MY DREAM WEDDING : A FUSION OF TRADITION, HISTORY AND MODERNITY

by Lavinia Otilla

Weddings are festivities in nature. It groups people and allows the people who have not seen each other to interact and build linkages after years of separation. Hence, I always say, weddings are reunion of sorts. However, as a child, I find weddings fashion show of sorts. When someone gets married, I always hear the hush whispers among the family members trying to guess what the principal sponsors, secondary sponsors and guests are going to wear during wedding day. Of course, they do this to make sure that the bride will not be upstaged during the ceremony.

I have always taken the stand that the bride should be the most beautiful among the entourage. I have seen weddings that the bride is upstaged by the Maid of Honor for using flamboyant gowns. In my experience where I was asked to be the fashion director of the wedding, I made it a point that the center of the attraction is the bride. And I have been congratulated and thanked for my work during those days that I do weddings in the Philippines. I have seen a lot of weddings in the country. And despite the fact that most weddings are now conceptualized in the country, I still find it so traditional. Not in my 15 years of experience of being a fashion director that brides veered away from white, cream or beige gowns. The parents, sponsors, maid of honor and the flower girls usually use the motif colors and the bride must use the white derivative color. This attitude is based on tradition and superstition which has been passed from one generation to generation and has been modified also through the changing times. But as I said, I have never seen a bride to march along the aisle with a different gown color.

I have seen and assisted different weddings. For those that were part of the wedding ceremony, it is a dream wedding for them. But for the changing time, would like also to conceptualize a dream wedding which would be a suggestion to anyone out there planning a glorious wedding ceremony.

Now let us take the month. 

It is not so rainy during the months of November to mid-May in the Philippines

Now let us take the month.

I would choose between the months of November to mid-May. The last two weeks of May till the end of October is very rainy. This is the reason why June is being shunned as a marrying month nowadays. It smacks into the Typhoon month and thus it will greatly affect the grandiosity of the wedding. I can recall a wedding when Typhoon Signal Number 3 was raised up in Northern Luzon. And the dams released the excess water and passages along the MacArthur Highway were impassable. I really can’t remember anymore how the wedding gown was delivered from Manila. The best months however would be December, mid-March and April. These months commence different festivities and would allow more people to join your wedding celebration. However, if you are into a budget wedding you can always go for a simple but classy RSVP wedding. In my case, I would like a wedding that would have the grand festivity aura.

MY DREAM GOWN: What about the wedding gown? I would like a wedding gown by Michael Cinco. In a recent fashion shoot, I saw Michael Cinco’s elaborate pink color-based gown. It was such a stunning wedding gown from his Fall-Winter Collection 2011-2012 and part of a Fashion Shoot entitled “Impalpable Dream of Madame Butterfly.” It is made up of lighter floaty fabric on the skirt and layered till the lower portion which gives a bouncy and light feeling. This gown looks very comfortable on weddings which extend to long hours. The bodice seemed like it is made up of a corded lace and is adorned with beads and flowerettes. The gown also connotes vibrancy, uniqueness and good tidings. It blends with the fiesta feeling of everyone attending the wedding. Being a non-white in color, it has the shock value but such awe of appreciation not of disdain. The gown however could still be on the safe side because the pink color is interspersed with the white color. Although Michael Cinco also did a white wedding gown but I prefer this pink ensemble for all the reasons I gave.

What made white the staple color of weddings? Well they say that Queen Victoria in 1840 balked at tradition preferring to wear a gown of pure white not only to signify purity but also to indicate a new reign. Since then color white became customary. However, color of the wedding gown depends on the style and ceremonial importance and culture of the participants. Western culture use white to symbolize purity of the soul while in Eastern culture, red is usually used to symbolize auspiciousness.

WEDDING LOCATION: The location of the wedding maybe varied but I am also a hopelessly romantic person and I want it to be at the Sta. Maria de Assunta Church of Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur. It is one of the remaining baroque churches in the Philippines and I have seen this church, it has the grandiosity of history and the past. And it is located on a hill overlooking the Poblacion of Sta. Maria. The church has a separate bell tower and strong buttress to withstand the powers of earthquakes.

WEDDING RECEPTION: After the wedding, the reception would be held at the plaza auditorium and will have a fiesta atmosphere. There would be colorful displays and a presentation after the post-wedding ceremony. There would be the usual fare of Philippine food plate and of course the lechon will never be absent.

