AS LONG AS disco and Manila Sound live, Jose “Pitoy” Moreno, who died in 2018, will not be forgotten. His name and the quality of his clothes will live on through Hotdog’s song “Bongga Ka ’Day” (roughly translated: “You’re fabulous, sister”), which has the line, “suot mo’y gawa ni Pitoy” (what you are wearing was made by Pitoy).
The song was recorded in 1979, at the height of Martial Law in the Philippines, and arguably, the height of Mr. Moreno’s designing power. His name has become attached to the informal court of then-First Lady Imelda Marcos, but a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (The M Museum) in BGC argues that his influence reaches before and beyond those years. The exhibit, fittingly, is called Timeless: J. Moreno. The exhibit was opened on Feb. 27 and will run until June 29.
Born in 1925 and an adolescent by the end of World War II in 1945, Mr. Moreno, known to his clients and the rest of society as “Pitoy,” had the unique opportunity to be cohorts with future history-shapers. Educated at the University of the Philippines (UP), he became friends with artist Araceli Dans and theater luminary Celia Diaz-Laurel, among others; while the future National Artist Fernando Amorsolo headed the UP Fine Arts Department. His extracurricular activities with the Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity, and its sorority counterpart, Sigma Delta Phi, brought him in close proximity to the future senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr., and future president and dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr.
New York-based art historian Florina H. Capistrano-Baker, who curated the exhibit with Ditas R. Samson and Clarissa M. Esguerra, argued during a Feb. 28 talk that Mr. Moreno had been famous prior to the Marcos association, thanks to this network.
He had designed costumes for the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company, which performed abroad, and during the Macapagal administration (just prior to the long Marcos years), he had already been designing for Diosdado Macapagal and his family. Gowns made for his wife Eva and daughter Gloria (who herself later became president) are displayed in the exhibit, including the wedding dress made for Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo.
Mr. Moreno even designed a dress for his (sort of) namesake, American actress Rita Moreno, in 1962. Ms. Moreno had heard of her nomination to the Academy Awards for her role in West Side Story while she was shooting a film in the Philippines. She made her way to his Taft Avenue atelier, and came out with a creation made with Japanese fabric used for obi (a kimono sash). Ms. Moreno won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and was photographed in the dress. Decades later, Mattel designed a Barbie doll in Ms. Moreno’s likeness, wearing a copy of Mr. Moreno’s dress. The doll is displayed in the exhibit.
Ms. Capistrano-Brown noted that Mr. Moreno’s fame, as well as that of the Bayanihan Dance Company, precedes that of Imelda. “People who came later, the younger generation, assumed that she created them. But like Bayanihan, like the Madrigal (Singers) — Pitoy was already well-known before Imelda,” she said.
Even Mrs. Marcos couldn’t be credited for his first international outings: that was the work of Tourism Commissioner under the Macapagal administration Conchita Sunico, who formed Karilagan International, which brought Filipino designs for overseas fashion shows.
What Mrs. Marcos did do was make his fame international: through Mrs. Marcos, he formed the connections necessary to dress her friends, which included Princess Margaret (sister of the late Queen Elizabeth II). The dress he made for her is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Ms. Capistrano-Brown emphasized that Mr. Moreno designed across the political spectrum, and kept his fame beyond the Marcos years: while he designed for Mrs. Marcos and her friends (there’s a yellow terno in the exhibit worn by socialite and Marcos friend Imelda Cojuangco), there are also gowns for Mrs. Macapagal, and gowns made well into the 1990s, including the National Costume gown worn by the Philippine candidate to the 1994 Miss Universe pageant, Charlene Gonzales.
In 2009, Mr. Moreno was named as a National Artist for fashion design — a designation which later met with opposition as having been made in a manner that did not follow the rules and traditions of choosing National Artists. The Supreme Court responded with a temporary restraining order on the conferment of the award to Mr. Moreno and six others. The honor was revoked in 2013.
“I’m hearing, I’m not sure if this is accurate — but I was recently told that he has again been nominated for the current search (for National Artist),” said Ms. Capistrano-Brown. “There are again, questions… what I’m being told is that he is nominated, but there are these rumblings.”
She argues that Mr. Moreno’s real political statement was this: “We are beautiful people. Our dress enhances our beauty.”
“When he brought the designs overseas, the purpose is to show the overseas colleagues, or Europe, or wherever country he’s in that we are a beautiful people. We have beautiful designs, we can make beautiful things… we have fine craftsmanship, and we can compete with the rest of the world,” she said.
After all the strife faced by the Philippines, Pitoy’s clothes, according to her, said, “We remain beautiful and worthy of respect. That’s what he says to me.” — Joseph L. Garcia