The recently revamped UNO Magazine threw its first fashion show last November 16 at the NBC Tent, and I received an invitation to attend it. You all should know by now I’m a sucker for fashion shows, so I jumped at the chance to dress up and make a night out of it. Ü

Titled “Man Up!”, the UNO fashion show presented menswear modeled by women, styled by Mara Reyes (Gas, Bench, and Diesel), Tricia Gosingtian (Massimo Dutti, Marithe e Francois Girbaud, and Levi’s), Xie Antonio (Gap, Celio, and DC), and Dominique Tiu (Blued, Raoul, and Marks&Spencer;). I first met Tricia when she photographed cosplayers (including Alodia Gosiengfiao) for my article on cosplay in the Philippines. She’s only 21 and in her 4th year of college, but she’s already styling for a major fashion show — props to her!

I arrived right on time, as the invitation said “6:30pm”. While I was wandering the precincts all by myself, I bumped into RJ Ledesma, the editor-in-chief, who I had met briefly at the UNO Bloggers and Contributors Night. (I also added him on Facebook. LOL) I was surprised when he approached and greeted me.

RJ: Hey! Where are the other six?
Me: Six? What six? Huh wait — who do you think I am?
RJ: (brief pause) Well, I think you’re Noelle.
Me: Yes, I’m Noelle but I didn’t bring six others with me. (awkward!)
RJ: Oh it must have been another Noelle who said “me plus six”. Well, thanks for coming early!

Oops.

After that, I texted Jayvee, who told me he was on his way. I was quite pleased to find fellow bloggers Fritz, Jane, and Dhon to sit with, and we attempted to find seats that weren’t in the direct path of the aircon vents. There was free-flowing food by Tamayo’s Catering and beer by San Miguel (I keep trying to appreciate it, but I still hate the taste of beer. Yech.), and guests kept pouring in as well. I think we stole seats meant for some of the celebrities who showed up, since I saw Joey Mead and Iza Calzado on their feet when the show finally started around 8:30pm.

Women as tall as men can wear menswear.

I recognized some of the models who strode down that runway — Grendel Alvarado, Ornusa Cadness (who was UNO’s October cover), Isabel Roces, and Ana Sideco. Three changes per model, but the show ran along smoothly. You can check out photos from the UNO Fashion Show on my Multiply.

And what did I wear? Oh, just something I threw on:

this old thing?

It was dressed up enough to stand up against the well-heeled women at the fashion show, but fun enough to wear at the after-party at Members Only.

So what do I think of the show? It’s an interesting concept, having women wear men’s clothing. It certainly must have been a challenge to keep the models looking sexy in boxy men’s cuts. And really, how creative can you get with button-down shirts, sweaters, shorts, and pants? But I watched these items of clothings come down the ramp transformed into skirts and dresses.

What I didn’t see were women wearing men’s business suits — pinstripes, neckties, formal jackets, fedoras, suspenders. At the end of the show, RJ promised an even bigger fashion show next year, and he left me a comment on Facebook saying that next year I could expect to see that sort of stuff. Hope so! Congratulations to the stylists and to UNO Magazine for a kick-ass event. Ü

Tags: Fashion Show, UNO Magazine, Menswear

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I was nominated at last year’s Philippine Blog Awards for my travel blog, Trippin’ with Noelle De Guzman, but wasn’t able to go. So this year, when my friends Ade, Bim, Fritz, and Marck were nominated, I made it a point to attend the awards night on October 9.

This year’s theme (chosen months in advance) was “One Blogging Nation”, which was highly fitting since bloggers were a major source of information and mobilization for relief efforts in the wake of Typhoon Ondoy. Gang Badoy of Rock Ed Philippines, who was the keynote speaker for the night, also organized a collection of donations in goods on the night itself. It felt good to be part of a celebration of the power blogs have in giving people a voice.

The awards show was also broadcast live over Flippish. Kring, the director of the broadcast, got Ade and Marck to be interviewed (check out Ade’s tongue-in-cheek recap of what occurred) while I sat in the back row with Madz and Marcelle (both nominated) and behind Ade’s fellow Comicgasm writers (also nominees). Marck ended up winning two awards, and Marcelle one.

The back row turned into a sort of heckler’s gallery, where we felt free to fling side comments at the stage, cheer winners on, and even sing “Happy Birthday” to Roch, who won Best Culture&Arts; Blog (incidentally, she and I were classmates in UP). But why am I writing about this when I can just show you video?

In the days leading up to the PBA’s it became a sort of running joke that someone might Kanye an awardee or two, but since there were no acceptance speeches that night (too many awardees), nobody got up to the task. There was, however, a Kanye West there:

He let them finish.

Congratulations to the nominees and winners!

Tags: PBA09

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