Giving Rhett Eala his due

Rhett Eala says he might give up couture soon. And he has no qualms about doing so. The tradeoff would be focusing on ready-to-wear, which, in the last couple of years, has been tremendously good to him.

This year might actually be better. While still riding on the success of his C2 line for Collezione, Rhett is also giving a rebirth of sorts to the RTW label that launched him as a designer in Manila 20 years ago. Due (pronounced “du-we”), the department store brand that first targeted teens before evolving into a dress-up line for women, is now back on the racks after nearly a 10-year hiatus, taking up boutique space in Greenbelt 5. This time, also as part of the Collezione group. “Reviving Due had been in my mind for the last couple of years,“ says Rhett. “C2 is a brand catering mostly to men so I needed a brand that would also attract our women customers.”

Deviating from the sporty collections he has been producing the last few years, Rhett’s method for attracting women relies on draped, fit-for-a-goddess dresses, tops in jersey and light cotton and ruffled asymmetric tops. He’s also reviving a Rhett Eala signature: the poncho, but this time in cotton and in dark colors instead of pastel chiffon. Unsurprisingly, attesting to Rhett’s ability to span trends and time, the poncho has been Due’s best-selling piece since the store opened a week ago.

Showcase: Due on exhibit for the brand’s initial launch

While the opening collection presents mostly special-occasion dresses, Rhett is looking to creating more corporate-centered pieces for his next outing. And just to complete an entire RTW line for women, he eventually plans to add on cocktail frocks with dressier details such as sequins and in luxurious material such as Thai silk. Along with the vision comes a promise to keep his prices affordable. “That’s the way we can succeed: by keeping our prices low, or at least lower than the competition.” Rhett attributes this, not to cheaper material or substandard workmanship, but to Collezione’s position as both retailer and manufacturer. “We make our own clothes. We don’t source out, which is why we can come up with clothes, even luxurious pieces, that can be priced competitively.” With Due, Rhett is not just up against other local designers, but high-street fashion labels and international RTW brands.

Ready-to-wear is where it’s at

Rhett is probably the biggest champion of designer-driven, local ready-to-wear. “I spoke to some young designers from SOFA and I asked them what they wanted to do and they all said they wanted to do couture. None of them wanted to do ready-to-wear. And I had to ask them why not.” Though Rhett agrees that couture and made-to-order works for some, citing peers such as Rajo Laurel and Randy Ortiz, he fervently repeats, “Ready-to-wear is the future of our designers. I may have started trends — the poncho, the map shirt — but that was all because I did ready-to-wear. If you want a trend to catch on, you can’t just do it with one dress. You have to multiply it.”

He’s also not discounting the pull of the masses. “Mass market is the way to go. When you’re doing made-to-order, you’re catering to maybe about a thousand women. With ready-to-wear, it’s an audience of millions.” Rhett also points out that, even now, there’s a huge chunk of the AB class that doesn’t have time to wait for a dress to be made. So they turn to designer RTW. If they can buy from international labels, why not from a home-grown brand like Due?

Homecoming

The daily grind of doing ready-to-wear brands have taken its toll but Rhett is not about to keel over with the overload: “I enjoy the work and the hectic schedules.” Apart from completing eight-hour workdays in the Collezione office, he spends evenings doing store visits or doing more designs at home. If he can’t stop himself, he even works weekends. “I’m probably the only one who can say this but I’m happiest on Monday mornings.”

It bears noting that the hard work has allowed him to reconnect with his past. Relaunching Due is like a homecoming of sorts. “It feels good to go back to Due. Twenty years ago, I was so inexperienced and I made so many mistakes along the way. Now, I’m armed with all this wisdom. When you design, it’s not just about the dress. It’s also about your marketing, price points, the quality of your garment. I didn’t know these things when I was a newbie. So now, it feels like I’ve come full circle.”

* * *

Due is now open at the 2/L, Greenbelt 5.

I finally succumbed to Twitter. Follow me @AnaKalaw.