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Acting Editor: Daryl Angelo P. Baybado
CIRC
Glorious Farrales Model Ana Arambulo dons a geometric patterned halter top and shorts with matching floor-length vest from the designer’s runway show in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Socialite Chona Kasten models one of Farrales’ earlier designs—a shift dress accesorized with a scarf, pillbox hat, and gloves.
BENJAMIN “Ben” Farrales, recognized by his colleagues in the fashion world as the “Dean of Philippine fashion designers,” has received the Gawad CCP Award for Fashion Design—the highest distinction given to artists and scholars who has eked out distinguished careers in the arts and cultural scholarship by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). Farrales was honored for his remarkable contributions to the Philippine fashion industry through the use and integration of Philippine and Muslim culture in his works. A fine arts graduate of the old UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts, Farrales is, with Salvacion Lim Higgins (the woman behind the Slims fashion school), perhaps the biggest Thomasian name in fashion. All other influential Thomasian fashion design names look up to him—Nolie Hans, Lulu Tan Gan, Danilo Franco, Larry Silva, J.C. Buendia, Edgar Allan, Edgar San Diego, Junjun Cambe, Gerry Katigbak,
Jerome Ang, Eric Pineda, and Vittorio Barba. Born in Cotabato City on July 1, 1932, “Mang Ben,” as he is called in fashion and lifestyle circles, grew up with a keen fascination for the weaving and clothing traditions of the lumad or indigenous communities of Mindanao. He moved to Manila to study in UST and later started his career as a fashion designer by doing apprentice work at Aurelia’s, a popular fashion boutique during the 1950’s. Farrales then opened his first boutique in Malate where he mastered his talent in dressmaking. Even as a neophyte designer, his works were already desired among Manila’s social elite circle and admired by no less than Ramon Valera, the only National Artist in Fashion Design. “Mang Ben” is most acclaimed for his penchant for creating Muslim-inspired gowns and attires and for his constant use of local fabrics such as piña, hablon and jusi. Awarded as the 2005 Ten Outstanding Filipino awardee for Fashion by Junior Chamber International, a non-governmental international organization, Farrales is also known for staging big and awaited fashion shows. He was one of the first few Filipinos to successfully present a show at the Manila Hotel and
Administration alumnus, linked together an irregularshaped silver block, a glittered pink, green and white cylinder block, a multicolored and abstractlypainted tube block, and an orange and black cube speckled with miniscule silver triangles using a braided dyed orange cloth, accented by two tiny bells. “I used whatever I can get my
One of the showstoppers during Farrales’ 50th anniversary showcase was a wedding gown and umbrella adorned with sampaguita blossoms.
2013 Farrales’ Spring/Summer 2014 collection showcased a contemporary take on the Filipiniana silhouette with a striped black-andwhite kimono top and skirt modeled by longtime muse Marina Benipayo.
