Recently, Ben Chan and the rest of the Bench family– Miguel Pastor, Bryan Lim, Christine Lim, Jojo Liamzon – staged a Bench Body underwear show in Shanghai. Shanghai is the New York of the East, but even then, the audience was titillated to the max.
We were taken by shuttle to the Shanghai Xinzha Warehouse, along the Suzhou Creek. This area is full of old warehouses and buildings, but is now being modernized, complete with hip bars and restaurants. It reminded me of Soho. We walked along the promenade – like following a red brick road – till the warehouse. From afar you could see where the show was going to be held. The intensely red Bench doorway immediately stood out from the drab walls of everything else.
Once we walked through, we were met by the ushers in red, who served us the signature Red Drink. As we stood around cocktails in hand, I met some members of the Shanghai diplomatic community: Maria Lourdes Ramiro Lopez, assistant secretary of the Office of the United Nations and International Organizations of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Jose Chan-Gonzaga, David Chien, Lim Bee Furn and Lee Cheor Pharn of the Singapore consulate; Indian consulate B. Vanlalvawna of India, Cathy Xie and Marshall Louis Alferez of the Philippine Embassy.
I also ran into a lot of people from the Shanghai travel and hotel industry. From the Sheraton, there were Christopher Chung and Elvira Velasquez, Denise Molintas of the Hilton,Teresa Tan of PAL, Bonnie Limketkai, and from Portman Ritz-Carlton were Michele Kwan, Raymund Chew, and Ivy Kwan.
Of course, mingling with the press is what I do best, so I made the acquaintance with the local media personalities of Shanghai: Janette Ong of Bloomberg; Pan Xinhua of Xin Min Evening News; Xu Li, Xu Jianmin and Atsuko Okawara of the Shanghai Walker; Yu Lei and Yang Yu of the Shanghai Tatler; Liu Zheng of the Traveller; Ling Yun of Traveling Scope; Iv Jun of Orient TV; Su Su and Han Bo of An Jia Magazine; Graham Thompson of BizShanghai; Gu Chun of People Daily; Tang Qinhua of Travel Times; Chen Li of Life Weekly; Yang Shiqi of My City; Jamil Anderlini of Sino Media; Mike Cole and Nick Britton of That’s Shanghai; He Tao and Gao Ping of Shanghai Weekly; and Max Wang, Robert Deng and Qiao Zhengyue of Shanghai Daily.
Perhaps the Shanghai crowd had never seen as much skin and style flagrantly paraded down a catwalk before – or maybe not put together with such sensuality or panache. Fashion show genius Ariel Lozada directed the entire show, which was styled by fashion designers extraordinaire Patrice Ramos-Diaz and Rhett Eala. Racy red and sexy black were the main colors for the evening, with a dash of cool white. Tanks, thongs, boxers, briefs and bras made their way up and down the catwalk, beautifully highlighted on the gorgeous bodies of Philippine-based hunks Jon Hall and Brent Javier, and FHM babe and screen goddess Francine Prieto; as well as the rest of the bold and beautiful set of models led by Gary Dulatas, Alvin Abelardo, Ezra Freeland, Triain Vasille, Govinda Lloyd, Melissa Frye, Kirsten Shiells, Kate Baesa and Georgette Nepomuceno. Shanghai also sent its own catwalkers: Li Xue, Ni Ming Jie, Song Jia Mei, Yu Yao and Zhao Na; and for the men, Keahi, Zhao Jun and Zheng Da Peng.
As grand finale, Paris-based Chinese supermodel and Bench endorser Lu Yen walked down the catwalk in her favorite Bench outfit, took the hand of Ben Chan and led him onstage for a bow. This brought the house down – everyone getting up for a standing ovation.
After the show, everyone was so heated up, it was only right to stay around and party. The warehouse reminded me of my warehouse party days – and I suppose everyone in my era felt the same way. It was an overflow of both China’s who’s who crowd and fine champagne – a perfect ending to the Bench Body extravaganza.
I look forward to the time when Bench will not only have a flagship store in Shanghai, but will actually be the country’s flagship brand around the world.