Now and forever21!

CEBU, Philippines - At the much ballyhooed Forever21 launch not so many days ago, 500 of Cebu's top personalities from age 8 to 88 showed up to take a dip at the new fountain of youth.

The Forever21 label finally opened its doors to Cebu. I had fun doing mental notes on the show. "The comeback of romanticism," "Cool refinery" and "La=la-la layered?" A wordy way to convey the manner in which the high-waisted, tiered, full-skirted, fairy-tale silhouette meets post grunge nostalgia in fall colors but truly the label has made its own way into the voracious Cebuano market, this time. One reference point for the collection was "the spirit of Kurt Cobain." The ghost of grunge did seem to hover over the mixing and matching of pieces that could have been harvested from an imaginative stylist workshop: a pink angora coat over a rugby-striped dress, say, or a leopard-print bed jacket over a flaring black skirt, or a tiny plaid jacket worn with over-dyed purple denims. The styling and the shoes-a towering suede platform boot-fit with the idea. But someone in the crowd whispered, "Where will I wear that?" With which I was quite mortified that anyone would read something so literal into the designs.

"This isn't retro, it's modern nostalgia," said the bespectacled stylist whom I had the chance to talk to over fitting sessions. "It's the clothes we were wearing when my Mom was an adolescent translated with today's fabrics." Yes, they were from the Forever21 shop with multiple copies in every rack, but any worshipper in the altar of style would customize them, and add bits and pieces till they look distinctive. The same notion animated a patchworked velvet skirt and all the items in the collection that was all about lace and coats.

It isn't hard to imagine the precocious teens and those who are literally 21 forever picking bits and pieces from the shop's latest offerings. You might as well zero in and indulge!

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Credits:

M.A.C.>Models Association of Cebu (0917 6302400)• Directed by Edwin Ao • Maquillage by Emi Ayag and Ramil Solis • Photographed by Dan Douglas Ong • Special thanks to Cybill Gayatin and Kaye Luym of A –List (FREEMAN)