Next to Sona, ‘terno’ most applauded

It was as if somebody wrote a memo and everybody read it—wear “terno.”

Of course there was no memo—in fact, the invitation to the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Aquino merely said Filipina dress for women and barong for the members of the Senate and House of Representatives, and barong or suit for the other guests.

But unlike the previous years, Monday’s Sona saw the majority—almost all, even—of the women in terno. Previous Sonas saw the women in various interpretations of the Filipina dress, from terno to baro’t saya or Maria Clara.

Monday, it seemed, the women upped the glamour ante and wore long ternos, either in jewel colors or muted shades and in various draping or ruching treatments of soft, supple chiffon, crepe or silk.

As expected, Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez stood out in a pale pink Randy Ortiz terno with rosettes of the same color sprinkled on the bodice and skirt. Statuesque, she sat gracefully in the cramped plenary hall seat that hardly left room for her terno’s train.

Party-list solons

Party-list representatives were not to be excluded from the fashion talk. They made their political statements through fashion. Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela was in a white skirt with slim black stripes symbolizing prison bars to highlight the plight of distressed overseas Filipino workers. She wore a purple and fuchsia kimono and a bag printed with the words “Bring Them Home.”

Gabriela’s Emmi de Jesus was in a pink and gray Maria Clara with the words “Scrap E-Vat” on the shawl.

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño was in an Edgar San Diego barong with the words “Right to Know Right Now” embroidered in red to stress the clamor for the passage of the Freedom of Information bill.

By Cathy Yamsuan, Thelma S. San Juan