The Philippine Online Chronicles

Closing the evening of Fashion Week’s first day is a collection by Manila’s prince of avant-garde—Jun Jun Cambe. This esteemed designer is one of the country’s best. He was the first to receive the Filipino Fashion Award, and has done shows in the international scene like Dubai and Paris.

Cambe is most widely known by his four-word mantra “Create, Innovate, and Dictate.” In his new collection, that is exactly what he did.

While the first shows mainly featured RTW (ready-to-wear) collections save for a few designers, Cambe’s pieces are couture and high fashion.

His designs for the female market were a mix of oriental and flapper and a combination of different eras, using techniques such as ruching and embroidery and also including intricate and tasteful embellishments. Cambe’s play with texture also upped the style factor of his gowns. The result was a series of feminine and tailored gowns that screamed vintage elegance with a kick.

There was also a lot of color play in black canvas, especially with the gowns which sported floral designs that nonetheless did not seem sweet at all, but fierce.

For the men, Cambe showcased slimming and elongating silhouettes which are cut close to the body. The pieces were made from fabrics like leather and glittered mesh, and exuded a stylized punk aesthetic.

The last three gowns which Cambe released on the runway were jawdropping as the audience oohed, aahed, and clapped while the models sashayed slowly on the runway giving the audience an eyeful. The first one was a black Victorian-inspired gown with white cutout embellishments, and the second was a maroon and black matchup with black trimmings. In true Cambe fashion, his last piece was absolutely stunning: a wedding gown featuring his impeccable play of texture and use of embellishments and trimmings without looking too complicated and over the top.

Although Cambe incorporated a number of inspirations in his collection, his show did not appear to be inconsistent because he kept black as a unifying color. The shifting of the style from one gown to another was so fluid and smooth that you just take in the pieces gulp by gulp.

Photos courtesy of Francis Tuason. Some rights reserved