MANILA, Philippines - Joey Samson was the picture of calm backstage demeanor, minutes before guests started arriving to celebrate his latest collection and party with YStyle at the SMX Convention Center in SM Aura last Monday. If anyone was frantic at all, it didn’t show, maybe because the weeks that preceded the event had filtered all the chaos and left us a little bit glazed. While Bea Ledesma, Cai Subijano and our super intern Patty Andamo were getting ready for the show, Joey’s models were making origami hearts and playing a variety of charades with the makeup team, while the rest of the crew were checking out the installations. It was the proverbial calm before the storm, which lasted for a good 15 minutes. After that, it was on.
The night was thick with the spirit of collaboration as guests from every circle in fashion mingled amid a backdrop of art installations inspired by various themes. An installation created by RabbitHole Creatives for Havaianas greeted guests at the first stop of the purposely maze-like layout. White flip-flops intertwined with lighting fixtures provided great contrast against the black confetti walls, as well as provided a nice backdrop for their first of many Instagram photos taken that night. Inside, the lights were dimmed to set the mood for Tattoo’s video installation by Mimi Sanson-Viola. Inspired by the concepts of speed and mobility, Sanson-Viola shot the length of the city –– guerrilla style, just like Celine Lopez and Audrey Carpio show the first YStyle editorial in 2003 –– aboard the MRT. The resulting video provided a reflection of modern life, and of course, a nice spot to take silhouette selfies.
Zact’s glow-in-the-dark butterflies were a hit as well, and the bathtub inside their booth, the most-photographed bathtub of all time. The space, designed and created by RabbitHole Creatives and Sanson-Viola, was a commentary on beauty and its fleeting, demanding nature that, just like the space, cannot be ignored.
YStyle’s retrospective exhibit spelled out the section in giant cutout letters, a collection of seemingly random but very YStyle curios and even more confetti. Perhaps, and only fittingly, the most festive space of all, the exhibit chronicled YStyle’s journey of 10 years through an explosion of color and objects cherished by the team, past and present.
Rounding off the exhibit area was Joey Samson’s own retrospective collection, telling a story in nudes and neutrals that represent the designer’s evolution and hint at his future –– a not-so-distant future, it turned out, as after the dinner, presentation of YStyle’s retrospective video and awarding of bests, Joey presented a collection dominated primarily by nudes and punctuated by feather-light tulle. The collection was a mesmerizing play and display of geometry and texture. Every piece was a pleasant, picture-perfect surprise.
Models emerged from a newspaper backdrop and walked on inclined plains spattered and oozing with paint coming from what someone described as “kinetic sculptures,†making the show even more intense. The team of Ariel Lozada helped make the show and entire event a cool thing to look back on. Hosts Carla Dunareanu and Tricia Centenera, who both wore Joey Samson, closed the show by calling Team YStyle, Bea Ledesma, Audrey Carpio, Ana Kalaw, Kat Holigores, Anne Bella, Cai Subijano and myself to pop party poppers with Joey Samson and his models.
At the end of the night, after the doors of SMX closed, came the aftermath –– a deluge of Instagram photos with hashtags #YStyleTurns10, #TattooLTE, #BeZact, #InspiredbyHavaianas and #JoeySamsonX. It may have had something to do with YStyle editor and creative director Bea Ledesma’s first and only directive of the night. “Instagram the sh*t out of this thing,†she told guests during her welcome speech over dinner. And, as a phrase often iterated during the making of the event goes, what Bea wants, Bea gets.
* * *
YStyle thanks partners Tattoo, Zact, Havaianas, SM Parisian and Milanos; and our sponsors SM Aura SMX Convention Center, Cibo di M, Russian Standard Vodka, Montrouge, and Camus Wine and Cognac; our partners in crime RabbitHole Creatives, Ariel Lozada, and Everywhere We Shoot. For more photos from #YStyleTurns10, follow @ItsOnYStyle on Instagram and Twitter. Photos by TAMMY DAVID, ANTON AGUILA, FERNAN NEBRES and JOEY VIDUYA