but I put it on the sleeves only so it would be more figure-friendly,” he says.

Lloren is well aware of what women want to hide and knows how to hide it well, just like the master cutters he’s always looked up to, Cristobal Balenciaga and Christian Dior. You can see Balenciaga in his fondness for spare, sculptural shapes, while Dior’s New Look is echoed in his nipping-in of the waist to achieve a feminine, hourglass form.

He recently rediscovered another architectural designer, France’s “queen of the bias cut,” Madeleine Vionnet, at an exhibit in Paris. “When I saw it I thought, oh, my God, she was really a genius,” Jojie says. “So now she’s one of my inspirations. I’m more into that French couture, French glamour.”

Lloren plans to incorporate his more modern aesthetic into Jill and Luna, but gradually, in a way that pleasantly surprises, never shocks. “I don’t want to alienate the existing clients, so I will slowly inject my designs,” he says. “I want to keep the old clients and get some new ones.”

Whereas before, his clients didn’t like being seen in the same outfit by the same crowd, the economic realities of today dictate a more frugal mindset. “Now they want something that they can wear again, but it would look different by using other accessories,” Jojie says. “They want to use and reuse again.”

Lloren’s thread of Euro chic now weaving its way through Jill and Luna can only bode well for Rustan’s, despite all the setbacks that have hit the retail sector.

“Obviously there was a hiccup, which was the natural calamity that occurred a few weeks back,” says Anton. “Those were a couple of difficult weeks and very tragic. But I’m thankful the weekend before last was already a normal weekend. The tragedy is still fresh in everyone’s minds, but everyone’s moving on with their lives at this point. It is the holiday season, and it’s a very important aspect of Philippine culture, so I think it’ll turn out to be okay.”

“This year is a very good year for us,” he continues. “From the perspective of the department store, the business as a whole is actually doing quite well. Our cosmetics business is strong, our men’s business is improving a great deal, our home has always been stable, and our ladies’ apparel business has been growing.”

Jojie wants his new fashion babies to be aspirational for all types of women, for them to see it not just as special-occasion wear but as daily essentials: “I want both Jill and Luna to be must-haves in a Filipino woman’s wardrobe,” he declares.

Anton smiles, concurring, “Jojie will provide a great service in terms of creativity to our product offering. We know he has a huge customer following, and they will come to the stores and want to see Jill, want to see Luna, and am sure commercially it will be a huge success.”

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Jojie Lloren will present his new collections for Jill and Luna on Nov. 12 at The Gallerie in Rustan’s Makati.