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Filipina style icon Slim: A retrospective

10/18/2009

Fashionistas will have something out of the usual to look forward to this November. A retrospective exhibit of the late iconic fashion designer Slim will be held at the National Museum of the Filipino People beginning Nov. 12 and will run till March 2010. To be launched during the opening night will be a book commemorating the works of this extraordinary artist.

Not too many are familiar today with the works of Salvacion Lim Higgins, better known by her acronym Slim. But in a career that spanned from the late 1940s until her death in 1990, she was highly regarded as one of the most innovative and avant garde designers of her times.

In the words of former Sen. Helen Benitez, Slim transformed the Filipino costume into a work of art. Yet while she embraced Filipiniana and championed the cause of local materials, she imbued her designs with a European sensibility, bringing forth a seamless fusion of East and West — like a summary of Philippine culture itself.

Salvacion was born on Jan. 28, 1922, in the scenic city of Legaspi, Albay, to a Chinese-Filipino family of artistic abilities. Her father, though a businessman, painted and did calligraphy while her mother was a frustrated architect who wove her own fabrics and designed and embroidered her own ternos.

As a child, Salvacion began to exhibit an aptitude for the arts, which her mother encouraged. With an initial passion for painting, she moved to Manila before the outbreak of the war to study Fine Arts at University of Santo Tomas under the likes of Botong Francisco. But she had begun sending her fashion sketches surreptitiously to The Manila Times with her now famous signature Slim, and when the newspaper ran her sketches, a career in fashion was serendipitously born. A trip to Europe, where she had the opportunity to attend 22 couture shows, opened her eyes even further to the unique and endless possibilities of haute couture.

Slim counted among her clients First Ladies and their daughters, the cream of Manila society such as Chona Kasten, Edith Nakpil-Rabat, Imelda Cojuangco, Chito Madrigal-Collantes and more, yet she was no snob and accommodated many brides who otherwise could not afford her. In 1960, together with her sister Puring, she opened the Slims Fashion and Design School, passing on to tens of thousands since then the secrets they had gleaned through the years. Her generous spirit continued here as she mentored the likes of Eddie Ocampo, Cesar Gaupo and Oskar Peralta and gave away a number of scholarships to deserving students.

The forthcoming book, with its hard cover and affordable soft cover versions, will reveal a genius little seen even today. Senior designers, young students and even those not bent on a fashion career will find much to be inspired by when her cutting edge designs, a result of superior craftsmanship and technique. Her asymmetrical shapes and flowing lines, embellishment designs all her own and the incorporation of influences from all over the Philippines and from around the world make her stand out as a world class designer.

Through the life and works of Salvacion Lim-Higgins Filipinos can celebrate, as she did, fashion as an integral part of who we are. Through her achievements — which include a gown for US First Lady Mamie Eisenhower now part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian — we find reason to be proud of our great Filipino artists, and of ourselves as a people.

For more information regarding the Slim book and exhibit, contact the Slims Legacy Project at 410-2279, e-mail slimslegacy@gmail.com or visit www.slimslegacy.com.