It’s every son, one hopes, who considers his mother beautiful. Yet it’s not every son who would give a best-dressed list award in honor of his mother.

Last month, to mark the 30th year of the passing of his mother, George Sison gave the Epitome 2016: Dressing At Its Best award to some of Metro Manila’s most elegant women. His mother, Priscilla de la Fuente Sison, was among the most elegant women of her time.

Since 2014, Sison has been coming up with an annual Epitome list, running it in his Lifestyle column “And So It Is.”
He would send the “Priscilla statuettes” to the homes of the honorees.

But for this year, he said, “I wanted it to be special to celebrate the 30th year of my mother’s passing.”

The awardees were not only stylish but also distinguished: Gemma Cruz Araneta, Tina Jacinto, Criselda Lontok, Gina Lopez, Vicky Morales, Helen Ong, Michelle Tan and Crickette Tantoco.

The awarding, held at Fashion Interiors on Chino Roces Ave. Makati, was tastefully done.

Witty, feisty

In welcoming his guests, Sison recounted anecdotes about his mom which made the guests chuckle. Some remembered her as an exceptional mother; others, like us, who didn’t have the privilege of meeting her, loved her already.

Priscilla must have been not only a beautiful, elegant woman, but also a witty, if feisty, one.

The son recalled how his mom asked his sister what else she was looking for in a man she would marry. When the sister mentioned “fun and interesting,” the mom shot back: “But what you need then is a TV set.”

That put the evening in a mirthful mood.

We coaxed out of Sison other lovely memories about his mother and her era.

He recalled:

“‘Tita’ Siony Lopez-Bantug, a grandniece of José Rizal, was a first cousin of my mother Priscilla. A decade ago, over dinner held in her home, Tita Siony was relating the story of how my mom was to be her maid of honor, but that did not happen because my mother had eloped before Tita Siony’s wedding. And she was only 15.

“Tita Siony told us, ‘I grew up with your mother and I must tell you that at age 10, your mother liked dressing up and was already choosing her clothes and accessories. We were wondering how and when she developed this penchant for dressing.

“And then your grandmother Flora brought her and her sister, Narcy, on a world cruise, visiting fashion capitals in the days when there were no commercial airlines, only luxury steamships with traveling trunks in tow, like those who traveled in the Titanic.’

“From the time I was a kid and asked my mother what she had in mind when choosing clothes to wear, she would perfunctorily reply, ‘You just have to be properly dressed and comfortable at all times—your clothes should be appropriate for the occasion and one should never be overdressed or over-accessorized. Elegance means never intending to steal the show.’

“Even at home, my mom was always properly dressed, from the time she woke up in the morning while taking her daily fare of lemon juice, coffee and toast. Whoever dropped by unannounced would never catch her looking unkempt. She was never a fashion victim. No matter how beautiful a dress may be on others, once she tried it on and was not comfortable in it, she’d leave it hanging on the rack.”

José Rizal

Priscilla’s father, Felix dela Fuente, came from the Dela Fuentes of San Rafael and San Miguel, Bulacan. The Dela Fuente ancestral home had José Rizal as frequent visitor, and imbedded in one of its posts was a bullet fired during the Philippine revolution. Her father’s summer house stood beside the homes of Doña Narcisa de Leon and Trining de Leon-Roxas.

Priscilla spent the latter part of her teen life and early 20s giving birth to seven children. Those years, she was often written about and was referred to as the ‘heiress,’ with a number of buildings in downtown Manila named after her.

She was her own woman. She drove her own sports car and owned a revolver which she learned to shoot through Carling’s (her husband Carlos Moran Sison) coaching.

In the early ’60s, Carling and Priscilla, with children George and Marla, were featured in the Italian edition of Vogue.

Carling was a noted lawyer, businessman and columnist whose father, Pedro Maria Sison, was one of the first senators of the Philippines, with the great Claro M. Recto whose daughter, Chona, (her real name was Priscilla), became a close friend of Priscilla Sison.

Carling was a columnist of several publications and was also assistant press secretary to President Manuel Roxas. He wrote speeches for other presidents including Diosdado Macapagal.

He was cofounder of the Makati Stock Exchange and the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.

Ramon Valera

Priscilla and Carling were often in the social limelight, their family being one of the early residents of Forbes Park, when Ayala Avenue was a long stretch of cogon grass.

Priscilla became one of National Artist Ramon Valera’s favorite models, alongside Chona Kasten, Elvira Manahan and Imelda Cojuangco. They would often be invited to dance the rigodon in the popular Kahirup balls, and in Malacañang state dinners.

In the late ’60s, Valera chose the 10 Best Dressed Women of the Philippines annually. Those who made it for three consecutive years were named in the Hall of Fame of Fashion. There were only five who made it to the list: the four mentioned above, and Baby Fores.

Rosalinda “Baby” Orosa wrote about Priscilla: “Although a lady is always a woman, a woman is not always a lady. Priscilla ‘Prissy’ de la Fuente Sison is, of course, a lady in the finest sense. She was both gentle and genteel, soft-spoken, poised and refined. Furthermore, she was soigné: chic and elegant. In the well-heeled circles she moved in, her behavior was never unseemly, never offensive to finer sensibilities. Everything that she did had a touch of class or nobility.”

The Priscilla statuette is an adaptation of National Artist Napoleon “Billy” Abueva’s sculpture of a woman, which became a frontispiece in the Sisons’ Forbes Park home.
Sison recalled, “This was a birthday gift I gave my mother, which I acquired through an exchange deal with Billy for one of my own painting-poems that he fancied which appears on the cover of my book, ‘In Words, In Color.’

“When Abueva was doing our family sculpture, he used to come with a rose to present to Priscilla every time he dropped by. He confessed, ‘Your mother is so beautiful. This is my way of letting her know.’” —THELMA SIOSON SAN JUAN