MANILA, Philippines — Known for his handmade corsetry and proclivity for enhancing a woman’s hourglass silhouette, the designer Mark Bumgarner’s ready-to-wear collaboration with homegrown brand Plains & Prints is in all 88 stores today.
“Mark is all about timelessness and elegance. We share the passion of giving women access to fashionable clothing,” Plains & Prints vice president Roxanne Farillas says about the 13-piece collection featuring four dresses, five tops, one pantsuit and three bottoms.
“The challenge was to take my handmade pieces and make them ready-to-wear. I made the samples my way first — in my atelier and by hand. I wanted to get the drape of the fabric right and I created the prints in-house,” Mark Bumgarner says, referring to the layered imagery of the Queen of Philippine Flowers, the waling-waling, and our national leaf, the anahaw, resulting in an oil-painted effect.
A must-have in the collection is the corseted Viktoria top with draping that comes in plain black and in the collaboration’s signature waling-waling print. “It’s super Mark Bumgarner and you can wear it with anything,” Bumgarner says in singling out the top. “It was the most challenging to create with the boning and the drape on the side. But they were able to make it RTW!
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For more information, visit plainsandprints.com, Plains & Prints on Facebook, or @plainsandprints on Instagram and Twitter.