Life is a Beach

CEBU, Philippines - With this heat and humidity, everybody’s zeroing in on any body of water to cool down. As an archipelagic country, we’re blessed with long stretches of white sand beaches. Cebu, our island paradise boasts of the abovementioned beaches that extend as far as the eyes can see. Coupled with beautiful people that complement the scene. So where do these be`autiful people go first before they hit the beach? Why to Salvador Malto of course and his swimwear and lounge line The Company We Keep. Malto is a designer with an architect’s sensibility, and his clothes sheath the body in elements and facets constructed with the technical precision of a blueprint. This season, his 8th, he cited “apparitions of light” as his inspiration: fireworks, the northern lights, and the way the sun is reflected in the sea. Those are some pretty ephemeral effects to tease out of fabric and thread, and voila! A swimwear line varied as the fishes in the ocean and more.

Whether or not Malto’s luminous line were tangibly interpreted, the swimwear and lounge pieces looked great. The designer worked those structured folds to clever effect, creating both slim and fluid silhouettes out of the high-tech fabrics he loves like jersey and lycra. Lace touches appliqued into the back seaming of a dress were wrapped around to the front, magically inverting to create a horizontal cover up across the bodice. A swag of the lightest silk chiffon was slashed across the length of the bodice, leaving one side tented and the other slim as a blade of grass. For a softer air, Malto cut the same shapes from washed silk, in light sandtones, butter yellow, emerald green and more. Bravissimo! ?