Manila: Actress and TV personality Kris Aquino topped an online vote for best gown worn during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of her brother President Benigno Aquino at the House of Representatives in suburban Quezon City, although observers complained the poll trivialised the political event.
Aquino’s Filipiniana gown, made of hand-embroidered pineapple fabric in blue, by 22-year-old designer Michael Leyva, received 27,172 likes on Facebook when the online voting was closed by ABS CBN, a TV network, late Monday, it was announced on Tuesday.
Actress Dawn Zulueta, wife of Congressman Antonio Lagdameo of Davao del Norte, came second with 17,000 voters who liked her body-hugging white gown adorned with fluted flower-like motifs on her sleeves and chest.
“It is a modernized Filipiniana gown,” said couturier Carey Santiago.
Congresswoman Lucy Torres-Gomez, a model-turned-representative of the fourth district of Leyte, central Philippines, came third, with more than 15,000 votes from those who chose her simple white Filipiniana gown adorned with lace appliques. The wife of actor and former matinee-idol Richard Gomez belongs to a tycoon family in Ormoc.
The name of her couturier was not revealed.
Jinkee Pacquiao, wife of boxer-turned-Congressman Manny Pacquiao, came fourth with close to 15,000 voters who liked her beige and green gown that was designed by top Filipino couturier Francis Libiran.
She was elected vice governor of Sarangani in southern Philippines in 2013.
In reaction to critics who did not like the inordinate focus on gowns more than issues at Aquino’s last SONA, popular and influential TV host Boy Abunda justified the fusion “as long as fashion trends in political events also supports talented Filipino couturiers”.
The gown of actress Aquino, for example, placed centre-stage the authenticity and beauty of the pineapple cloth that is harvested and hand-woven by communities in Aklan, central Philippines, its hand-embroidery a proud product of artisanal embroiders from Lumban, Laguna, in southern Luzon. The award-winning gowns of Zulueta-Lagdameo, Gomez, and Pacquiao are modernized versions of the country’s Filipiniana gown.
Catholic bishops said earlier that even in times of growth and plenty, Aquino’s SONA should not be trivialized with attention to fashion statements since many poor Filipinos wear tattered and second-hand dresses.
For more than 20 years, from 1965 to 1986, former First Lady Imelda Marcos popularized beaded and hand-embroidered Filipiniana gowns with butterfly sleeves. At the time, they were trashed as symbols of irrelevant opulence in a third-world country.
