Filipina Fashion Designer Stuns Paris Audience

Showcasing Filipino creativity in no less than the world’s fashion capital, Filipina haute couture designer, Sari Lazaro, closed the “Catwalk on Water” show at the Seine River in Paris last Jan. 27 with her Royal Secret Garden collection.

Lazaro’s creation was worn by Vietnamese-born, Paris-based model and “Catwalk on Water” producer, Jessica Minh Anh. Combining dramatic, laser-cut details on luxurious silks and flowing tulle and lace, the designer stirred up romance, mystique and new age flair in her latest collection.

Lazaro has been interested in fashion since she was young. Seeing this, her mother enrolled her at the Central Saint Martin, a tertiary art school in London when she was 17. Sari eventually took up Fashion Marketing and Fashion Design at the De La Salle University. She also took an intensive fashion design course at the prestigious Instituto Marangoni in London, and when she returned to the Philippines in 2012, Sari began designing and got serious in creating dresses for special occasions.

In January last year, Lazaro debuted as a rookie designer in her own show, “Luxe Ethereal”, held in Manila. Her designs impressed celebrities and guests from the fashion elite, who saw her potential in haute couture.

In the high-end “Catwalk on Water”, which put the Far East front and center, Lazaro was joined by Indonesia’s Fetty Rusli and Maria Ruth Fernanda, Malaysia’s Samantha Chua, and the US’ Johannah DiNardo.

”Catwalk on Water” is just one of the many successful haute couture fashion events produced by Minh Anh, who picks unusual settings for her shows.

For “Catwalk on Water”, Minh Anh created the illusion of models walking on water by having them walk before guests, who are seated facing the multi-faceted windows of the 100-meter glass boat, Le Jean Bruel, as it cruises the Seine River.

Minh Anh is best known for her mind-blowing runway productions at iconic monuments, among them the Eiffel Tower, London’s Tower Bridge, the Grand Canyon Skywalk, the Petronas Twin Towers’ Skybridge, the One World Trade Center, the Gardens by the Bay’s Skyway, and a catwalk that ran across a solar power plant in Spain. (PNA)CVL/AAA