MANILA, Philippines - Picture this: More than 50 male models—all picture-perfect, all gifted with Olympus-worthy DNA. Thirteen spring-summer collections by select Filipino designers. And the whole of the Rigodon Ballroom of The Peninsula Manila with a pack of more than 100 fashion industry stalwarts, all eyes on the runway with glasses of wine and bottles of Wilkins Pure.
Staging an all-male fashion show doesn’t get any more chaotic than this. But your efforts — months of design sketches, stage propositions, and model go-sees — certainly translate into rewards.
From the get-go, when the idea was still in its scariest form—written on a piece of paper in black by my co-organizers in a dinner meeting—one thing we’re sure is that a men’s show in the Philippine Fashion Ball is the kind of new direction we are raring to take. PR mogul Keren Pascual and I, together with director extraordinaire Ariel Lozada, all combined what for us would be a hit. We grabbed a bite and formed a creative army to help us with this vision.
It seemed to me like an endless affair with scissors, tape measures and body makeup. The next thing I knew is that the PFB has made an impact in its third year. Hard work is an understatement, of course. But did we get tired from doing it all? I doubt that.