Danilo Franco, noted Filipino fashion designer, acknowledged as the “Dean of Fashion Illustrators” in the country and former art director of the defunct Philippine Daily Express passed away Tuesday afternoon. He was 65.
Franco’s sudden passing shocked not only the local fashion industry but the students and faculty of fashion design schools where he taught as messages of shock, grief and sorrow flooded various websites of SoFA Design Institute students and faculty and various Facebook accounts related to the local fashion industry.
Until the last few days of his life Franco shared his creativity and skills with the nation and the world as he joined other members of the Fashion Designers Association of the Philippines (FDAP) in providing gowns for the benefit fashion show featuring candidates of the recently concluded Miss Universe contest. He designed the gown for Miss Canada.
Franco graduated with a degree in Fine Arts major in Advertising at the University of Sto. Tomas.
Immediately after art school, he worked as an artist at the Philippine Daily Express under the tutelage of renowned Filipino artist Mauro Malang Santos, design and art consultant of the newspaper. He eventually became art director of the newspaper.
It was during his stint in the Express publications where Franco honed his craft with fellow artists and friends like the late painter–cartoonist Hugo Yonzon, and cartoonist-artist Romeo “Boy” Togonon, US based-expat artist-cartoonist Edgar Soller, notable painter Manuel Baldemor and graphic artists Benjo Laygo, Dante Munsayac and Arnold Adao.
In the late seventies, Franco left the Daily Express as he shifted gears to launch a career in fashion design and running his fashion boutique.
In a very short time, Franco’s made a name as his creativity and craftsmanship in fashion design gained him the patronage of an enviable list of celebrities and entertainment stars.
Franco pioneered and was known for unique, one-of-a-kind hand painted art on fabrics for his fashion creations for women and hand painted acrylic designs for barong tagalogs.
A selfless and socially-conscientious artist, Franco, despite having established his mark in Philippine fashion circles, literally moved out of the design studio and immersed himself in teaching fashion illustration and design in universities and fashion design schools in Metro Manila.
He joined the faculty of fashion design in De La Salle Saint Benilde-Manila, SoFA Design Institute in Makati and other fashion design schools.
His years of dedicated mentoring in fashion design and illustration endeared him to the faculty and students of various fashion design schools where he taught and earned him the distinct accolade “Dean of Filipino Fashion Illustration.”
Wake is at The Sanctuarium, G. Araneta Avenue, Quezon City. Interment will be announced later.