Furne Amato on Rabiya’s gowns: Simple, but not generic

CEBU, Philippines —  World-renowned Cebuano designer Furne Amato feels “so flattered” to be offered the task of creating Miss Universe Philippines 2020 Rabiya Mateo’s competition gowns.

“At the same time, I was thinking, ‘Kaya ko ba ito? Because I’m not a pageant designer, I’m more avant-garde. I’m more into creative thinking,” Amato told pageant blogger Norman Tinio in a video interview. “I’m so flattered to begin with that they invited me to do her gown because there are a lot of talented designers, especially in pageantry. But they considered me to do a different take.”

“I want it to be different. With pageantry, there’s like a mold…that it should show the candidate’s beauty and body, it should be simple,” added the Dubai-based couturier. “It’s not what I’m doing so it’s like a challenge for me. I was told to give it a try because it’s a new platform.”

Amato said he infused Rabiya’s “fiery and festive” personality into his brand’s DNA.

“I considered those qualities of hers. It should be simple, but different. My aesthetics as a designer is still there, I just mixed into it Rabiya’s personality. Yun bang sinasabi nilang Hala Bira Walk? I merged that in creating the gown. Very Amato but with Rabiya’s personality.”

Without giving specific hints about the preliminaries and finals gowns, Amato merely described them as having “energy.” He also said that Rabiya’s manager Jonas Gaffud trained her how to walk in the gowns since the cut requires that she handle them in a certain manner.