Bravo, Mobo!

In a homecoming show, Lesley Mobo mixes the young glamour of beads, sequins and lace with the scent of his new fragrance for Bench.

It was easy to spot Lesley Mobo in his wardrobe room at Shangri-La Makati a few hours before his Red Charity Gala Show last Friday. His signature baseball cap was sticking out from the gowns hanging there, not to mention the heaps of shoes and the array of Bench briefs designed by him, and a group of bordaderas working on additions to the beaded gowns he had brought in via Etihad two days earlier.

Stylist Noel Manapat joined us in this chaos, a cool presence, while director Ariel Lozada jumped into the scene with his impish smile, as if saying all’s well, don’t worry, be happy. And  a super-slim Kaye Tinga sashayed into the picture on her way to the spa to de-stress from all the production tension, while Tessa Prieto-Valdes must have been taking a yoga break. Kaye has been one of Mobo’s early believers, and so has Ben Chan, who is the presenter of this year’s show where the Lesley Mobo scent for Bench would be launched.

Coolest of all was Mobo, who began to talk about the scent. “Ben Chan and his team presented some ideas and essential oils from the famous French perfume-making town of Grasse, and from there, I chose the ones I felt suited my philosophy as a designer. It took almost a year to finalize every aspect of the product, until we came up with two scents. The blue Mobo box has a strong, deep, enigmatic and sensual quality to it with its aromatic marine and classic fresh spicy main accords. The pink Mobo box has a candy floss vanilla accord in sweet modern caramel, almost edible.”

How has Ben Chan been a force in his designing life? “Ben has always been supportive of my work since our earliest collaborations. He is wonderful for a designer to work with, as he is able to bring his huge experience to a project, never interfering with the design element, only encouraging and making gentle observations. He knows his market better than anybody. He continues to champion all things Filipino.”

As for the Mobo underwear line for Bench men and women, “We speed it up rapidly with the evolving world of prints and graphics. It was a printed version of the catwalk collection for the gala, with the stars, graphic patterns injected with bright colours and a progressive street style written all over it.”

Then, the vision for the couture collection which looked Tudor: “The whole idea of the collection is not to drag viewers back to the Tudor times — or to the ‘70s or ‘80s — but rather to romanticize each of those eras and create something new. I experimented a lot with textures, layering and there’s a focus on surface textiles. I wanted it to be fun, romantic, young and playful. It was an orgy of Tudor Romance towards the culmination of the War of the Roses and Dynasty kitschy glamor via Studio 54. Like a Christmas pudding, eclectic but with precise proportions. Fun but mysterious, marked by the generous use of beads, paillettes, feather, lace and glitter, made modern with strong emphasis on necklines and shoulders,” Mobo explained.

Mobo, our best export to Britain,  has been a hit in London’s fashion scene for 16 years now, having spent much of his designing life with Harrods after studies at Central Saint Martins. Mobo has also been a Uniqlo fave. How much of his designing soul is now British?

“Our lives, both past and present, influence what we do and this is just as true in design. Living in a large European city has its influences, as have the projects which I have worked on there. But I have never attempted to shake off my roots and these remain an important part of my design DNA. One could say that this collection is a homecoming of sorts, a homage to my beginnings and the history of the place that moulded me as a fashion designer. London’s rich history will always inspire me in this always constantly evolving, never-ending journey of discovery.”

How the ballroom of Shangri-La Makati was transformed into a different time and place, director Ariel Lozada explained: “The whole idea was inspired from keywords I gathered from Mobo when, one afternoon, we were having tea at Orangerie, my fave place in London every time I need to work on concepts. The set was inspired from Tudor homes, cove ceilings as I interpreted these. For the framework of Tudor houses, I collaborated with Ohm David to realize the vision. There is an underlying coldness to the design vision which was slowly stripped bare, while echoing thoughts of hope and renewal. Red symbolically connects all the elements and ultimately converge in the center, making us whole. The lighting concept had been playing in my mind for quite a while.”

So amid prisms of light, edgy music and Tudor frameworks, the beautiful show unfolded.

For orders and more information, write to info@lesleymobo.com. The Mobo underwear line for men and women for Bench Body, and the pink and blue Mobo scents are now available at Bench stores.

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Follow the author on Instagram and Facebook@milletmartinezmananquil. Email her at mananquilmillet@gmail.com.