Sharp Styles at the Binibining Cebu Pre-Pageant

CEBU, Philippines — Gone are the days when beauty pageants were solely about the title contenders. Beauty pageants have since become platforms for fashion designers to flaunt their creations, as well. In fact, there’s so much of fashion to be expected in the swimwear and eveningwear pre-pageant event of the upcoming Binibining Cebu, where the creations of the metro’s top designers will share the spotlight with the pageant’s ravishing 54.

The beauty-and-fashion affair is slated to take place tomorrow, November 13, at the Mandani Bay Tent at the North Reclamation Area. Designers affiliated with the Cebu campus of the Fashion Institute of Design and Arts (FIDA) are dressing the “binibinis” in the long gown competition. A special black-and-white collection by the design school’s mentors and graduates is to be showcased – the pieces are foreseen to highlight techniques that are traditionally associated with fabric form-molding, ranging from pleating, ruching and shirring.

To complement the FIDA designs are verdigris-hued multiway-styled swimsuits by designer Mikee Andrei of the PauLina resort and swimwear line. Like the Venus-cut dresses designed by Cary Santiago and worn by the candidates during the pageant’s Press Presentation of Candidates on September 18, the swimsuits to be showcased at tomorrow’s event are to be form-flattering pieces for the candidates’ different body types, in versatile wrap-around designs.

As Cebu basks in the glow of its recent designation by the UNESCO as a “Creative City for Design,” the swimwear and eveningwear pre-pageant of the current Binibining Cebu pageant is poised to prove that the designation is well-earned.