RL News: Fashion as Art, Art as Fashion
Designer Jojie Lloren holds his first exhibit at the CCP
Celebrated Filipino fashion designer and Project Runway Philippines mentor Jesus “Jojie” Lloren showed a collection last July 3, and it wasn’t on a runway. Instead, Jojie opened “Musings with the Muses” at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), an exhibit that showcases a 39-piece collection of dresses and gowns he initially created for the Red Charity Gala in 2014.
Curated by Albert Avellana of Avellana Art Gallery, the dresses are Jojie’s interpretations of various Filipino artists’ styles and paintings. The artists range from modern masters such as Joya, Ang Kiukok, and Gus Albor to young sculptors like Mac Valdezco. Jojie translates each artist’s strokes and iconic works into the lines and detailed ornamentations of the dresses, such as the distinctive tilted hat and balloon sleeves of Juan Luna’s famous “Lady at the Racetrack” painting, the overlaid lace that resembles the dappled blues and greens of Juvenal Sanso’s landscapes, and the graphic white-over-black beading that emulates the linear forms of National Artist Arturo Luz’s canvases.
Jojie’s 40th dress for the collection is showcased in a nearby hallway, and is photographed in various angles and locations by his friend, the model-photographer JoAnn Bitagcol. Here, in a reversal of Jojie’s exhibit, the dress becomes art in a series of photos.
“Musings with the Muses” can be viewed at the fourth floor gallery of the CCP until July 23, 2015, and JoAnn Bitagcol’s “Metamorphosis” is on display at the Pasilyo Victorio Edades, also at the fourth floor. For more info, go to culturalcenter.gov.ph.
Click here to see Jojie’s atelier in a post-war converted house.
