Slim’s enters new era with Benilde
Keeping the legacy of a National Artist alive
FILIPINA fashion designer Salvacion Lim Higgins — better known as Slim Higgins to former clients and the rest of fashion history — was recognized as a National Artist for Fashion Design in 2022. The designer, who showed Filipino women a new way to dress after the Second World War, secured her legacy by building what became the country’s oldest fashion school in the Philippines, Slim’s Fashion & Arts School, in 1960. While already well established since beginning her career in 1947, clients urged her to open the school, and she and her sister Purificacion developed the curriculum.
Ms. Higgins passed away in 1990. The school had to close in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, as with many establishments; Ms. Higgins’ daughter Sandra also passed away that year. This left Ms. Higgins’ son Mark as the sole custodian of the designer’s namesake school and its accompanying archive. And he, as he acknowledged, was not getting any younger.
To secure the legacy of Slim Higgins, the school and its collections will be turned over to the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB). Online classes will be offered in November this year, while regular classes will start in January 2026.
“The legacy of Salvacion Lim Higgins is not just the curriculum, which in itself is priceless. It is an archive,” said Mr. Higgins in a speech during a press conference and a ceremonial signing on Sept. 4 at the DLS-CSB campus.
This archive includes 300 dresses, a fashion library of about 800 books, bound fashion magazines from 1939, press articles, photographs, vintage embellishments, sketches, and Ms. Higgins’ National Artist medal. These will be housed at the Benilde Fashion Museum (BFM).
“When I reached 60, I realized: I was the last member of the family, holding this entire legacy in my hands,” he said in a speech. In an interview with BusinessWorld, he said that the decision came about during the pandemic. “So many of us knew so many people who died, of different ages. Of course, I had to think about mortality,” he said. “If something happens to me, what’s going to happen to the school?”
“While I’m still physically and mentally able, I need to find a successor.”
While other fashion schools in the country have approached him to obtain the rights to use the school’s curriculum, none were willing to take on the archive intact — threatening the collection which could have scattered to the winds. DLS-CSB was the only institution willing and able to take the collection in its entirety.
For their part, Benilde President Br. Edmundo Fernandez, FSC said in a speech, “When I tell people that Benilde is the new custodian of Slim’s, people in the know say, ‘Very good, brother. That’s taking care of national patrimony.’”
“We will keep Slim’s as it is,” he said, though Mr. Higgins told us that he was told that the classes will be held in the DLS-CSB campus (the Slim’s campus is in Makati). “We will keep the clientele… the clientele of Slim’s is really middle and lower-middle class. We will keep that; we will keep the fees as much as possible,” said Mr. Fernandez.
“At the same time, we want to interface with our Fashion Design and Merchandising Program, as well as our upcoming fashion museum, hoping that these three will make Benilde THE fashion school, not just in Manila, but also in Asia,” he said in a speech.
But what’s next for Mr. Higgins? He’s working on a book, he’s painting, he’s renovating. He’s also in touch with museums abroad to display some of his mother’s work. “Live my life,” he told BusinessWorld. — Joseph L. Garcia
