The Philippine fashion world is currently mourning the passing of one of it’s own: Jose Antonio Albert, known to many as the fashion designer Pepito Albert. He was mentor and inspiration to younger designers, his talent highly revered by his peers. Known for his impeccable way of sculpting fabric into the most regal evening dresses and wedding gowns, he was one of Philippine fashion’s best and brightest. He died Saturday, May 27, after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 63.
Pepito’s last show was in February at the Pinto Gallery in Antipolo, where he presented a daring, dramatic look that consisted of a soft ball skirt under an unfastened jacket with exaggerated bell sleeves fashioned from inabel fabric. Before this, his name caught national attention when he designed the two barongs that newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wore for his inauguration June last year. According to a source close to the Marcoses, some of Pepito’s or his atelier’s last creations include the barongs President Marcos Jr. wore in May for King Charles’ coronation in London and his US state visit to meet with President Joe Biden.
Always clad in black with his hair in a ponytail, his hand occasionally clutching a fan, Pepito’s “mataray” but funny persona has long endeared him to the social set. Younger designers, even his contemporaries, look up to him not only for his impeccably tailored clothes but for his always forward-thinking vision that’s rarely influenced by trends.
“Pepito was the real deal,” says noted stylist Michael Salientes. “Not only was he a master of cut and proportion, he was a visionary. He had his own ideas and was a true original. He made women look and feel sexy but elegant, and he kept everyone on their toes by always churning out fresh designs. He not only made beautiful clothes but elevated a whole industry to aspire to be better. There will never be another like him.”
Pepito is first and foremost a women’s designer—he is a favorite of Korina Sanchez, whose wedding gown he made in 2009, and of BBM’s sister, Irene Marcos-Araneta who wore a gown of Albert’s design for last year’s inaugural. Other fans include Maricris Zobel, Kaye Tinga, Monique Villongco, and Fe Rodriguez. Albert also designed the gown of Xandra Rocha when she married Irene Araneta’s youngest son Luis nine years ago.
The fashion director Jackie Aquino says Pepito revolutionized the bustier and the camisa. The former stylist Jenni Epperson writing about bridal gowns remarked in 2002 about Albert’s signature look: “superb architecture, almost bare ornamentation. A bride who wants just the gown to fall or flow on her body is the Pepito Albert bride. Albert is minimalism at its most elegant level.” On a recent Facebook post, CCP President and beauty queen Margie Moran Floirendo wrote: “I will never forget how you made me feel beautiful in your designs.”
Albert lived abroad for 15 years while studying fashion design. He trained at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles and gained relative fame while in the US, with his clothes getting featured in the big fashion bibles like Harpers Bazaar, Elle, Vogue and W. He returned to the Philippines in the early 1990s and created a reputation for his modern obis and shantung corsets, his strikingly constructed gowns with almost no ornamentation. “Proportion and silhouette must be correct. Details come in later,” he told Marge Enriquez last year. “Simple, clean lines, and nothing attention-grabbing are what I like to do; I don’t put too much embellishment.”
Pepito also said it’s important to have a good relationship with people you design clothes for. And when it comes to the new First Couple, it seems he’s been friends with them a long time. According to an article by Philippine Star Lifestyle editor Millet Mananquil, Pepito and First Lady Liza Marcos were classmates in Business Management in Ateneo. While she pursued her law studies in New York, Albert would meet up with her and Marcos Jr. He said about the couple: “Bongbong and Liza are so easy to work with because they know what they like.”
Following Pepito’s death, Mananquil described the designer on her Instagram as a “Raconteur. Provocateur. Createur like no other.” Designer JC Buendia meanwhile used to call him “Señora.” On Facebook, he wrote this about his friend and colleague: “Pepito Albert has funny names for people he is fond of, and we lovingly call him Señora. Under his mataray tone is a big heart and funny bone. A brilliant designer and arbiter of good taste, he is opinionated yet very objective. He was one of the most prayerful persons I know and his faith even grew stronger when he got sick.”
In an interview with Maurice Arcache in 2002, Albert was described by the society columnist as “‘the dahling’ of the social pack, envied and gossiped about by a few, but admired and loved by many. He is very choosy when it comes to friends, and with the few chosen ones, he is definitely true and loyal.”
Asked what his best quality was, Albert told the columnist, “It must be my appreciation of the female form and how great it looks clothed.” And his worst: “Tardiness. But only sometimes.”