What is the secret of your power?

CEBU, Philippines - Raise your glasses to the women in the house.

We would like to propose a toast — to new foundations. Shall we?

At the Miss Cebu 2014 coronation night, the lady designers were set to put up a good show.

Triumphant entries that hail the queens—oh yes, oh yes!

Ditas Rodriguez has returned to the pageant scene after five years of hiatus, reinstating her fashion throne. She sent down first runner-up Eva Patalinghug to the stage in a t-shirt cut serpentine dress, encrusted with tiny crystals, which were clustered first before lining them up to function like pipe edgings: the formula to garnering the Best in Gown glory.

Best Designer recipient Marichu Tan, on the other hand, rendered an illusion of lace through painstaking stitching of Hot Fix Swarvoski crystals and Egyptian acrylic stones. The upper silhouette was easy to slip on, even if you reach down for the bottom hemline, which she beautifully flounced with French tulle.

Forever cunning with fabrication, Arcy Gayatin delivered another treatment. She was in the mood for a simple silhouette because she was up for a greater truce: the dimensional lace cut-outs that ran down from the bodice crossing over at the back. With her intelligent assignment of sheer materials all over the design, she certainly knew what the girl needed.

“Female designers can actually lead in pageant dress designing because we understand our very own limitations. We understand why we do not want to show too much skin,” texted Marichu the morning after the occasion.

Take her word for it. Even if these three designers own distinctive personal styles, the answer is cohesive—charisma, charisma, charisma. (CHP)