For the final evening of the recently concluded three-day Bench Fashion Week, Michael Leyva capped off the designer series with looks that were fun, fearless and unapologetic yet still managed to look chic. And for dessert, Bench again unleashed a bevy of young hardbodies in stylized swimwear for its new swimwear line simply dubbed as Bench Swim.
By Alex Y. Vergara
Combining the exuberant sprit of the ’70s with the flamboyance of the ’80s, Michael Leyva concluded last Sunday’s three-day Bench Fashion Week (Spring/Summer) 2023 with a 25-piece collection that was equal parts red carpet and after-party, with models twirling, running, striking poses, role-playing and almost dancing on the runway to remixed disco music from the last three decades of the 20th century.
Apart from being a fitting finale to the biannual fashion powwow’s designer series, it was also an apropos occasion for Michael to show his range as a designer, sending down various looks on the runway, from swirling ball gowns and caped ensembles to short party dresses, oversized men’s suits to beaded bomber jackets paired either with bold-colored polo shirts or charcoal-gray turtlenecks, shorts and loose pants.
Resorting almost purely to vibrant colors, with the exception of a couple of neutral looks in black and silver, Michael was also all out when it came to detailing, using various beads, crystals and paillettes to adorn certain looks and pieces.
“For this collection, an all-new one, I wanted the overall vibe to be young and fresh. I wanted to project through my models that girls could also have fun even while wearing the most formal of clothes. If you’ve noticed, the colors [of all the looks] are really different from each other. The detailing, on the other hand, has always been my trademark.”
To achieve his vision, the designer used such materials as silk, particularly taffeta, textured crepe for the men’s ensembles and various fabrics that functioned as a base for his sequined, beaded and paillette-adorned looks.
“We beaded everything by hand,” he says. He considers the last piece, a semi-beaded strapless cerulean number, the most painstaking to do. “But it’s also trademark Michael Leyva, but at the same time, the model showed how you could have fun and feel comfortable and confident in it.”
The idea behind the twirling, smiling, even laughing models resulted from his collaboration with Noel Manapat, Bench’s chief stylist, and show director Robby Carmona. For a change, Michael, from the moment the first look, a floor-sweeping trapeze dress in silvery green taffeta, appeared on the runway, wanted none of the seriousness that has become typical of high-glam fashion shows.
Near show’s end his models, both men and women, formed themselves into groups and made it appear that they were chitchatting as if they were at an after-party event.
“Even if you’ve reached a certain age, it’s okay to have fun,” he concludes. “As for men wearing oversized suits in bold and textured crepe, of course, there is a market for such clothes. Overall, the collection’s message is as long as you’re comfortable wearing a certain look, go ahead wear it and flaunt it.”
Michael shared the evening with some of the hottest and most daring celebrities this side of the planet, as the likes of Lovi Poe, Ariella Arida, Derrick Monasterio, David Licauco, Kirk Bondad and even former bombshell Ina Raymundo, among others, ditched their evening gowns and tuxes in favor of the latest swimwear from Bench Swim.
Temperatures again soared inside Bench Playground, as it was the first time since the pandemic that Bench unleashed a slew of nearly naked hardbodies for less-gifted mortals in the audience to ogle at, get inspired by or even fantasize over.
And with that for a finale, happy days are surely coming back into our lives, albeit slowly and in trickles. Before we know it, Bench could resurrect the mother of all its events, the one that started it all, sometime soon—its biennial underwear show at the cavernous Arena. Now, that would be the day!
