SULTRY. Neoprene off-the-shoulder top with silk satin tea-length skirt in vermilion
EVEN with its ubiquity, each collection has steered clear of such easy, obvious fare. Which was a relief. The athleisure—a word coined from athletic and leisure—craze has reached its acme, or let’s hope it has, at least. With brands ingrained in the pop culture consciousness, identifying the classics from the archives was not a daunting obligation, but this was not about glorified logo tees and frocks.
The in-house creative directors of these brands clearly know about trend transitions, apparent in how they position their designs between the previous season’s focus and the future. At the annual MAS (More Music, Art, and Style) by Style Origin fashion show at the Ayala Center Cebu Terraces last July, earth tones reigned forming a dynamic duo with nature-inspired prints such as flowers and leaves among the participating clothing brands. Images of oversized roses appeared like wrappers around Lady Bag totes, carried by a model wearing a taupe jumpsuit.
Mags day dresses went full bloom, too, with sultry cuts that gave the audience just a little tease: a triangle cut-out under the bust, which was a charming outtake of this season’s powerful cropped top and mom jeans courtesy of Gigi Hadid. Off-the-shoulder necklines were so alive in the collection, perfectly lined-up with simple silhouettes, either printed sporadically with petals on tea-length skirts or floral vines descending from the
left shoulder to the waist.
When rules were bent, things came out even better. Never pair denim jackets with denim pants —but this policy is no longer applicable. Mango’s menswear presented two options: the denim-on-denim rebel styling and the classic denim jackets with chinos. Pastel polo shirts with light brown city shorts were casual favorites.
MAN-NUAL.
Basic but
classic styling delivered through woven rolled-up long- sleeved shirt and distressed denim shorts.
Muted and elegant, the pieces from Top Man had a wide-range of wardrobe selection: from army green bomber jackets to black-and- white tropical print T-shirt. White pants were the new blue jeans because somewhere in New York, someone is delighted—Vogue editor Tonne Goodman who is consistently spotted in white jeans—saying: “And the thing about white jeans is that you pop a little bleach in there and it’s done.”
Reference spotters leapt on the fact that South Shore reprised an idea for a dress —dampened chiffon, embroidered with red lace—from a collection it once did about the post-revolutionary Merveilleuses, a group of girls who went about Paris draped in transparent Grecian dresses. The label’s love of the empire line in general was evident here, too, in a lovely white Greek-style gown, though this time with a pair of red and white chopped-off leather sleeves from a motocross jacket resting on the upper arm.
Yet, it’s also an on-point cooperation in the energy of what’s going on in the real realm of young fashion. There’s a renewed sense of outward-looking engagement. That in itself was a nod to the methodology of Cebu’s fashion circle, who directed their artisanal collection on the practice of skewing,
up-cycling, and repurposing existing garments in many sartorial, witty methods.