From Manila to Machu Picchu with Mega

MANILA, Philippines - We had no other woman in mind,” so said Sari Yap, Mega’s main woman when they were conceptualizing their biggest ever September issue, out in newsstands now. “The entire project was one year in the making. We knew that we would go to South America but we had to secure Anne first as our cover star,” said Meryll Yan, deputy editor of the history making glossy. Serendipitously, Sari was seated beside Anne at a Swatch event and that’s how things started.

Mega has always championed the Filipino being one with the global community as it pushes its own boundaries of being at par with the best fashion glossies from all over the world. The theme of the issue? One Global Community. 

“By no small coincidence, even the team seemed like a microcosm of this idea. We had model siblings Vanessa and Daniel Matsunaga from Brazil, photographer Danilo Hess from New York, half-Pinoy and half-Aussie cover star Anne, and the rest of the team had roots in the US, Hongkong, Spain and of course, the Philippines. It was a crazy, ambitious project and we needed the best team for it. I think we indeed assembled superstars, I mean, megastars!” mused Meryll as we flipped through the pages of this month’s Mega.

Why this sudden trend of local glossies going abroad to shoot their September issues? “Mega pioneered going abroad for editorial shoots and cover shoots and the reason we do this is because we want to showcase the best of the Filipino against the most iconic places in the world. We wanted to prove that we could not just do justice, but even upstage, these sites with our own stars and our local fashion.” 

The glossy magazine editor’s life is one filled with future planning as they juggle shoots, trips, events and pitches all at the same time, regardless of season and of course, the cover star’s availability. “Anne was the easiest to work with, I have to say she was such a joy to work with,” says Sari Yap in her Instagram account @sariyaploves. This year’s September surprise from the OneMega Group was semi revealed on social media when posts were revealed one by one which showed Anne Curtis and the Mega team in South American spots~Peru and Brazil!

Labor of love

“We try to outdo ourselves and this year, we set our sights on South America: Rio for its chaotic, fun spirit and Machu Picchu for its serenity and other-worldliness,” said Meryll, eyes filled with excitement leading to their public unveil, which was done online last Sept.  4 at exactly 4:06 p.m., this being a symbolic notion to having the thickest ever 406-page issue in their magazine’s history.

When you look at the issue, the hard work may not be seen by an untrained eye as all you’ll be seeing are flawless fashion figures floating on each page — one seamless shot after another. But that is not how things in a glossy mag world unfolds. “As much as you try to make things as smooth as possible, curveballs happen and we just had to make the best out of things. We recount some of the craziest stories in the issue: among them, how we discovered that traffic in Brazil is worse than Manila, having to shoot in the presence of homeless people in São Paulo.” Eye opening, to say the least.

“We were also being barred from shooting in Machu Picchu,” the Mega team had told me all their other adventures, all of which can be seen in the #MakingMEGA documentary of Michael Carandang. Of course, they were able to shoot, as you can see in this month’s big issue. The Filipino spirit, when it sets its sights on something is unstoppable. 

“This project was really a labor of love. That this team came together and that we were able to surmount some pretty big obstacles, shows that if you have enough heart and you can visualize the best product, then you will go through anything to make it happen. Magazines are often associated with glamour but this trip did not have any of that. #makingMEGA became not just a journey, it was a character-building experience that we wish to share with the entire Filipino public.”

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More behind the scenes stories and sidelights at twitter.com/officialTIMYAP.