Auggie Cordero: Friends’ terms of endearment

Our good friend Auggie Cordero must have done something good.

Friends, colleagues who hadn’t been together for some time gathered in a simple tribute we organized December 13, 2022 Tuesday in a private function room at One Rockwell, braving the holiday traffic and overcoming the fact that there was no formal invite. They spent the afternoon reminiscing about the country’s foremost fashion designer, giving words of gratitude for the significant role he played in their careers and private lives, even as he hardly socialized in the four decades he reigned in the fashion industry. It was as if the small occasion was their way of celebrating not only the man who was Auggie, but also the important milestones in their own lives that Auggie, usually in an unheralded way, helped make happen.

Indeed, Auggie wasn’t only a trendsetter in the late ‘70s to the 2000s; he was also a social catalyst in a rather quiet way.

And the tribute was quiet. No sign marked it, save for a singular vase of pastel roses below his name at the door.

The Friends’ Tribute was also livestreamed on the Facebook page of TheDiarist.ph and on Zoom.

Retail visionary Ben Chan, who was among the early guests, surprised not a few people in the room when, in a written eulogy read for him by emcee Alya Honasan, he recalled how he met Auggie as early as the ‘80s, “through my mother and sister who were his clients way back in the ‘80s. Auggie was the go-to designer of colegialas, socialites, and working women alike who loved his classic feminine style. I became close to Auggie from the early ‘80s and ‘90s back when Malate was the bustling creative hub of a very happening Manila.”

‘I became close to Auggie from the early ‘80s and ‘90s, back when Malate was the bustling creative hub of a very happening Manila,’ said Ben Chan

He said, “To the world outside, Auggie Cordero The Designer was this mythical figure in reclusion….But for his small privileged circle of friends, however, inside his studio filled with precious books, with fashion magazines dating back to the ‘50s, with Betamax copies of classic films, Auggie was a dear friend who on evenings would prepare home-cooked dinner of pork adobo and mangga at bagoong over conversations about life and fashion. We all know, of course, that this would be followed by hours of watching his favorite movies. He was a cinephile and insomniac, after all.”

Ben said, “Auggie Cordero is what a legend is made of.”

Style icon Menchu Menchaca Soriano, who was Manila’s top model in the ‘80s,  reminded the room how Auggie “changed the course of my life.” The designer spotted her right after she graduated from high school, and turned her into one of the country’s most famous models on the runway and in print media. Theirs became a life-long friendship, with shared milestones that included Menchu’s wedding where Auggie designed her bridal gown, and even the baptism of Menchu’s child.

Menchu helped organize the tribute, like Ben did, holding our hand every step of the way.

Margie Moran Floirendo, the country’s Miss Universe and now president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, was the first guest to arrive at the Tribute—the woman Auggie dressed up for her destiny, so to speak. She was a 17-year-old high school senior at St. Theresa’s College Manila, when emerging designer Auggie Cordero asked her to be one of the models of his collection at Hyatt’s La Concha. In those days in the ’70s, there were luncheon fashion shows daily—the platform that bred and trained budding fashion designers. Margie recalled how Auggie asked her to join the Bb. Pilipinas beauty pageant—twice, succeeding the second time, thanks to Margie’s grandmother (a Carnival Queen herself) who gave her pretty granddaughter the permission to join (her parents didn’t allow her the first time). Auggie’s advice after she and another Auggie model, Marilen Ojeda, won the pageant? Get a tan.

Margie Moran Floirendo recalled how she mixed Coca-Cola with baby oil to achieve that ‘tan’

Then Margie, to a ripple of laughter in the room, recalled how she mixed Coca-Cola with baby oil to achieve that “tan,” even as she became a magnet for flies.

Margie was in an Auggie Cordero when she was crowned the 1973 Miss Universe in Athens, and later when she became the bride of Tonyboy Floirendo.

Journalist Melinda de Jesus, in a video tribute, spoke of how a “non-fashionista” like her struck a strong friendship with Auggie through the decades, how she loved wearing his designs in conferences and on her TV show, and how she respected him as a professional and creator committed to his craft.

Auggie’s colleagues Lulu Tan Gan, Tonichi Nocom, Mike de la Rosa, Larry Leviste, and bosom friend Oskar Peralta spoke of what Auggie stood for in the Philippine fashion industry. “It’s not just his technical skill, it was his work ethic,“ Lulu said. “He set a good example.”

Tonichi made the effort to be at the venue early that morning to fix and style three of Auggie’s masterpieces on the mannequins. He wanted to make sure that the gowns would be presented in the manner Auggie would have wanted them to be. The display of the three gowns was the tribute’s focal point.

A poignant sight was the work desk of Auggie, the fixture his clientele had become so familiar with in his atelier. My son Luis Carlo, who would play around in Auggie’s atelier as a kid, called it his “comfort space,” from where he’d listen to me and Auggie talk the afternoon away. It was Luis Carlo’s idea to have the desk transported from Auggie’s atelier in Alonzo St., Malate, to the Rockwell venue, and place on it Auggie’s boxes of sharpened pencils, sketchpad and Breakfast at Tiffany’s book. There was a guest book where the friends signed.

