Whether she’s a Kapuso or a Kapamilya, MOD April cover girl Iza Calzado is one actress whose talent doesn’t need a network label.
She’s free…free flowing!
The Philippines’s favorite Brazilian import, photographed by Cyrus Panganiban, for MOD March 2012.
The World According to Slim
(Note: In celebration of the 92nd anniversary of Philippine fashion icon Salvacion Lim Higgins, here’s our review of the book, SLIM: Salvacion Lim Higgins, Philippine Haute Couture 1947-1990, published in our September 2011 issue.)
FASHION show coordinator-turned-travel writer Adalene Ross did not expect to find couture to rival that of Paris, Milan, and New York, while walking down “a dusty street in Manila” back in 1959. Here, she wrote, “some of the loveliest clothes in the world” were being made: the dusty street was Taft Avenue; one of the joint owners of the atelier was Salvacion Lim.
Anyone with an eye for fashion knows that elegance can always speak for itself. If SLIM: Salvacion Lim Higgins, Philippine Haute Couture 1947-1990 had nothing but award-winning photographer Neil Oshima’s full-page pictures of Slim’s vintage originals, it would still deserve to be on coffee tables all over the country. Yet in this case, the couturier is as fascinating as her creations. Slim did not just make clothes, she also made Philippine history.
It took over two years for Slim’s grown children, Mark Lewis Higgins and Sarah Louise Higgins, to compile the stories, quotes, and personal impressions that are the intricate beadwork of the stylish splash that was their mother’s life. Adalene Ross might have thought Taft Avenue a poor frame for what Slim could do with fashion, but the story itself sets off the same clothes to perfection.
It is pure pleasure to leaf through this book’s thick, glossy pages at leisure and admire the handiwork of a master. Her famous asymmetrical terno is featured here, as are the stylized Maria Clara and Singkil costumes she created for the Bayanihan dance troupe. One elegantly simple outfit is turned inside-out to support her claim that her clothes were so well-made that they all could be worn that way.
The fun of a heavily fringed dress is emphasized by the contrast of its tassels “at rest” and its tassels “in motion.” Each timeless creation is a seamless union of the traditional and the ultramodern, so that outfits that were chic to our grandmothers could still turn teenage girls’ heads today.
Slim’s impeccable taste was rivaled only by her attention to detail. What might have looked from a distance like a single cut of intricate lace would reveal itself, upon closer inspection, to be a layer of painstakingly arranged appliqués over a base of tulle. Couture on such a level requires the camera to come as close as it can — and Oshima obliges with images so precise that they are the next best thing to touching the beadwork. There is no better tribute to a couturier for whom every new dress was a visual feast than a book that is itself a visual banquet. - Cristina Espina
SLIMis available in all National Book Stores nationwide.
