His recently-presented mini-bridal show, in cooperation with Metro Weddings magazine, is signature Gaupo. Expectedly a pleasant procession of beautiful women made more beautiful by the pieces they were wearing, the show was an eye-opener of sorts, a parade of eye candy subtly laced with hints of shock value.
Held at the poolside area of Hotel Intercon, the bridal-exhibition surprise added a contemporary twist to traditional Filipino wedding wear. Gone are the light colors, the beaded halter necklines, the piña and jusi altercations, and the heavy satin overkill. For his first bridal showing, Gaupo plays with form and silhouette which gives a modern edge to chiffon and other samples of light fabric, and engages a festive color palette. In being modern, Gaupo also manifested a streak of practicality. He doesn’t thwart tradition for the sake of doing so. You can sense a mission to uplift a woman’s self-confidence and sense of comfort through the clothes he creates for them. Weddings are supposed to be fun and festive celebratory gatherings. Gaupo realized that one can’t revel and rightfully celebrate in a wedding when worrying about suffocating fabric, bulging body parts and dragging hemlines.
The collection unveils in the order of a traditional procession of a wedding march. The ring bearer and the flower girls come out first: cute little things in wispy white, oblivious to the significance of their designer debuts. The mothers parade next. One wears a high-necked gown that falls into sinuous folds, the other has on a sparsely-beaded creation with big, ballooning sleeves clad at the wrists. No terno takes or butterfly sleeves in sight. Cesar’s resolve to dress the mothers in fluid fabric, flowing silhouettes, and bias cuts pays off. The simple yet elegant creations are more flattering alternatives to the stiff, sequin-studded piña creations traditionally reserved for the senior constituents of the entourage.
The secondary sponsors followed. Rather than go for pastels, a color range Filipinos hold synonymous with weddings, Gaupo boldly introduces a mix of bright turquoise and iridescent teal green. He also puts the secondary sponsors in equally dazzling shades: fuchsia paired with bright orange. This brilliant palette, the designer counters with minimal accessories (a single brooch or an exacting bow detail) and close to absent beadwork. Apart from an adherence to the empirecut, each of the designs for the younger female entourage is decidedly distinct from the other (a praiseworthy effort that makes you feel you’re being challenged with a personality quiz through formal wear). Some dresses are noticeably short (falling just below the knee), while the longer gowns are a few inches short of sweeping the floor. With this move, Gaupo obliterates the possibility of any of the brides’ best girls stumbling along to Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. He also gives them more mobility with fabric choices that aren’t too heavy or bulky.
What Gaupo started out with the matrimonial moms, he comes to full fruition with the female principal sponsors. Superstition-lined tradition is completely cast away along with ecru and beige tones, and the uninspired silhouettes ninangs seem to be cursed with. Gaupo is cognizant of the basic rules of fashion: light colors add bulk, dark colors minimize. That said, he sends out his principal sponsors in glamorous black column sheaths made of fabrics that gracefully fall and skim the figure, and conceal protuberances most elderly women are concerned with. Beading becomes more perceptible, although far from being described as heavy. Gaupo doesn’t center the beadwork on any particular area but scatters it all over the gowns (a technique that discourages focus on a specific body part).
When it comes to the bride, however, Cesar Gaupo isn’t one to compromise tradition. Not too much, anyway. The standard white still stands and it resplendently shines unadorned and fashioned into a fitted silk satin top that flares out into voluminous rounded layers of chiffon and silk satin. To inject a streak of sensibility, Gaupo ignores the traditional train requirement and the frothy headpiece. In lieu of a veil, Gaupo uses a small, circular headpiece to crown his bridal creation.