Modeling Mania

The modeling industry seems to always elicit a handful of contrasting opinions. Whether it swings on the positive or negative pole, all reservations were forgotten with the multi-media extravaganza of the MTV Fashionista Best Model of the World Search 2003 . Held last Monday, November 17, the neon lit ceremony featuring the most promising faces of our country to complete in the global fashion arena astounded and entertained audiences with their versions of blue steel!

Heavyweight Hype

   Organized by media giant MTV Philippines and orchestrated by avant-garde director Robby Carmona, at the NBC tent in Fort Bonifacio, it became the converging point of the multi-faceted navigators of the fashion industry. On one side, the seated judges who were chosen in different points of the industry were designer Rajo Laurel, magazine guru Luis Espiritu, top lens man Raymund Isaac, beauty icon Angel Aquino; cosmetic wizard Patrick Rosas, fashion king Randy Ortiz and seasoned stylist Jenni Epperson amongst others. Moving to the dead center of the stage, MTV’s finest manned the microphone to host the nocturnal event. Fresh from the New York modeling scene, statuesque beauty VJ Sarah Meier played main anchor together with VJ songster Marc Abaya. While TV bombshell Cindy Kurleto and eventologist Tim Yap livened up some segments in front of the floodlight and amongst  the model-hungry crowd.

Choosing The 1

   To the resonating sound to house music and sandwiched between a towering cross-shaped monitor screen and a long white runway, the 12 picture perfect finalists eventually emerged to engage in some serious catwalk face-off. The course of the of the laser-lit program, each of the six male and female contestants took to the walkway cloaked in a variety of garments including metallic couture suits, pleather pants, and sleek bikinis made by the members of Young Designers Guild. Spread across an hour of shoulder swinging and facial angling salsa, the sponsor representatives came up on stage in tandem to give special awards to the fashionista few. Such model victories included James Bautista and Melissa Frye, for the Addict Fashionista Award, Jonas Leviste and Olivia Daytia for the Jag Style Award, Honeylet Gacson and Brent Javier for the Nivea Body Best Model Bodies Award, Olivia Daytia and Bjorn Engler for the Canon Powershot Photogenic Award, Olivia Daytia for the Nivea Visage Best Model Face, and Melissa Frye and David Costales for Best in Evening Wear Award. With every modeling performance already given on-stage, the time came for the judges to electronically choose the 6 Filipinos who would fly across the seas to represent the country in various international modeling competitions. After drum roll played by the eager audience, the winners of the cool competition were finally announced.  Female 2nd Runner Up, Honeylet  Gascon will be hied off to China to vie for the Miss Tourism International Competition while the Male 2nd Runner Up, Bjorn Engler will be trekking to India for the Mr. International Search. Similarly, male and female 1st Runners Up Ria Bolivar and Brent Javier will also be hopping over to China for the Miss Model of the World Competition and the Manhunt International Competition, respectively. Finally, Rafael Kiefler and Melissa Frye bagged the grand prize as the 2003 MTV Fashionista Best Models to clock-in for the Best Model of the World Competition in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Princely Party

  At the end of the show, the crowds inched their way to the nearby Prince of Jaipur for a party fit for Bollywood royalty. As papadums and party drinks were served on silver platters by the silk-draped servers, the visitors headed straight from the door to the dance floor to shiva shake to the beats of turntable master DJ Jon Herrera.  While the circle of fashionista winners threw some final paparazzi poses outside, MTV’s cool Rod Nepumuceno zigzagged through the Indian-carpeted interiors to attend to the after-event.

Later in the night, party animals slowly appeared to merge for some merrymaking. Stylish Wendy Puyat-Hotung did some heel clicking together with couple-about-town Tina Tinio and Lex Ledesma. R&B’s man-of-the-hour Jay-R and Broadway boy JM Rodriguez put their vocal chords to rest and whipped out their dancing feet to lead the pump-grinding and shaking on the center stage.

 Although such activities are often tagged as artificial and shallow by other sectors, the winners of the fashionista event will have a chance not only to do a reprise of their best facial angle and ramp walk but also to broadcast the beauty of the Filipino race to the rest of the international modeling scene. We wish them the very best!

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E-mail the author at mybubbleboy@hotmail.com