National Artist Arturo Luz was inside the Swatch+Swatch Center on Arnaiz Ave. (Pasay Road), Makati. He was staring at a massive photograph, transfixed.
The photo, shot by Jojit Lorenzo, showed model Ana Sideco mid-leap, wearing a black wool dress with heat-molded gold PVC strips by fashion designer Jerome Lorico, a Swatch Dorata on each wrist. The headdress and bodice looked like they were sculpted out of metal.
Finally, Luz spoke. “I’m completely impressed. This is so good. There are two artists here—the fashion designer and the photographer.”
Actually, there are four.
The designer, the photographer, National Artist Ben “BenCab” Cabrera, whose iconic woman scavenger “Sabel” inspired the clothes and the shoot, and Gino Gonzales, the brilliant theater production designer who styled the shoot, turned it into a masterpiece and eventually transformed it into a multimedia maze installation.
“The installation wasn’t part of the plan. It snowballed,” Gonzales said.
Fashion shoot
The plan—concocted by Swatch pioneer Virgie Ramos and Inquirer Lifestyle editor Thelma Sioson San Juan—was to do a fashion shoot for Inquirer Lifestyle that would feature the Sabel-inspired clothes shown at the December 4 inauguration of the Swatch+Swatch Center and the launch of BenCab’s Swatch Limited Edition.
Gonzales, who also designed the Swatch+Swatch Center, dove headfirst into the project, multi-tasking as production designer, stylist and sittings editor.
Although there were 25 designers in the inaugural show (it was, after all, a celebration of Swatch’s 25th anniversary), for the shoot and the exhibit, Gonzales had to cut down the number to eight, with three of the designers creating new pieces for the pictorial.
“I had to make tough decisions. A lot of them are my friends. But then, I was responsible for it as curator. There were a lot of beautiful clothes but they did not remotely resemble anything of BenCab’s iconography. I chose only clothes that actually said Sabel to me,” he said.
Gonzales is no stranger to Sabel, having worked with BenCab and creative director Rowell Santiago on the Center’s inaugural exhibit last month and having done the production design for “Sayaw, Sabel,” which was choreographed by Agnes Locsin, in 2010.
“I loved BenCab’s early works, his costume drawings, because I am a costume designer. I see them every day in the hallways of the CCP,” he said.
With a large team that included Jojit Lorenzo as photographer, Patrick Rosas as makeup artist and people from theater and TV production, Gonzales built sets, gathered props, paired clothes with Swatch watches and added different substances—from glitter to gawgaw—to bring BenCab’s Sabel to life, couture-style.
The list of designers includes Pepito Albert, Ivarluski Aseron, Jesus Lloren, Jerome Lorico, Dennis Lustico, Joey Samson, Cary Santiago and Inno Sotto.
Some designers joined the shoot, like Sotto who did some draping on the spot and Lorico who, with a heat gun, created a headpiece out of PVC strips.
Gonzales said, “That was the great thing about the shoot—it was a meeting of minds. We trusted each other.”
Quintessential Sabel
Sotto said, “My last piece is quintessential Sabel. It was important to incorporate certain elements to suggest what she is supposed to be—basurera, di ba? I thought the most interesting thing about the pictorial was how Gino incorporated the Swatch watches. It didn’t look like it was in your face. That’s the genius of the guy. All of a sudden, you see the watch, it’s so there but it’s not there.”
Gonzales said, “Stylists today, young people today, work from pegs which we really hate, that word ‘pegs.’ I was trained to do research. These people, these designers, when you just give them a word, they will water it and it will grow into something else.”
Lorico said, “One of my pieces looks like metal but it’s not. I tried to make it look like an armor, like a second skin. My two pieces are reminiscent of the strength and agility of a woman. That for me is the soul of Sabel. Sabel is not just a woman. The artist who conceived her used her not just as an inspiration but as a tool, as social commentary. Sabel is more than just an art figure, and Tita Virgie understands that, Swatch understands that.”
The resulting images were published in Inquirer Lifestyle’s eight-page Swatch Christmas supplement.
But they were so compelling, even overwhelming, that the many incarnations of Sabel seemed to want to make the leap from the newspaper pages back to the Center, where the pictorial was held.
Thus the Swatch+Art+Fashion: Redefining Sabel exhibit was born.
“We wanted something more long-term,” said Gonzales, who designed the installation. “We had to think fast about how we could reconfigure the space. This was an open space so we had to build walls.”
Surprise at every corner
The walls were necessary to create the maze that Gonzales envisioned. “When we did the BenCab exhibit, I spent a couple of days down here by the cafe, observing people who were stopping by. They would literally go inside, look, turn 360 degrees and then go to the shop on the second floor.”
This time, Gonzales didn’t want people to do just a quick visual sweep of the room—he wanted them to be more involved. “I had to funnel them into a process.”
Gonzales’ team worked all day and all night for seven days, covering the greige (beige and grey) walls with photographs, resurrecting props from the shoot, putting together a puzzle of complicated pieces.
It was worth the effort. They put the maze in amazement, turning what could have been just an exhibit into an experience.
There’s a surprise at every corner—clouds flown in from New York, mannequins on pedestals made of piles of newspapers (Inquirer, of course), a lightbox, a giant Swatch in a giant crate, more watches projected onto walls, an armored Sabel suspended mid-air, stunning clothes, and fascinating photographs at every turn.
At the launch last December 15, wherever you stood in the exhibit, you heard people repeat the words.
“How beautiful, I’m astounded,” said Philippine Tatler editor Anton San Diego.
“This is wonderful,” said Sandy Higgins of Slim’s Fashion and Arts School.
“It was so awesome, I’m at a loss for words,” said Myth co-owner Ruby Gan.
“Ang ganda sobra,” said people, over and over. “This is really amazing.”
Even BenCab—the man whose opinion, in this scenario, might be the one that counts the most—approves. “He loved it,” Gonzales said. “In fact, he wanted to paint some of the images, especially the one of Krystal Espiritu wearing Pepito Albert’s creation.”
Swatch+Art+Fashion: Redefining Sabel is now open for the public to enjoy. And at this installation, taking photographs is allowed, even encouraged. The exhibit will run for a month.
“The closing will be something to watch,” Ramos said with a twinkle in her eye.
View Swatch and Inquirer Lifestyle’s Swatch+Art+Fashion: Redefining Sabel at the Swatch+Swatch Center at 918 Arnaiz Ave. (formerly Pasay Road) Makati. Use the hashtags #swatchartfashion and #swatchph25.