The SM Department Store’s partnership with Philippine Fashion Week highlights their joint passion for fashion and for promoting the best in the Philippines.
Executie producer/director Joey Espino has long envisioned Philippine Fashion Week as a venue for Filipino designers “to gain a foothold in the national and world stage.” Its recent decision to follow the international fashion calendar and offering season-focused collections like fashion weeks in New York, Paris, and Milan, is a strategic step in eventually penetrating the global marketplace.
The SM Department Store, on the other hand, has been the acknowledged innovator and trendsetter in the Philippine retail scene. SM has been credited for creating a lot of fashion excitement in the Philippines by promoting ready to wear fashion in a big way and for showcasing Filipino designers in its stores.
“In the 1970s, ready to wear fashion was limited to a few boutiques that carried a small assortment of clothes,” recalls designer Cesar Gaupo, who worked at SM during that time. “The imported clothes were rather pricey, and while some of the homegrown stores were beginning to carry ready to wear lines. During that time, people would have their clothes custom made by the neighborhood modista (dressmaker), or upcoming young designer, or as in the case of Manila’s society women, the country’s top couturiers.”
SM Cubao
“Personally, I thought ready to wear would never take off, but SM changed all that,” adds Gaupo who is now a consultant for the global brand Shanghai Tang on a part time basis, and also designs and produces high end fashionable shoes under his own label.
SM’s management led by Tessie Sy-Coson developed fashionable clothes that they promoted through statements like Khaki Kraze and Sexy Grey, fashion shows, and fabulous windows that were the talk of the town. The clothes were an instant success, and flew off the rack, so to speak.
Gaupo was also part of a group of designers that brought local ready to wear to a new level at the SM Boutique Square – Jeannie Goulbourn, Lulu Tan-Gan, the late Caloy Badidoy, and for a time Azabache and Santiago de Manila. In the 1980s, SM was home to a ew wave of designers like Efren Ocampo, Mike de la Rosa, Bobby Novenario, and Tonichi Nocom, as well as the start of new brands that later became national icons like Bench.
SM Makati
More ready to wear brands showcased their clothes at SM in the1990s, and with the SM Supermalls’ ongoing aggressive expansion program, fashionable men and women all over the Philippines now enjoy wearing SM’s stylish clothes, shoes, and accessories.
Joey Espino had long observed how SM had influenced the local fashion scene and thought of collaborating with the Department Store for Philippine Fashion Week. The collaboration is highlighted in key display areas in premiere SM Stores in Makati, Megamall, Mall of Asia, and Cubao.
The SM Department Store’s partnership with Philippine Fashion Week highlights its long running passion for fashion and to promote local designers not only on the national but also global stage.
Posts
