A charity and a designer mark their milestones together

ON OCT. 27, the Grand Ballroom of the Marriot hotel will be the venue of a benefit fashion show featuring over a hundred designs with each model walking down the runway for two long minutes.
Red Charity Gala, founded by Tessa Prieto-Valdes and Kaye Tinga, this year marks its 10th anniversary along with that of fashion designer Rajo Laurel who is himself celebrating his 25th year in the industry.
For the gala, Mr. Laurel will showcase the Archipelago collection which he considers “his personal essay on what is Philippine design.”
“Clothes are modern representations of armor. It goes without saying that I am a modern creator of armor. Women of power and strength must have the armor and I am a designer who creates these things,” Mr. Laurel told BusinessWorld after the launch at the Manila Hotel on Oct. 3.
The collection will include several series such as “Orchidia,” “Corales,” and “Zarzuela.”
The Archipelago collection will not only focus on the country’s geography but also nature and culture. “I did not begin the collection with a narrative. It began with an experimentation of different fabrication,” said Mr. Laurel.
He joins past Red Charity Gala honorees Dennis Lustico, Furne One, Michael Cinco, Cary Santiago, Ezra Santos, Jojie Lloren, Lesley Mobo, Chito Vijandre, and Joey Samson.
In support of the Philippine Red Cross and the Assumption High School Batch 1981, and partnering with BENCH as its main presenter, the Red Charity Gala this year has a new beneficiary, the MINT Fashion School, and will raise scholarship funds for students.
The gala will also feature an auction. Among the items to be sold are a Jewelmer strand necklace with 53 semi-baroque Golden South sea pearls, a Bernhardt bed frame and two side tables worth P700,000, and overnight packages in Boracay and Palawan. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman