No one got cancelled out on the second day of the current three-day Bench Fashion Week, as designers Rhett Eala, Bon Hansen Reyes, Christian Dalogaog and retail brand Urban Revivo showed the audience different flavors, inspirations and reasons to dress up.
By Alex Y. Vergara
It was a show of contrasts as Day Two of Bench Fashion Week (Spring/Summer) unfolded yesterday at Bench Playground. Featured designers were Rhett Eala, Bon Hansen Reyes, Christian Dalogaog for Ched Studio and hip retail brand Urban Revivo.
While Bon, one of the top three winners of the 2019 Bench Design Awards as well as a finalist in last year’s Terno Con, did an all-men’s wear collection consisting of eight tailored looks, Rhett, guest designer of retail brand Kashieca, did nearly two dozen soft, feminine looks meant for the ladies.
Christian, meanwhile, channelled inspirations from the past and, with touches of glitter and Orientalia, did modernized Filipiniana pieces, including various permutations of the barong. In many ways, Ched Studio’s looks were the exact opposite of ensembles that came out from Urban Revivo, a high-street brand form China known for its edgy designs.
Channeling Simoun, the main protagonist in El Filibusterimo, Jose Rizal’s sequel to Noli Me Tangere, Bon veered away from the barong by doing tailored pieces, including his finale look, a jacket-and-long dress ensemble worn by a male model.
“I was supposed to highlight hand-embroidery, but because of limited time, I chose to focus instead on my strength as a designer, which a tailoring.” Bon, a marketing graduate prior to becoming a full-time designer, says.
It was a good move, actually, as Bon was able to show something that didn’t duplicate or cancel out Christian’s thrust.
For lack of a better term, Bon calls the design detail—strips of cut, sewn and sometimes twisted fabrics that form as an overlay on a number of jackets—a bib. They were inspired, he says, by a carabao he saw in a Manansala painting.
“I’d say, it’s the most difficult element to do in the collection,” he says, referring to the bib. “But it’s easy to maintain and wear.”
After becoming a marketing assistant for a fashion glossy soon after graduating from college, Bon’s eyes were soon opened up and exposed to the finer points of fashion.
That was when this Cardona, Rizal native decided to switch gears by taking up fashion in preparation for a full-time career as a designer. He is also now a menswear instructor at the Fashion Institute of the Philippines.
“I was experiencing what I call a mid-life crisis a couple of years ago,” the 31-year-old says. “I was thinking that I didn’t want to spend my entire career in fashion not trying my hand at women’s wear and Filipiniana. It was what prompted me to join Terno Con.”
Rhett, a seasoned veteran in the local fashion biz, was faced with a different set of challenges for this show. Apart from actually producing the clothes, it was the first time in five years that he returned to doing live fashion shows.
“I never stopped designing,” he clarifies. “But, while I’ve been doing actual clothes, even during the pandemic, I’ve never done a fashion show for quite some time now. I had to relearn everything because it felt new to me.”
Well, Rhett need not have worried. Judging from the applause he received at the end of his segment, Rhett’s pieces again resonated with people, particularly his main and only market—women. Apart from his duties as guest designer of Kashieca, he’s also the creative director of his own eponymous line of dresses sold at Greenbelt.
“Aesthetics are a bit different,” he says when asked to compare the two lines. “This one is a bit younger, a bit more casual and more affordable. My namesake brand is a more dressy line.”
Yet both lines share the designer’s DNA, as seen in Rhett’s output for Kahieca, which, in keeping with the brand’s identity, is still very feminine yet wearable, a bit classic yet far from boring. This time though, the designer is trying to sex things up by resorting to more transparencies in the form of lined lace in black and white.
Adorned either with ribbons and bows, or ruffles and smocking, the ensembles looked fresh and easy on the eyes. Shades are mostly neutrals with pops of colors here and there. As is common with the best retail lines, they can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion.
Day Three of Bench Fashion Week (Spring/Summer) 2023 today, March 19, features Bench swimwear line and the collection of Michael Leyva.
