Coconut Waffles & Vogue

I don't understand how some people still have this awful crab mentality, especially in Manila. I swear. Why can't everybody be happy for each other's success?!?

Just this week (if I remember right) Rajo Laurel's cobweb dress made it to the cover of WWD. Yahoo! :) I've never felt so proud. And although I am no fashion expert, my obsession for fashion magazines and runway updates allow me to say with confidence that I can easily spot a beautiful, original and well-tailored dress when I see one! Now going back to my story, as soon as I saw Mr. Rajo Laurel's work on the front page of the most read newspaper in the whole fashion industry, I was very very happy. Needless to say, it made my day and made me (as always) proud to be a Filipino, 100%.

But of course, as usual, some of my fellow countrymen are having issues with the cobweb dress as it is a copycat of something previously done by a Cebu-based designer. (I shall not mention names for fear of adding unnecessary publicity to this designer--as if I even have 20 readers anyway.) I am trying at wits end to understand the validity of this issue but seriously, come on! The Cobweb dress/fabric whatever you want to call it has been used a thousand times by a thousand designers known and unknown. It's not something this designer has invented and has every right to call her own. If her fans are saying Mr. Laurel's clothes look exactly like the ones she's created then I don't think it's fair. It's just like saying that only ONE DESIGNER can make a lace dress or a tied dyed one?!?

There's this 3.1 Phillip Lim dress I've been eyeing on since it first came out early last year. The lace dress on his resort 2010 collection. The name of the brand escapes me now but I remember that certain fashion house having almost the same lace dress as Phillip Lim's. I mean of course, NOT EXACTLY THE SAME MIRROR IMAGE and it was ok. It is ok as long as it isn't a replica. The only thing Rajo did was make a dress in his own design using a common method in dress-making: SHREDDING. Gosh, even fashion bloggers do it. WTH?!??

I'm not being biased here (aside from the fact that I love and most importantly have so much respect for Mr. Rajo Laurel's designs--i'm not an obsessed fan but simply an observer of good taste and aesthetics ) but I cannot help but be affected and fight for the fact that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE COBWEB DRESS AND THERE SHOULDN'T BE AN ISSUE ABOUT IT. Just like there isn't an issue with silk chiffon draping and Missoni-like knits that are everywhere. If only my memory is that of a consistent Gingko Biloba drinker, I can give a lot more valid and in-your-face examples.

I don't work in the fashion industry nor am I a rich snob who knows the A to Z's of fashion but I love looking at clothes and seeing local designers rise to international success. So it hurts me to see fashion designers attack other designers for something that really, is quite shallow. Quit that crab mentality. It's embarrassing and disturbing. Papansin, much?

So there, my little opinion carved in cyberspace history. Don't get me wrong, I'm not attacking anyone, I am simply defending someone who I believe should be spared from this kind of treatment and inconvenience. And to attack the theme of his designs with another issue regarding arachnids and insects being different. Well, to this person bringing up this other issue: you are right. arachnids are not insects but Mr. Rajo Laurel can do whatever he chooses with his collection and call it whatever he wants because he made it and it's his and only his. Not yours, not anyone else's. Not even the Discovery Channel or National Geographic are a bit bothered by this.

Okay, this entry is too long. Whew! But I just want to voice out my thoughts on this whole cobweb dress issue. Please, let's be happy for one another:) For what good is there if you keep minding other people's business and keep complaining about this and that? I heard there's a Kampihan going on in the Philippine fashion industry. How sad.

Seriously, we don't need that right now. Let's just be happy ok? Because Rajo Laurel has been in the business for a long time. I think those years of continued success and a clean, professional reputation as a genuine designer have proven him to be deserving of whatever recognition he is receiving right now. Be it locally or internationally.

Mr. Laurel, I hope you're reading this because seriously, we are proud of you and we will make sure that you continue to be a huge success and an inspiration to all of us women who believe, like you do, that we should all be happy and channel positive energy to the world in whatever it is that we do :)

Ah...for the love of fashion. I can write an entry this long at this late an hour :)

xoxo. goodnight guys. M.