What does a fashion designer’s client do when her dress lands her on the worst-dressed list as spectacularly as Sen. Nancy Binay did at the President’s State of the Nation Address (Sona)?

Take her business elsewhere—stat!— might be the logical answer. But that’s not what the senator-daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay did. Instead, she called the designer, Randy Ortiz, to apologize.

And instead of drowning in his sorrows for having been taken to task for the dress that social-media netizens likened to a hot-air balloon, among other things, Ortiz is taking it all in in stride.

“I take full responsibility,” Ortiz tells Lifestyle exclusively. “Senator Nancy called me up to apologize, and that’s all that matters. She has all my love and respect. She knew there was no intent [to put her through that].”

Ortiz designed two dresses for Binay last Monday: a Balintawak-inspired top and striped skirt for the opening session of the Senate in the morning; a white-and-nude-colored draped terno for the afternoon formal event for the Sona at the Batasang Pambansa.

The Balintawak skirt had a drawstring detail at the hem that was designed to make the skirt’s proportion streamlined and shorter at the front, thus flattering for a petite woman like the senator. Dressing up that morning, Binay forgot Ortiz’s instructions from the final fitting. It was only when she was changing for the afternoon session that she discovered the drawstring. By then, memes about her dress had set social media afire.

In an interview with reporters on Tuesday, Binay expressed her regret for having dragged Ortiz’s name in the social-media bashing.

“Kaya nga nahihiya ako kay Randy kasi parang nadamay pa siya sa bashing… Ako kasi sanay na dun e, eh siya hindi sanay sa ganoon so parang nakaka-guilty,” she is quoted as saying.

Even then, Ortiz insists it was his fault. The design and color choice were all his doing, he said.

“She earned my respect when she did that, to call me to apologize,” Ortiz says of his client, for whom he has been making clothes since she was her father’s chief of staff.

“You know, Senator Nancy is very simple,” he continues. “Hindi niya pinaghahandaan ang Sona over her dress, that’s why I feel bad for her… I’m not so much into social media, but when I heard what was happening, it was traumatic for one second. Napa-‘oh my God!’ ako. But when I got that call from the senator, it was more than enough [to mollify] me.

“She’s very decent. How could I [intentionally] do that to her? She never asked to be in the best-dressed.”

This isn’t the first time that Ortiz got a bad review for a dress he made for the Sona. During President Aquino’s first Sona in 2010, the dress Ortiz made for Kris Aquino was criticized for supposedly being unflattering.

Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez

Ortiz, however, has consistently landed longtime client and friend Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez on the Sona’s red carpet best-dressed, this year included.

“I have my hits and misses, I’m just human,” Ortiz says. “I humble myself. It’s part of the job. I got comforting calls from my friends. They know me, and that’s enough for me.”

Contrary to the expected backlash, Ortiz says he woke up the next morning to an e-mail inbox full of job orders.

“If I were a new designer, I would be so worried. But I’ve been in this business for 27 years, and I’ve always tried my best. One mistake can’t destroy me as a person or designer.

“I’m sure people who don’t like me will always remember this. Maybe a lot of people there pinagpipiyestahan na ako. Critics didn’t like the dress,” he says, adding with a laugh, “but I didn’t steal money!”

Ortiz says it would be wrong and unfair to compare clients, whatever their attributes. A designer must be a pro in designing and making clothes, making the design suit the client’s physical attributes, he says.

“I’ve also heard of badly reviewed dresses by other good designers at the Sona, so it’s no guarantee however good you are, even if you’re the best,” he notes.

“My relationship with Senator Nancy goes beyond client-designer,” Ortiz adds. “Life goes on. We have worse problems in this country.”