also to stage solo international fashion shows such as in Muslim bridal gowns accented with capiz and pearls. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He was also awarded a plaque of recognition by the In 2013, he closed the Spring Summer season Makati City’s Museum and Cultural Affairs Office for of Philippine Fashion Week, a feat only done by his “exceptional contribution to spreading awareness established and reputable designers. The show, entitled about Filipino attire through his designs and creations.” “Ben Farrales: A Retrospective,” highlighted his blackJust January, friends and co-workers of Mang and-white collection along with his classic trademark Farrales PAGE 14 Muslim designs. The finale show, whose closing was greeted by a standing ovation from the audience, also also featured his timeless pieces from different decades: the Kimona Filipiniana collection 1950s; Metal collection (1970); Obi collection (1983); and Maranao collection (1986). When parts of the country was devastated by typhoon Inday in 2002, Mang Ben held a repeat performance of his 70th birthday gala, “Ben Farrales: 50 Years in Fashion,” to raise funds for typhoon victims. It was followed by a fashion show, “Encore,” which showed his collection of Greek-inspired toga dresses and gowns. The show also included flattering figured gowns worn by beauty queens such as Melanie Marquez and Ruffa Gutierez. His classic Filipiniana stunners were shown in “Kasuotang Pilipino” in September 2014, including Farrales at the PNB Fashion Show in June 1998. malong-inspired long-sleeved green dresses and PHOTO COURTESY OF PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
Different artistic media bring wooden blocks to life PLAIN wooden blocks were brought to life through different artistic media by 25 artists including two Thomasians, in BaBel, or Building a Better Edifice Leisurely, an art exhibit held at the Underground Gallery in Makati Square. Exhibit curator Nice Buenaventura designed four wooden, irregularly-shaped blocks originally intended to be stacked and re-stacked by the viewers which served as the blank slates for the artists. This structural limitation ties the whole exhibit as different artists unveil intricate and bizarre designs the given blocks can be. Mixed-media artist Zeus Bascon’s “Lost Charms,” a College of Commerce and Business
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A TRIBUTE TO THE legendary FASHION DESIGNER
hands on in this exhibit. I sometimes stopped on working on my pieces but I really dedicated a set of consecutive days to focus mainly on that piece,” Bascon said in an email to the Varsitarian. “I even bring the wooden blocks with me a couple of times so I can work with it once inspiration and motivation kicks in.” Meanwhile, Costantino Zicarelli, an Advertising Arts alumnus of the College of Fine Arts and Design, used black gesso—a paint mixture usually used as a primer made from a combination of chalk, gypsum and pigment, which he partnered with graphite on paper. Zicarelli said he underwent a hard time thinking of a design for the wooden blocks which made him resort to reusing old ideas. “The challenging factor was using the blocks as the main work. It was stressing me out but I had a last minute decision to reuse an old idea which is a camouflage illusion,” he said. Zicarelli’s work “Block Objects” consists of an illustration of the aforementioned shapes accentuated by precise tracings on each side of the blocks all overlaid by continuous tracings of the wood texture’s pattern. Drawn on a black canson paper, his interpretation of the wooden blocks stands out as the only tabular work in the exhibit. Stacked beside this were his work of wood prisms all painted in black. The exhibit, which ran through early September, also featured the works of veteran artists Nilo Ilarde and Juan Alcazaren namely “Big Kick, Plain Scrap” and “Best Excuse Ever,” respectively. Zicarelli is a contemporary artist who was one of the recipients of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ 13 Artists Awards in 2012 while Bascon won an illustrator’s award at the 2010 Philippine Board on Books for Young People Awards.
Ebarle’s ‘Hibla 8’ weaves magic out of weaving traditions ABSTRACT ethnic motifs from Philippine native weaves are further abstracted and reworked in Jane Arrieta Ebarle’s eighth edition of “Hibla” series of paintings at the Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Gallery of the National Museum of the Philippines. Threads on Canvas: Interweaving of Different Artistic Traditions showcases Ebarle’s abstractexpressionist acrylic-on-canvas works. A graduate of Advertising Arts from the old UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts, Ebarle studies the works of traditional weaving communities such as the Ifugaos, Kalingas and Tausugs and interprets them in her abstract style. But for the new series, Ebarle researched on the collection of ancient weaves from the National Museum collection. “For instance, there is a textile related to the tribe of Kalinga so my painting will have something to complement that,” Ebarle said in an interview with the Varsitarian. Ebarle’s 15 featured artworks have vivid colors, overlapping lines and strokes and combinations of patch-like partitions along with tribal patterns. “I want my artworks to be culture-based because our country has a very beautiful heritage of textiles,”
Ebarle said. “My aim is a tribal context.” “I never run out of mystical with my conne see something textured, designs,” she added. Ebarle’s interest on she read Philippine Ethn by the Design Center of Though the artworks de black-and-white, it didn lively colors. After showcasing t Maranaos during her sec Pinagmulan at the UST was inspired to create a interweaving thread-like birth to the “Hibla” seri “It is a struggle for signature style, which I Ebarle said. The Hibla ng Lahin of Senator Loren Legard to preserve and reveal th Philippines. AMIERIELL