This is just wishful thinking. My dream wedding can be scaled down because in the provinces, weddings in the barrios are always celebrated like these. But as I have told you, any location or any celebration for a wedding is fine as long as love and faithfulness is the message in the air.

Photo Credits:  maloucastillejos.com, colloidfarl.blogspot.com , taraletsphotography, s4.hubimg.com, Michael Cinco  featured in weddinginspirasi.com

WHO SHOULD DRESS THE FILIPINA BEAUTY QUEENS?

By Lavinia Otilla

When the topic of who should dress our Filipina pageant queens comes to a point of discussion, every pageant fanatic has a say. The discussion becomes heated to the point of being too emotional. Pageant fanatics have different standards of fashion. Quite understandably, it is because we all have different fashion senses. Fashion sense is not universal. It demands a cultural milieu hence, the apparent dislike of pageant gurus to foreign designers clothing our Filipina queens.

One of the common assertions of pageant fans about foreign designers clothing our pageant queens is that they have a conflict of interest. Take for example, Barraza clothes both Miss Colombia and Miss Philippines. In essence, Barraza will favour Miss Colombia. In Barraza’s previous outing for the Philippines, pageant connoisseurs aptly termed the creations “bazzura” which can aptly be translated to trash. Even the gown used by Miss Shamcey Supsup in the recently concluded Miss Universe 2011 where she eventually ended up 3^rd runner-up was a re-creation of the unthinking and unimaginative Barraza probably from an unused bale of clothing that she used for a fashion show.

There is no magic formula however on what pageant gown to use. Mirriam Quiambao used a Halston gown with great success. She was simply resplendent and oozed with immense elegance during the gown competition. Venus Raj showed what is supposed to be the dictum in carrying gowns. ”It is not the gown but the lady in it.” The gown was extremely looking bad but Venus carried it with aplomb. However, she would have etched a higher ranking if the gown was well-made and conceptualized.

Another point in case is Jewel Mae Lobaton a replacement for Tisha Silang who competed in the Miss Universe edition in Hawaii, defiantly used a gown by Larry Espinosa against the wishes of Binibining Pilipinas. She used a corset type of gown that did not accentuate her queenly bearing. Jewel got very low scores in the evening gown preliminaries and spelled her doom in the contest. Did she insist on using that gown because she was Best in Long gown  during the Binibining Pilipinas 1998 finals?


One candidate that most pageant fanatics revered and still now showed their frustration is on the evening gown albeit including the national costume is that of Nina Ricci Alagao. The gown was uninspired, ill-fitting and simply lacks class. Many pageant pundits theorize why Miss Philippines lost in that edition of the Miss Universe pageant but everything seems to point out to her poorly looking evening gown.

Another very interesting case is Cara Subijano’s gown during her Miss World stint. Many would agree that Cara is another Miss World in the making. There were implied innuendos that her gown was lost or was stolen so that she would use a borrowed gown that is not competitive enough to show her best. But if reports are correct and true that she was the one who unilaterally decided to use the much dreaded gown that made her downfall in the pageant, then Stella Marquez Araneta had every right to impose what gown should the candidate representing the country should wear. It was said that Cara decided to use that gown because there were a lot of candidates using white and that with the black and blue combination gown, she would attract more attention. Truly she attracted more attention but for a different reason – a disastrous gown.



I can go on enumerating what other pageant pundits and fanatics have pointed out in the past. But still the question is left unanswered. Should Filipino designers clothe our pageant queens? In my earlier treatise, I said there is no magic formula because it may be good for someone (Quiambao) and bad in some (Lobaton). But Filipino designers are leading the pack in the field of designing. We have Oliver Tolentino, Michael Cinco [1], Jojie Loren [2], Rajo Laurel [3]  and Inno Sotto [4] to name a few. Oliver Tolentino [5] designed and made the gowns used by Gwendoline Ruais who came out as First Princess in the recently held Miss World 2011 with astounding results. Ruais came out stunning in those gowns. The gowns were made to complement and make Ruais radiate in them.  And there are still those that have made the fashion world more significant in the name of Pitoy Moreno, Renee Salud, Louie Mamengo and Goulee Gorospe. These stalwarts have made the Filipino fashion world more memorable and exciting as we venture into the new world.


The Filipino designer has been in the forefront of fashion ever since. They have shown apparels which are fashion forward and is highly competitive in all fronts. It is about time that we give them the chance to dress up our pageant queens. What Cory Quirino did in the recently concluded Miss World 2011 is a step in the right direction.