Suddenly, last Saturday night, severe simplicity defined fashion.
It seemed like all the A-List ladies who attended the annual Red Charity Gala and their favorite fashion designers favored minimal style but with maximum jewelry.
True elegance is the refusal to be complicated. Big emeralds, such as the ones worn by Marivic Vasquez, were the counterpoint to the classic structured or draped formal wear.
Everyone must have gone to the vault to wear full suites of estate jewelry. Diamonds and rubies sparkled in the Rizal Ballroom of Shangri-La Makati that was covered in black drapes.
But the fabrics were the stars—brocade, chiffon, jersey, Thai silk, duchesse satin, neoprene and taffeta.
Lots of black and pastels were worn without beadwork nor embroidery. There were jewel-colored hand-painted numbers by Rhett Eala.
The silhouettes were the classic trapeze line worn by Salome Uy; the bustled ball gowns of Cris Albert and Ching Cruz; off-shoulder on Iza Calzado; décolletage on Isabelle Daza; and the simple T-shirt column on Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez.
The evening was about comfort before style. Manila’s 400 never looked so effortlessly happy and elegantly best dressed, except, of course, for the Red Gala organizers, the dynamic duo Kaye Tiñga and Tessa Prieto-Valdes, who were in a class all by themselves.
The outstanding fashion collection by designer Jojie Lloren echoed the sentiment of “less is more beautiful” in his couture de force creations, each more stunning than the next.
Majority of the women at the event kept it simple and that, for me, is good taste.
If you remember the dress, then it was fashionable, but if you remember the woman who wore it, that is soignée style.