Beauty pageants, like death and taxes, are here to stay.
Fashion designer and beauty queen maker Renee Salud teamed up with fashion and pageant director Concon Sinel, and yours truly (I, too, am a product of Bb. Pilipinas, one of the country’s premier beauty pageants) not only to celebrate beauty but also to help the youth hone their potentials.
From our individual experiences and the countless beauty pageants around the country that the three of us have attended as judges, we came to realize that indeed beauty pageants could play a relevant role in our society. Doing the Mutya ng Lungsod Quezon 2004 proved this point. Apart from the fact that the pageant was able to make a difference in the candidates’ lives – they ended the competition different from when they joined; now more polished, mature and also more aware of the social issues – it also put together people from different fields of Quezon City to work together toward one goal: the local government, the private sector, the young candidates and fashion designers.
Quezon City, of course, is known for many things. Apart from being home to the best universities in the country (UP and Ateneo de Manila among them), the best hospitals (Heart Center, St. Luke’s Medical Center, etc.), and all the TV stations, it is also home to many of the country’s fashion designers, such as Randy Ortiz, Rudy Fuentes and Renee Salud. It is where former Paris-based designer Roy Gonzales established his local practice when he came home, and where the careers of fashion icons Ramon Valera and Joe Salazar first blossomed. So it’s no surprise that QC is fast becoming the Fashion City too. Mushrooming along the long stretch of Kamias and Kamuning Roads alone are ateliers of both new and established names.
Quezon City’s designers were tapped during the pageant to reinvigorate the fashion industry and 24 of them came together to doll up the candidates using abel Iloco fabric: Peter Lim, Paul Cabral, Vivo Nazareth, Larry Espinosa, Eddie Baddeo, Frederick Alba, Bumbee Ramos, Paola Angela, Jay Sustiguer, Boying Eustaquio, Dennis Martin, Edwin Uy, Jontie Martinez, Eddie Castro, Shannon Pamaong, Ramon Depositario, Jun Halili, Edgar San Diego, Edgar Madamba, Joel Pros, Francis Calaquian, Arielle Agasang, Ronaldo Arnaldo, and Fanny Serrano.
It was a difficult task for me to coordinate with all the designers, what with the artists’ temperaments. As a model, I never had to deal with such concerns because all I had to do was fit the dress and carry the designer’s creation well. Just as I thought everything was going smoothly, one designer would suddenly say he could not produce the gown on time or that a very important client had imposed a new deadline and he had to back out at the last minute. And how about those who wanted to choose whom to dress up (naturally, they all wanted to be assigned to the strong contenders)?
Eventually, things fell into place and we were lucky that everyone was very cooperative. No other local pageant has been able to bring together the best homegrown talents of the city in one event.
All throughout the presentation, the Mutya ng Lungsod Quezon candidates wore outfits made of abel Iloco, an authentic Filipino material that we can promote not only locally but globally as well. With the help of Governor DV Savellano who provided the material made in Ilocos Sur, the participating designers showed us their talents as they swirled their magic wands unto the woven threads. And voila! the modest tapestries were transformed into exquisite ternos in no time at all.
The terno competition was held in a separate gala attended by a number of luminaries and sponsored by Wild Vine Wines. A unique catwalk was created by stage master Boy Regala on the grounds of the Quezon City Hall. It was absolutely stunning to see girls transformed into queens when they wore the beautiful gowns. Seeing the candidates on stage in their resplendent ternos brought back memories of my Bb. Pilipinas days and wearing Filipiniana gowns during tours in the major capitals of the world with Fashion Czar of Asia Pitoy Moreno.
It was no easy task to judge the best terno design. After all, how do you determine a winning gown made by some of the country’s popular designers? Indeed, how does one judge a work of art? Renee Salud came up with this idea: Let the designers judge each other. So that’s what they did, alongside a distinguished panel of judges including some of the fashion authorities like Aureo Alonzo (the Philippine Dean of Fashion and the only Filipino Camel awardee in Milan), Jeffrey Jeturian (noted film director whose eye for artistry cannot be compromised), Arnel Papa (the very talented fashion accessories designer), Chi Narvaez (veteran director of Filipiniana-inspired shows here and abroad and fresh from a successful show in Vienna), Ogee Atos (seasoned international fashion director) and Melanie Marquez (regarded by many as the Most Beautiful Miss International).
Francis Calaquian topped the competition with his elegant version of the terno, winning the Wild Vine Wines Award for the Best Terno Design in Abel Iloco.
The girls looked ravishing after a makeover by Agatha and wearing Arnel Papa’s accessories, and Renee Salud’s abel Iloco collection – from the barong tagalog paired with casual jeans to the sexy cocktail silhouettes and then to the flowing elegant long gowns. Fanny Serrano and his makeup team enhanced the ladies’ beauty during the grand coronation.
Mayor Sonny Belmonte was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of beautiful ladies in QC (the pageant yielded more than 80 candidates in the district level) prompting him to say it was high time that Quezon City focused its sights on the beautiful things in its communities. Honestly, this was the best thing that the mayor has done to uplift the state of fashion in the city. The city government, long supportive of medium-scale industries, now regards the fashion industry as a priority. After all, the industry creates jobs for seamstresses, cutters, and fabric suppliers.
The pageant started innocuously enough with a conversation between Renee Salud and Quezon City Administrator Jojo Ochoa. Brilliant ideas took off from there.
Joining a beauty pageant is one thing, and producing one is another. Both are absolutely nerve-racking – and yes, very exhausting! As executive producer of the Mutya ng Quezon City, I had to deal with the designers, talents, suppliers and the candidates plus make sure that the production was running smoothly. It was good that I had some experience in production (with little knowledge and lots of guts, I mounted Rajo Laurel’s major gala show at the Intercon Hotel in 1999).
Working with top-caliber personalities reinforced this lesson: They achieved their status because of the same principles that make great artists and leaders – discipline and hard work, vision and foresight, and above all, passion for what they do.