The strong shall live

CEBU, Philippines - Write your answers on a clean sheet of paper.

Question no. 1: How many meters do you think these designers spent on the new kind of draping?

Calculators are allowed, but show your solutions.

Question no. 2: If you’d be given the chance to climb the Lost City of the Incas—7,970 feet above sea level in Peru—would you wear jersey pants with prints drawn from that ancient civilization, wind a turban around your head like gypsies do, or perhaps, show some skin along the way?

Question no. 3: Under normal circumstance, the eyes blink at an interval of two to ten seconds. However, when sewing haute couture frocks by hand, how many times should the eyes blink?

And if you’re the spectator, would you even blink for a second?

Question no. 4: What do the girls in the house want?

Pencils up… Please pass your paper.

Battle of the brains

The most remarkable pieces manifest raw inner workings of the mind.

In this last edition of our coverage of the Philippine Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2014,  each element’s staying power rests on your response.

Feminine Silhouettes

In this category, the women designers do know their market. Wearability is a major deciding factor, as shown in the pieces they’ve released: short dresses made of fabrics which are easy on the skin, with ultra feminine details such as bows, bubble hemlines, and cut-outs.

Tribal Prints

Tribal prints return with Peru’s most famous patterns. Plain colors are very much welcome, even black, but accessories truly define the look—turbans and multi-layered necklaces and bracelets.

Haute Couture

They exemplify tedious handiwork in bead working, pattern making, and design process. Haute couture holds strict arbitrary demands a quality. So yes, patience is a virtue. 

Draping

When they begin to drape the fabric, the results reflect on how cunning the designer is in hiding sewing marks, always aiming for an immaculate fluidity of the fabric’s natural movement.