Alpha, and the Oh-mega!
I love awards nights! It brings an industry together, makes people really dress up, and it pays tribute to the influential and the inspiring — the best, boldest and most brilliant minds that this scene has produced.
Fashion, no matter how much an obsession it is for mass and class, is one of the most underrated but overconsumed arena there is. It is the easiest thing to point a middle finger at and accuse fashion to be all gloss and pretentious floss. But beneath the surface sheen is a creative powerhouse of hard working, meticulous, passionate, expressive and happy people who translate thrill to frill.
I cannot begin to describe how important something like this, the Samsung Mega Fashion Awards, is for an industry that is on the verge of a full throttle skyrocket. Samsung has found its rightful fashion F buddy. When I say “F,” I mean fun, forward and not fierce — and not fake.
Backstage at the show, we didn’t realize how much of an institution Mega has become. I still remember flipping through my sister’s Mega issues — from its first cover (with Gerone Olorrosissimo) to this February’s fab fab Georgina and Jessica Wilson sister duo styled by Michael Salientes, it’s jaw-droppingly good. With my co-host Joey Mead, she was recalling her first ever Mega shoot, and she had this little girl beside her as part of the shoot with the Wig Tysman. This little girl happens to be Helena Belmonte, the scene’s reigning IT chick, daughter of Lorraine Belmonte, Mega Publishing Group’s creative guru.
Mega Publishing Group president Sari Yap looks better and happier than ever, and Mega editor in chief Carla Sibal (who was in an eye-popping Roy Gonzales gown, aside from the obvious big hair, of course) will always look smashing, the valiant vixen that she is. I’ve witnessed Mega’s evolutions and transitions from Sari to Liza Ilarde to Carla, and I must say, it just keeps on getting better than ever. Credit this to the new set of fashion forward editors (aside from Carla, we have Pauline Juan, the progenitor of Preview, our very own Celine Lopez’s YStyle, Jenni Epperson and Apples Aberin’s Friday Fashion), stylists, photographers, makeup artists, models and people behind the scenes who make it all work. With these aforementioned people, pioneers of individuality (and not plastic puppets), fashion is in good hands.
The awardees went home with a steel sculpture trophy by Ovvian Castrillo, called “Printemps,” which signals everything new — new cycles, new beginnings and new frontiers. It also represents the solidity of Philippine fashion to move forward and pave a new way for a new future.
On this Supreme spread, witness the people who make it happen.
