While I’ve attended fashion events in the past, this is the first time I’ve infiltrated been invited to a society event. The SLIM Retrospective opened yesterday at the National Museum for the Filipino People, and I was blessed enough to have friends who asked me to view it with them on its first night. (The exhibit will remain until March 2010, so there’s still enough time to go see it!)

SLIM stands for Salvacion Lim Higgins, a Filipina haute couture designer. Designing from 1947 until shortly before her death in 1990, she is best remembered for dramatic silhouettes, intricate embroidery and beadwork, and reinventing the Maria Clara and terno for Manila’s high society. She also started a fashion and art school that still operates in Makati.

Her legacy was on display last night, presented by Preview and Town&Country; magazines with the support of Citibank, Nokia, and the Peninsula Manila. The museum facade was aglow with washes of colored light and decked out with a red carpet for honored guests to walk on.

Red Carpet!

Preview Magazine’s November issue features Anne Curtis on the cover and inside in a fashion editorial that pays tribute to SLIM. A number of the dresses on display in the museum were also worn by Anne in the pictorial.

what was old is new again

I saw the Project Runway Philippines regular cast, UNO Magazine’s creative director Juan Caguicla, dignitaries from foreign embassies, actors and actresses, and perhaps I failed to recognize some of Manila’s movers and shakers because I’d never seen them before (or paid attention). Gosh, I’m so middle-class — not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I fully enjoyed myself with the wines from Titania, canapes, cold cuts, and cheeses from Peninsula Manila, and was able to move around pretty well in my gown by Ryan Madamba, who had invited me to come with him to the retrospective. You don’t see it in the picture below, but that gown had a train measuring about eighteen inches. The only other woman in the place with a train was Preview editor-in-chief Pauline Juan. Not bad for an interloper like me. Ü

fashion with friends can’t go wrong

Check out my Multiply album for more photos from the SLIM Retrospective launch, or go to Stylebible.ph’s photo gallery.

Tags: Salvacion Lim, SLIM, Fashion Retrospective, Manila Society