MEDIUM RARE
In the good old days Manila’s fourth district, Malate, was where to find the friendliest coffeeshops and restaurants, just as there was a Remedios Circle that was home to the most famous fashion designers – they were called couturiers, and among them was Pitoy Moreno.
Pitoy lived and worked at home, which was his atelier, with neighbors like Ben Farrales, Ernest Santiago, Christian Espiritu, Aureo Alonso, and Auggie Cordero. The most expensive cars came and went, bearing their well-dressed clients, including a certain Cory Aquino. Before and after she became President Cory, her couturier was Auggie. Thus did she add to the allure of Malate, before and after she became president.
There was a time when Mayor Alfredo Lim joined our more or less weekly lunches at Pitoy’s, though he never saw the need — as our little group insisted — to declare Malate a fashion district of his beloved city.
Pitoy’s cook served great native fare, which provided a backdrop for the rumor of the week. Like the mayor, Pitoy listened without contributing any “tsismis” of his own. He didn’t name or talk about the ladies who came to his shop for their long gowns or their casual wear; no need to drop names.
Sometimes, while we ate in his living room, someone’s chauffeur would come by to pick up a dress or deliver a package. As far as we knew Pitoy Moreno, some of the ladies belonged to “Manila’s four hundred,” for that was how they were labeled back then. (Now that I can count up to one thousand, I wonder how there could be so many of them.)
In his time, Pitoy was among the few whose fashion shows were standard fare in the five-star hotels that featured lunches to attract a wider clientele. The models included professionals as well as beauty queens and debutantes newly discovered by Pitoy and his colleagues.
Suddenly it’s 2025, and there’s an exhibition of Pitoy Moreno gowns scheduled at the Metropolitan Museum, or “The M” as it’s now called, no longer in Manila but out there in BGC (Bonifacio Global City).
As PBBM has suggested, the time has come to start decongesting MegaManila; looks like that expensive-looking part of Taguig City is the way to the future.