JC Buendia brings back the wearability and elegance of fashion

2026 might just be known as the year JC Buendia brought the fashion back into Philippine fashion—fashion as elegance not as shock art, craftsmanship not just recycling/upcycling, evolved taste not just a runway manifesto on climate change/environment or whatever social cause, simplicity not clutter. In short, fashion as it should be—the art of design, construction and craftsmanship, the art of wearability and style. 

And JC Buendia collection showed such authenticity—honest, not pretentious, not a clone. It was his clear POV. “It’s pure. Very JC,” leading designer Dennis Lustico told me after the show.

JC Buendia brought back fashion you can wear—elegantly, tastefully, and with class. At events and socials, we cringe at the sight of a humongous ballgown “wearing the woman,” instead of the other way around, of a gown train that has to be lifted by the woman’s security aide (yes, it happens), of a gown so heavily embellished the wearer almost topples over (like in cartoons). All that is not fashion. It is heavy infrastructure. And it is not for the typical build of the Filipina, who’s not very tall and heavy set in the first place.

In many socials, we cringe at the sight of a gown so heavily embellished the wearer almost topples over—that is not fashion. It is heavy infrastructure

In pre-show interviews, JC cited how such unsightly bloopers convinced him precisely to stick to his signature design—elegant minimalism, which he calls “relaxed or alternative luxury” dressing. It should be noted that it was JC, who before, during (Zoom meets) and after the pandemic years, made popular the “casual terno” or Filipiniana as everyday wear—short dress length, butterfly sleeves cropped way above the elbow, a comfortable, not cumbersome, construction.

In the October 3 Red Charity Ball, his first solo collection in many years, JC made it a point not to include the terno and instead created more than 40 pieces of show-stopping evening wear. The annual benefit, which alpha-women Kaye Tinga and Tessa Prieto have been mounting for years now to raise funds for the Philippine Red Cross and the social projects of Assumption class, has chosen JC Buendia as featured designer. This year, like last year, it gathered the Who’s Who, in a long gown-barong/black tie dinner at Peninsula Manila lobby, with the after-dinner fashion show at Rigodon Ballroom. Its pioneer and primary supporter is BENCH headed by Ben Chan. 

JC Buendia’s collection was one of judicious selection. He apparently edited his pieces—editing, by the way, is a skill upcoming designers can learn from seasoned ones—to make his fashion statement more coherent and pronounced. It was not overstyled, again another lesson for newbies from a veteran designer.  JC Buendia’s statement: streamlined column silhouette that skimmed the body just appropriately, not squelched it; soft tailoring; minimal embellishment—just flowers made of pina or pearl encrusted on structured top; faint glitter; a restricted palette of black and ecru, and pastel in a flitting number or two you could miss it.

JC used subtlety with such potency you came away from the show remembering how feminine yet powerful it was. But his total avoidance of bright color, his choice of black, made us feel JC’s current somber mood—he must still be in mourning; he lost his mother, to whom he was very close, only a few months ago, and he is a cancer survivor. Indeed to JC, the previous years have been a life of fervent prayer.

That must have been why his collection was devoid of levity or flamboyance. Instead he would go from the tailored and streamline-structured to the light and ethereal.

He opened it with black tailored tunics, short skirts and jackets, fluid columns, in crepe mixed with gossamer overlays. He used sheer trains to embellish black column dresses. He avoided volume and instead went for wispy layering. To us, his only concession to frivolity was the ecru bib top for both womenswear and menswear. His menswear was clean tailoring—not so much gender-fluid as cutting edge, such as sheer sleeveless top and loose samurai skirt. Other than that, this collection focused on sleek coats.

We loved his ecru pina long column dresses whose only accents were faint glitter and layers of sheer organdy. Such feminine glamour was achieved by JC’s masterful cut and construction, a good sense of proportion. The fragrance of femininity on the runway.

JC brought back fashion by returning to the basics

JC brought back fashion by returning to the basics—the mastery of cut and construction that creates the proportion that enhances or flatters a woman’s body, not buries it. His fabrication was clear and didn’t weigh down the wearer: crepe, chiffon, pina, organdy. His fabric manipulation was straightforward and simple—for instance, using black organdy strips to create black grass skirt overlay. We just hope that all this was not lost on the audience.

He exploited the power of opera coat to create drama. 

His bridal gown was a masterstroke in the use of pina to create femininity and elegance. Sleeveless and unembellished except for pina flowers, it had three layers of organdy underneath that created volume on both sides, reminiscent of European period ballgown, Audrey Hepburnish but not quite. In today’s wedding scene replete with serpentinas and cathedral trains, the JC Buendia wedding gown stands out for its simplicity. 

The production design by the country’s leading scenographer Gino Gonzales complemented the JC Buendia minimalism but enhanced it with drama. The runway was elevated just enough to give the entire audience a good view of the collection—and it was painted a rich red. The seat arrangement didn’t impede the production flow, and the audience didn’t have to do dizzying head turns to see the parade of clothes. Dexter Santos, the theater director who obviously is getting the hang of fashion shows, directed a fluid production. Another theater luminary, Monino Duque, designed the lighting that captured faithfully the design of the clothes. 

And trust Gawad CCP awardee Gonzales to give JC Buendia’s minimalism a jaw-dropping closing. As the lights dimmed after the bridal finale, the red lanterns floated onto the runway in a parade, their human handlers invisible in the full darkness. The lights turned on slowly to reveal the models/lantern bearers in the final walk of the show. Then after a great pause, JC Buendia walked in, holding the hand of the bride, Miss Universe-Philippines 2026, Fil-American Bea Millan Windorski. He was in tears, his hand clasping a rosary, a yellow ribbon brooch on his suit beside a medal bearing the photo of his late mother. Never had we seen a fashion designer cry unabashedly at his finale—not even the fashion greats Pitoy Moreno, Ben Farrales, when they held their 50th year retrospectives. JC’s tears flowed from a heart that has faced trials in the last few years.

Then as JC winded up his walk, the center stage lit up fully to reveal the full splendor of a giant mosaic of red lanterns and parols, akin to a celebration of mid-Autumn festival in a country that has never seen autumn. 

But the parol was so there. With his talent and his faith, JC augurs a happy Christmas.