At Sofitel Hotel’s Spiral last Jan. 30, Albert Andrada showed exactly how he conquered the Hollywood red carpet with a gown worn at the Grammy music awards by Paris Hilton who made it to the best-dressed list of top broadsheets from Boston to Great Britain.

 

The fashion show “Shanghai Nights” featured Andrada’s collection of exquisite gowns and came four days after Grammy night.

 

Full-on glamour from the couturier, who formerly did fashion for the Dubai royal household and is now based in Manila, seems the sure ticket to the red carpet and entry to the very exclusive club dominated by global brands such as Armani Privé, Versace, Valentino and Dior.

 

Another Grammy night standout this year was a red couture dress by Ezra Santos worn by singer-guitarist Colbie Caillat.

 

The two join Filipino designers who have designed for the Hollywood red carpet such as Michelle Lhuillier and Michael Cinco, who did Sofia Vergara’s black tulle gown for the Golden Globes and Paloma Faith’s shimmer dress for Anna Wintour’s NY Met Costume Gala last year.

 

But the very first Filipino designer to dress an Academy Award winner was Pitoy Moreno. He designed the bouffant skirt gown in Japanese silk obi with a black halter satin top that Rita Moreno wore when she won Best Supporting Actress for “West Side Story” in 1962.

 

At the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards, Rita Moreno received the lifetime achievement award. In a film clip, she was shown wearing the Pitoy Moreno gown as she received her Academy Award trophy.

 

Embroidery

 

Perhaps what Filipino designers bring to formal gowns of celebrities is a refreshing, intrinsic way of doing embroidery and beadwork as shown in Andrada’s haute couture. The style

obviously draws from the century-old Filipiniana such as the Maria Clara and the Terno. It is a soft and very feminine take on fabrics like hundreds of yards of see-through tulle, sweeping satin trains and ballroom gowns, like the collection of Cinco for the couture shows in Singapore of the Federation of International Designers Enterprise (Fide).

 

The result would be severe elegance that would remind one of the Paris couture in the 1950s, resulting in a revival of classic Hollywood style that is now burying the old porn couture that was more about flesh than fabric. Think of the times and styles of Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth when everything was drop-dead glamorous and grand.

 

Certainly the fashion arsenal of Filipino designers from Dubai may be traced to their access to sumptuous couture fabrics and to labor-intensive artisanal ways of doing minute crystal beadwork on a large scale. Add to that the Asean colors that are bold and beautiful, and world fashion now is taking notice of Filipino design.