WATERFRONT HOTEL’S INTEMPOREL/OCT. 5, 2018: A Model wears the creation of Bree Esplanada during Waterfront Hotel Lahug Intemporel fashion show last friday night Oct. 5, 2018 in the Atlantic hall of Waterfront Hotel.(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
TO WHAT degree of miracle did Apriel Smith walk on thin air?
Raising the curtain for the division of Harvey Cenit in the show, she emerged on the runway in a brisk kind of cat walk to lend out motion to the bejeweled fringes on the mini flapper dress she wore.
But no big deal, really: She just had to glide through the route to the edge of the platform because the right
heel of her nude stiletto was broken.
On her return, it was already dislodged. Just like how queens of the cat walk do it all the time, she continued another round tiptoeing one foot.
Quite an appropriate advance party for all things dramatic that arrived thereafter—two fully embellished crimson red ball gowns (one asymmetrical neckline, one off-the-shoulder on Bee Urgello) with architectural wave on the side and hyper extended radius from waist to the floor. The Dubai-based
fashion designer culminated his part with a faux entourage of three, featuring a bride in a hooded shroud of heavy crystals.
Cenit, along with eight designers—Mel Maria, Rei Escario, Bree Esplanada, Edwin Alba, Mike Yapching, Hanz Coquilla, Humberto Villegas, and
Lord Maturan—showcased the latest bridal trends at the “Intemporel” Cebu Wedding Expo 2018 at the Atlantic Hall of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino last Oct. 5, a Friday evening.
Coquilla was also enamored with balloon cuts and volume, either a bouffant skirt or an oversized tulle cape sewn with ostrich feathers that whetted our appetite for this particular construction. Feathers also governed Yapching’s marriage of romanticism and surrealism renditions. His devotion to ultra-fit bodices has ascended to a bodycon dress with sculptural lines that seemed like patterns of visualized sound waves.
“To revisit my old competition pieces was the mood behind the whole collection. My collection ‘Spiral in Motion’ and ‘Metamorphosis’ for Mega Young Designers’ Competition and Audi Star Creation was all about lines and making the eye travel and translate it to a subtler bridal collection,” Yapching shared on the bias strips and straps sewed on bustiers and belts and electric pleats with bias booklet insertions.
A returnee to the spotlight, Villegas made sure he orchestrated a good show by sending us back in time, to the very first day we fell in love with him.
The utility of the chiffon in many forms (a billowy mullet top, an evening gown, a pencil skirt) proves to us that he has already mastered the art.
Meanwhile, Esplanada released some trumpet gowns decorated with lace trimmings. Victorian country suddenly in the middle of the bustle: high neck with tiny ruffled edges, Edwardian sleeves, soft peplums, and weaved brim hats. A lace cropped top with scallop ends provided a small portion of the
abdomen, a negative space where the high-waist pant rose to the wait.
Maria had a peculiar strategy of name recall that particular evening.
“Did it sound irritating? Haha … ” he sent me a message the morning after the show, referring to the tribal music background with a repetitive whispering of his brand name until the last piece exited. Trinkets and crystals embellishments dominated the focal point that worked as fasteners to the draping and tails in the “Evangelina” collection, a tribute to his mother Evangelina.
“No,” I replied. “It’s just that I can’t get it off my head now.”