What does it take to be a good wedding fashion designer?

You have to listen to your bride. You have to understand what she likes. You have to get her ideas and then fuse it with your ideas to have the perfect combination and both of you will be happy.

Big no-no in wedding fashion

For me, there's no particular thing that I don't like for a wedding gown. Maybe just the showy type, maybe just the very see-through type and the very outrageous one. For me, it's really up to the bride; if it makes them happy, why not. 

Here in the UAE, they listen to me, they listen to the designers. Mostly, they bring photos, which is good because I can see directly the dresses that they like and then I can just suggest what is not appropriate.

How wedding gowns have evolved

The classic one is the 60s, it’s very elegant – the plain without beads. These are the timeless pieces. The classic ones are not dying, they’re very timeless and very modern at the same time. In this particular era, we are kind of mixing both the very detailed one and the elegant silhouette. The silhouette is very simple, but the details of the dress are very heavy and very fully beaded – that's the trend in this time. 

People he looks up to 

Cinco, One and Santos – the three of them are the biggest ones here. All of the Filipinos I think look up to them, especially fashion designers. Cinco, Amato and Santos, they're really the big names here in the UAE.

On dressing up Filipino celebrities

Well, I already dressed up Lea Salonga before, so that's already quite an achievement.I'm a frustrated singer [laughs], so I’m dressing up singers instead of me singing. I still want to dress up Mercedes Cabral. I dressed her up before during the Cannes [Film Festival in 2009]. I want to dress up her again because she's quite a pride for our country. She's a great image of a Filipino woman - brown skin and not the typical mestiza, great body and a great actress as well.

(Cenit also has dressed up Dubai-based X Factor UK 2016 aspirant Ivy Grace Paredes, Asia’s Phoenix Morissette Amon, other singers like Sheryn Regis, Nikki Gil and actresses like Dionnee Monsanto and Beauty Gonzalez.)

International stars he would love to dress up
I love Celine [Dion]. I've mentioned that I've always wanted to dress up singers. I love Celine, I love [Lady] Gaga and for the red carpet I would love to dress up Anne Hathaway. 

...[ Continue to next page ]

Share This Post