Michael Cinco does not like the word "impossible". Instead, your fabulousness prefers "impalpable".
"It's my favourite word," he says, adding with a laugh: "I use it all the time. When I am at a loss for words, I just say ‘impalpable'.
"My motto is to dream the impalpable dream," adds the Dubai-based designer, adapting a line from the song The Impossible Dream, from the musical Man of La Mancha.
"Every day, little by little, I try to achieve the goals in my life. I don't know if I will achieve them all, but I know it is not impossible."
For someone who was first drawn to fashion by watching classic Hollywood films as a little boy growing up in the picturesque Samar province of the Philippines, Cinco can confidently say he's achieved some of his dreams and tasted success. His latest triumph is a design project for a segment on the hit TV show America's Next Top Model, produced and hosted by model-turned-media-personality Tyra Banks.
Created by Banks, the top-rated show is now in its eighth year and 16th cycle — with two seasons a year — and is syndicated to 170 countries. With Banks, Vogue magazine contributing editor Andre Leon Talley and renowned photographer Nigel Barker on the judging panel, contestants are put through various assignments and photo shoots and are eliminated one by one.
Cinco was drafted in to design for the final six contestants in the current season (cycle 16).
"It's amazing," he says of his journey from Dubai designing haute couture for the past 13 years, to American TV. "But it all happened very quickly.
"I had a show at the Philippine Fashion Week last year and someone in the audience knew a producer at ANTM, who got in touch with me," he recalls of how his association with the American show happened. "At first I thought it was just a joke. He called me and told me the concept and asked me to send him sketches. I sent a few along with a link to my website and forgot about it."
Banks, apparently, was immediately sold.
"She loved it — and asked me to start production immediately," Cinco recalls.
Michael Carandang, who has also worked with The Tyra Banks Show and The Jerry Springer Show, is the producer who made it happen for Cinco.
"I first saw his work through Facebook when my friend, Ash Reginald Evasco, a photographer, posted some of his designs from Philippine Fashion Week. Michael thinks out of the box. I love his intricate craftsmanship and attention to detail and thought he was perfect for ANTM," he tells tabloid!.
When the clothes were done, Carandang says Cinco was spot on.
"He stuck to the brief. He was on point."
Cinco was asked to create six different pieces for an eco-friendly shoot.
"They said I had to use elements I could find from garbage," he recalls. "I used a lot of safety pins, broken mirrors and rubber bands. I created metallic corsets from the pins and the rubber bands were made to look like fake fur. Then I used forks and spoons as necklace. A lot of my fabrics came from recycled parachutes and a type of chiffon that looks like a cellophane bag.
"I made 10 couture dresses, which took me about a month. A wedding dress generally takes me two months."
Once completed, Cinco was flown down to Los Angeles, where he would meet the finalists, the rest of the cast and Banks.
‘Fierce attitude, moneyed
"The first thing that Tyra asked me was if I brought any bling from Dubai" he laughs. "She was very nice, very professional and, of course, very beautiful.
"Andre loved all the dresses and he said any Hollywood star could be wearing them on the red carpet. He especially loved the accessories and took all of them for another shoot.
"I remember I had to sign so many confidentiality agreements for everything imaginable. That is why I am only able to talk about this now since the show has started airing in the US."
The landfill shoot was taped in November last year.
Cinco's stint with the show has been lapped up by the media in his home country.
"The response has been overwhelming. It's just my luck that the premiere of the show coincided with the visit of Nigel Barker to Manila to promote his book. So everywhere he went he was asked about the collection. Nigel was all praise and told the press that it was one of the best photo shoots he has ever done on the show."
Dressing celebrities, however, is not new for Cinco, who enrolled at the famed Central Saint Martins in London a few years ago to fine tune his craft. He has made clothes for supermodel Naomi Campbell and burlesque model and actress Dita Von Teese when they visited Dubai, among many others. His deep- pocketed patrons, 90 per cent of whom are Arabs, are the who's who of UAE society and royalty from the region.
Who is a Michael Cinco woman, I ask.
"She has a fierce attitude, she is moneyed. She may not be born into royalty but she better be married into one," he replies.
Back in Dubai, he is already working on a "high calibre" fashion show scheduled for October and putting the finishing touches on a collaboration with a major Filipino fashion label.
Will he want to head back to America's Next Top Model if an opportunity presented itself?
"Of course," Cinco says. "Tyra told one of the producers that she wanted me back for another segment. So let's see."
That dream might not be so impalpable after all.
