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It may be recalled that earlier this year, Stella Marquez Araneta — founder of the Binibining Pilipinas Charities — revealed that Philippine candidates haven’t used gowns made by Pinoy fashion designers for years. Araneta had drawn flak for saying, “The designs that were given to us were not good enough for our candidates.”
READ: Stella Marquez Araneta explains why she hasn’t tapped Pinoy designers to do Miss Universe gowns
The debates over the pageant contestants’ costumes arose after a lot of people slammed the gown made by Colombian designer Alfredo Barraza for the Philippines’ representative in the 2014 pageant, MJ Lastimosa. (See photo.)
It seems that at least one lawmaker was really affected by that.
“Parañaque City Rep. Eric L. Olivarez has filed House Bill 5691 — known as the “Filipino Fashion Designers for Filipino Beauty Pageants Contestants Act of 2015″ — to mandate the use of Filipino-made gowns by country’s beauty queens in international competitions,” reports Charissa M. Luci in Tempo.
In his explanatory note, Olivarez stated: “In any international contest, most especially international beauty pageants, nationality and design should always reflect the country’s expression of excellence and ingenuity. It is for this reason that our Filipino fashion designers, who are experts in their fields, should be the entrusted designers for our Filipino contestants in international beauty pageants.”
Olivarez added, though, that “foreign fashion designers can assist the Filipino fashion designer in the selection of materials to be used for the finished products to conform to factors such as age, gender, and physical status of the Filipino contestants.” However, he made it clear that “the foreign fashion designers creating the costumes or dresses should be working as a team and that the team is headed by a Filipino fashion designer.”
House Bill 5691 tags the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) as the primary commission to regulate fashion designers for beauty pageants and other fashion design competitions in which the Philippines is participating.
Photo: GMA News clip (screengrab)
