Sassa Jimenez: The next big name in fashion
There’s a new name in Philippine fashion’s little Blackberry — Sassa Jimenez. At the tender age of 21, Sassa shows an impressive mastery over her craft that numerous designers take years to develop. A cum laude graduate from the two-year Fashion Design program in the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) In Los Angeles, California, her talent and creativity are absolutely irrepressible and fearless. She plays with fabrics and colors, reinvents silhouettes, and adds layers (sometimes quite literally) of drama to her clothes. When she unveiled her 45-piece collection in the recently concluded 11th Philippine Fashion Week last Oct. 25, she revealed her strong fashion point of view. Keeping the bodices of her dresses strong and sleek, she stylishly crafted her distinct architecture through interesting draping, delicate folds, voluminous curves, and swishy layers. The interesting play of structure and volume created an innate, irresistible dynamism in her clothes. Absolutely nothing clichéd or ordinary about Sassa’s work; these were clearly statement clothes, fasyon pieces that would turn heads and elicit admiring comments such as “Ang taray ng outfit!”
Yet there remains an undeniable element of “wearability” in her clothes. Women will be able to see themselves in these fasyon pieces instead of just admiring them on the models on the runway. Unlike other forward-thinking designers, her designs never cross the line of being too surreal. Sassa calls it “Step Out Fashion,” clothes that sparkle with couture and confidence, but allow for active movement. Her spring/summer 2009 collection shows a mix of body hugging silhouettes and looser ones, but always keeping the look fresh, edgy, and of course, pretty.
Sassa’s acute awareness of high fashion and craftsmanship shows in all the details of her clothes, from puff sleeves and high neckline of a canary yellow dress to Grecian-inspired draping over the shoulder, from the ruffled neckline of an adorable blue plaid mini dress to the full linen and chiffon ruffles of a beige gown. In fact, the cascading ruffles are reminiscent of yet another young and impossibly talented designer who won over the fashion world, Victoria Beckham, and the fourth season of Project Runway with his final collection’s voluminous ruffles and “fierce” design mind. Is it mere coincidence that Christian Siriano was also 21 when he unleashed his collection in New York Fashion Week and rocked the fashion world ever since? There is no doubt that Sassa Jimenez is already a designer to watch out for, the name that should be on the speed dial for fashion. After all, Fashion Week is a showcase and a fearless forecast of what fashion has in store for us. Clearly, Sassa will be taking the industry by storm.
