A sketchy story

When Lu-Ann told me that she was going to get married, we immediately met-up and discussed the details of her big day. In one meeting, she asked me that very important question: "What am I going to wear?"

She knew her wedding theme was "Modern Filipiniana," but she had no idea how to translate that into her wedding gown. And that's when she sprang this mind-boggling challenge for me: "I-drawing mo naman ako ng wedding gown."

While my passion is in writing, I also dabble in drawing. In fact, when I was in primary school, I drew a lot. I was a member of the art club, my "paintings" were always chosen by my art teacher and posted it on our classroom wall, I wrote a full length comic book about superheroes and I remember I even had a notebook which served as my dossier of characters.

Unfortunately, the growth of my drawing skills was stunted. Harhar. The way I drew back then is pretty much the same way I draw now. And it ain't that pretty, I kid you not.

Anyway, I took that challenge from Lu-Ann as a way to further enhance my creativity. And just as any advertising practitioner will tell you, the place to start the creative process is through inspiration.

I came back to Lu-Ann with 3 options, all under the theme of "Modern Filipiniana." One was inspired by the Vinta of Mindanao, the second was inspired by the lowly "tapis", and the third one was inspired by the Spanish-era jewelry, the "tambourin."



Lu-Ann immediately fell in love with the "tambourin" concept. The gown's silhouette was the classic Filipino terno, but I made it contemporary by adding the tambourin accents along the front and back seams of the dress. Another modern touch was to make the pattern more angular and geometric, thus, I designed it as a diamond instead of the usual circle. Finally, since I'm a believer of the "change costume" concept, there were two tops that could be worn with the gown. Aside from the butterfly sleeved top, there was also a "kimona" styled top with tulip sleeves. This was intended to be worn during the reception.



After Lu-Ann approved the design, I immediately brought it to Aling Bright for her masterful execution. We did several back and forth meetings in terms of the materials and embellishments to be used. And after a few months of work, this was how it turned out. It was actually better than what I envisioned.



Everything about the gown was custom designed. Even the geometric pattern was made from scratch. Good thing Aling Bright is a master at embroidery and beadwork. She captured the essence of the tambourin splendidly.



When the make-up artist saw the dress, she immediately remarked how classic and classy that it looked. Her words were "elegant," "mamahalin," and "ang yaman-yaman." And Lu-Ann said that the make-up artist was a good gauge of how nice the dress really is.



Before, during and after the wedding, people were telling Lu-Ann how beautiful her wedding gown was. She would always reply" "Gawa ni Lester 'yan," and I would always counter "Nope. I was just the Creative Director/sketcher."



And after seeing the two articles of clothing side by side, and seeing it in action, I thought, "Not bad for something that started out as chicken scratch." Harhar.

(It's worthy to note, though, that this wasn't my first foray into "chicken scratch-ing" a dress. I did the same thing for Rona last May. And that's worth another post.)