Bench Body of Work, which was staged at the MOA Arena last night, was undoubtedly the hottest and most anticipated show of the season. No other event gathered A-list celebrities, models, starlets, beauty queens, and influencers under one roof.

All of them came, but undoubtedly, last night's biggest stars were members of today's hottest male P-pop group, SB19. Ken, Stell, Justin, Josh, and Pablo didn't even have to "undress." Fans also had the fortune of hearing them perform their newly released song "DAM" live for the first time.

Alden Richards, the leading man of the highest-grossing Filipino movie "Hello Love Again," opened the fashion show. At the same time, his co-star in the film, Kathryn Bernardo, provided the show's fitting finale. But what's the tea? They didn't even greet each other when everyone gathered on stage with the brand's founder, Ben Chan.  The cameras proved that Kathryn chose to talk to Joshua Garcia even when Alden was just an arm's reach away. Oh, why?

As a woman, it was a delight to see all the well-toned bodies on display, with EA Guzman suddenly springing a "surprise." We definitely need an encore of Kirk Bondad, Jameson Blake, David Licauco, and Jake Cuenca comfortably "riding the motorcycle."

Pageant fans much-awaited the segment with the beauty queens, and they proved themselves worthy. So was the portion with the hot mommas, Ina Raymundo, Sunshine Cruz, Priscilla Meirelles, and Max Collins. Ruru Madrid and Bianca Umali looked so cool getting "out of the refrigerator."  

The Muhlach twins, Atasha and Andres, walked the runway like showbiz royalty. Other notable eye candies were FranSeth, Sofia Pablo, Allan Ensay, Janine Gutierrez in her long-legged glory, and Lovi Poe exuding the sultriness of a Victoria's Secret Angel. 

For all Bench underwear show things, I asked my friend - pageant coach and commentator Kervin Lao (a.k.a. Divastar Klao in her social media) - about the whole performance. She's seen how the show has evolved through the years.

"I've seen the Bench underwear show since 2006. We've seen a lot already since.  For this year, it's exciting because of the line-up of celebrities, models and beauty queens but to be honest, it's not really that revealing compared to the previous years. This year’s show is more tame or, I  would say, more demure,  compared to their first three shows like Bench Fever (2006), Bench Blackout (2008) and Bench Uncut (2010)," Kervin analyzed.

Some of Kervin's highlights were Michelle Dee singing her first single, "Reyna" (we love it!) and the finale, where Bench's OG couple Richard and Lucy Gomez and Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera paid tribute to Ben Chan.

She agreed with us that the biggest star of the night was SB19, judging the screams of the audience. "I'm a solid A'TIN here, and I felt the crowd's love for them. It seems we got a free concert last night, or at least a teaser of their coming 'Simula At Wakas' World Tour kickoff this coming May."

"Bench has always been evolving, so I hope they will continue the tradition of mounting this at least every 2 years. I trust that they will give us a more exciting show next time!," stated Kervin in her parting words. (For  juicy stories and other inquiries, email me at annalyn.jusay@gmail.com)