Although influences from two of the most showy decades in fashion history seemed to loom heavily on his work, Dennis Lustico says his main inspiration for his latest collection for Bench Fashion Week 2018 was a flamboyant character played by actress Tilda Swinton in Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”
By Alex Y. Vergara
If there’s one trait that probably best describes fashion designer Dennis Lustico and his approach to his work, it’s his fearlessness and penchant for constantly pushing the envelope. And this recurring trait, which translates to his use of bold colors, unusual silhouettes, rich materials and unorthodox treatments, has been evident ever since we’ve started covering him decades ago.
His recent first outing as one of the featured designers of Bench Fashion Week 2018 was certainly no exception. Channeling influences that ruled the ’70s and ’80s like exaggerated proportions, broad shoulders and glitzy fabrics, Dennis produced a 20-piece collection, which he and his team started working on sometime in June.
Dennis, who was featured on Day Two of the three-day fashion week, which unfolded last weekend, opened the show. From glamor and glitz, guests were later treated to a bevy of young hard bodies and famous personalities such as Derrick Monasterio, Ara Arida, Megan Young, Maxine Medina, Lovi Poe, Diego Loyzaga, Enrique Gil and Dominic Roque, as they modeled the latest collections from American Eagle Outfitters and Bench Active. After Dennis’ segment, Ben Chan, head honcho of Suyen Corp., and his collaborators also veered away from the usual fashion show by tapping a group of dancers and performers to join the fun doing what they do best.
Although influences from two of the most showy decades in fashion history seemed to loom heavily on his work, Dennis says his main inspiration for his latest collection was a character played by actress Tilda Swinton in Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” Known simply as Madame D, the 84-year-old “countess dowager” was rich, vain and unapologetically chic—much like the designer’s recent collection. She also happen to be having an affair with the film’s much younger concierge.
To achieve his vision consisting of such pieces as palazzo pants, tops with pointed sleeves or huge ribbons, tiered long dresses and a show-stopping pleated metallic dress, among others, Dennis made use of a wide range of materials such as duchess satin, silk gazar, silk organdy, silk brocade and a dotted poly-metallic sheer fabric for his gold number, which also doubled as his segment’s finale.
Since his brief was to produce a collection for the holiday season, Dennis followed suit, and how! But instead of resorting to the usual visual cliches, the designer, so to speak, went for the jugular with dramatic pieces that were almost faultless in terms of construction, execution, proportions and, in certain cases, color combinations.
“I zeroed in on my love affair with colors and penchant for drama,” Dennis shares with PeopleAsia. “But I still kept in mind that I had to come up with a collection that’s luxurious yet easy to wear. I did some draping and beading, but I purposely avoided current silhouettes.”
Although Dennis is a fairly good tailor, he’s not that known in the business for structured pieces. Apart from experimenting with different silhouettes and color schemes, he also made efforts to “refine our tailoring capability.” This was evident in a number of top- and jacket-and-pants ensembles, including several pairs of palazzo pants and a pair of culottes.
“I also wanted to make every piece to be as light as possible,” he adds. This is the direct result of Dennis’ participation in fashion festivals in Paris with other Filipino designers to sell their clothes and market Brand Philippines to the rest of the world. “Clothes should be light. To achieve this, I did less layering and unnecessary use of lining.”
There was no one piece which drove him and his team crazy. Instead, Dennis considers giving “justice to the fall of every fabric” as his biggest challenge. The process involved constantly checking the clothes’ fit on each of the assigned model and leaving every piece on a body form for a day or two to see how the fabrics “behave.”
On a practical note, he shares with a chuckle, “we also had to do a toile version for almost every piece we did because I was so afraid of ruining the materials.”
“I’m on a journey of sorts at the moment,” the designer concludes. “I made a pact with myself to observe subtlety in construction, cut and color in the coming seasons.” Embracing subtlety while others are headed in the opposite direction is certainly one brave move that requires Dennis’ trademark fearlessness.
