Fashion Watch Report: JC Buendia brings back elegance to daytime dressing
MANILA, Philippines - JC Buendia knows the smart sartorial woman. Known outside fashion circles for being the official designer for former President Gloria M. Arroyo, he is now one of the top names for formal wear. Today he continues to outfit President Noynoy Aquino for special occasions. So it’s no surprise that his inspiration for this collection was first ladies — Michelle Obama, Carla Bruni Sarkozy and Jackie Kennedy. “I’ve been watching The Kennedys on History Channel and so I traveled back to the early ‘60s for inspiration,” he says.
The newly elected president of the Fashion and Design Council of the Philippines (FDCP) revealed his affinity for the good old days, with models in beige dresses, embroidered skirts, men in soft linen suits, pressed button-down shirts. And there were monograms. It was a tribute to a golden era when women wore real skirts in the daytime and got dressed to go, er, shopping. In his hankering for this iconic era, Buendia handpicked his soundtrack as well, treating us to recognizable tracks from the classic fashion film Breakfast At Tiffany’s. “I just wanted to complete the feel of the pre-Mod years, when families went to picnics, when ladies dressed up for lunch,” he says.
It was refreshing to see a tight collection of pieces created for moving about town in the day. His inspirations are, after all, powerful women with calendars full of appointments. Buendia used a range of beautiful fabrics from cotton and linen, piqué, broderie anglais, and silk piña, showing a hint of European elegance but well executed for our tropical weather. He also infused fresh color, having used mostly black and white in his previous collections. “I mixed beige and periwinkle blue and added a third color, kelly green,” he says.
A master of quiet and exact tailoring, it deserves a mention that he experimented with bias insertions and peek-a-boos. “It was a challenge in construction to come up with ultra simple designs,” says Buendia. And lest we forget what he can do for affairs like the increasingly fashion-oriented parade that is the State of the Nation address, he ended his show with a modern Filipiniana gown in bell sleeves, proving that while he looks to history, he stays relevant to the times.