It was my son Luis Carlo’s idea to have the desk transported from Auggie’s atelier in Alonzo St., Malate, to the Rockwell venue

In her tribute, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala spoke of Auggie’s expertise to interpret global trends for the Philippine context, how he never showed off his client list even if he dressed the Who’s Who of Philippine society, and how he didn’t see his friends “as objects of profit.”

Businessman Kenneth Go, who had known Auggie since he was a kid because his mother, Aurora Silayan Go, an influencer even before such term was coined, was Auggie’s close friend, spoke of how Auggie’s atelier was the “safe space we enjoyed,” where they could talk for hours about movies and costume design.

Joyce Oreña, Vogue Philippines’ beauty editor whose presence as a model on the runway and in magazines became strongly synonymous with Auggie’s, bared her emotions as she traced her growth as a model and style arbiter owing mainly to Auggie.

From New York, supermodel Anna Bayle, on Zoom, said that she “would not be Anna Bayle without Auggie Cordero.” It was Auggie who convinced her to try her luck in modeling abroad, who helped strategize her career (Europe first before braving New York), and gave her advice every step of the way, who even helped set her up for her go-sees in New York, and who was around in every stage of her life. And finally, she thanked the reclusive Auggie for teaching her the “gift of being alone.”

Auggie passed away last October 21 at 78 years old, in the ICU of Makati Medical Center, where he was rushed the afternoon before because he had difficulty breathing (acute respiratory failure and septic shock was the cause of death). Days before that, even as he would ask for his favorite dishes, he seemed to have lost the appetite, and out of the blue, asked his sister Neng to retrieve his memorial plan from safekeeping and intimated that he wouldn’t want his funeral vigil to be a social event.

Out of the blue, he asked his sister Neng to retrieve his memorial plan, and intimated that he wouldn’t want a funeral vigil to be a social event

To his family and friends, his passing was sudden. There were no goodbyes said. This must have been why, when, on a wing and a prayer, we decided to hold a simple tribute for him, friends like Ben and Menchu, and his very loyal clients like Tessie Aurelio-Oben, a famous model herself in the ‘60s, and the Coyiuto family were eager to support.

His older sister Zeny, who’s based in the US, and younger sister Neng, who was at his bedside that October 21, welcomed our idea and left no stone unturned to help us organize. Since in the ‘80s, ‘90s and into the 2000s, Auggie was the go-to of brides and debutantes, we thought of asking some of his brides to share with us their bridal photos for a mini exhibit in the venue. These were the brides I and another Auggie bride, Rina Go, had access to, and who readily helped us with the logistics of the mini exhibit: Margarita Ongsiako-Tan Climaco, Katherine Tan (bride of tycoon Andrew Tan, who, with her sisters, was an Auggie client), Pin Cojuangco-Guingona, Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, Rina Go, Maggie Go, Jennifer Jane Go, Maya Batac-Lagdameo, Sallie Laurel-Lopez, Tess Oben-Reyes, Maia Lagdameo-Alvarez, Nina Lagdameo-Alba, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala, Nina Lagdameo-Alba, Cristina Oben-Nazareno, Monique Trinidad-Toda, Viel Aquino-Dee, and Margie Moran-Floirendo.

Since Auggie was the go-to of brides and debutantes, we thought of asking some of them to share with us their bridal photos for a mini exhibit

An Auggie client of recent years, Olive Limpe-Aw, the head of Destileria Limtuaco and publisher of Asian Dragon magazine, took care of the drinks.

The country’s top photographers who worked with Auggie through the years were there, like Pancho Escaler and Eddie Boy Escudero. The widow of ace photographer Noli Yamsuan, Peachy, an ex-lifestyle journalist herself (Daily Express), took the time to go to the tribute and to reunite with media colleagues.

Friends helped in whatever way they could. Annie Ringor put us in touch with a low-key event stylist, Constance Event Styling, which created the elegant floral arrangements. Fashion director Jackie Aquino sat at the technical desk beside a barely-out-of-college digital team that ran the audio-visual production overseen by our TheDiarist.ph colleague Lou Gonzales.

In that ungodly hour in Missouri where they live, Auggie’s sister Zeny and her husband Larry Cole gave her thanks to these people and the guests. Fighting back tears, she said, “I miss Neng,” the sister on whose side she couldn’t be in this time of loss.

It was the video tribute of leading movie and TV director Joey Reyes that surprised many who didn’t know that the director and the designer went a long way back. Auggie was “part of my younger, vulnerable life,” said Joey, tracing the early years of Auggie in his shop in Herran (now Pedro Gil), across from St. Paul’s College in Manila.  He recalled how Auggie loved to talk about “fashion and cinema as if it were the very oxygen” they both breathed.

Not many knew that when Margie Moran and Marilen Ojeda were Auggie’s candidates in Bb. Pilipinas, Auggie asked Joey to write their introductory speeches.

Eloquently, Joey said, “He never compromised what he believed was the language of his artistry.” He ended his tribute in words that resonated with everyone present: “You are more than the fashion that you left. You are more than fashion. In our minds, you are eternal.”

In death, as in life, Auggie was blessed indeed. He really must have done something good.