After styling a couple of looks for the Ipanema Resort Wear Collection for PFW (Philippine Fashion Week) Spring/Summer 2011 held October of last year, Ive got another fashion show stint for Hedgren Style Fair last April 15 in Greenbelt 3, Makati.

Hedgren is a world-renowed Belgian bag brand founded in 1993 by Xavier Kegels, the famed designer who created Kipling and Laurent David.

No fuss, no frills. This is what Hedgren is all about. The brand focuses primarily on practical and quality office bags and travel gear for everyday use targeting men and female professionals.

The Job
In my Ipanema styling stint, I was able to exercise my creativity on a few looks that walked down the runway. With this fashion show, I happily assisted talented up-and-coming stylists Argie Salango and Aisa to execute their vision for Hedgren S/S 2011 collection.

For aspiring stylists who want to make a career out of it, assisting for runway shows is a good starting platform. Though I'm not part of the whole creative process, the production work involved in projects like this includes preparing the clothes, shoes and accessories before the show, fitting of the models, ensuring that all the pull-outs are well taken care of and afterwards, double checking inventory and cleaning up.

While trying to learn the ropes around fashion styling, I really noticed that a massive, personal "investment" on accessories is a huge plus in this line of work. Even though designers and clothing brands supply apparels for the models, Aisa and I don't recommend pulling out accessories (after we lost some of it during Ipanema's PFW show). The kind of chaos that happens backstage, the whole rush of dressing the models look after look, leaves jewelries flying into space. These little trinkets may end up getting lost or damaged and that's not really worth of a stylist's stress and money since pull-outs are considered "borrowed" items only. We highly suggest you bring your own!


The Show
The Hedgren Style Fair's main objective is to communicate the brand's vision of being part of their target market's everyday style. To achieve that, Hedgren partnered with Fashion Institute of the Philippines (FIP) and had their bags styled together with the designs and creations of FIP students. Retail brand Ensembles also had a segment during the show. Male and female models sashayed on the runway carrying various Hedgren bags that embody the brand's three main themes for this season: Smart, On the Move and Business.

Smart features stylish and functional bags while On the Move is designed for leisure and travel. Business answers the high organizational and practical demands of the business traveler.
The brand's main clientele are corporate professionals from a more mature bracket. Since I'm not part of their target market, I want to be completely honest in saying that, aesthetically, Hedgren bags do not appeal to my personal taste and wouldn't fit my individual style.

However, for the cosmopolitan woman, Hedgren's highly utilitarian, simple and sophisticated bags fit the call of duty. From the look and feel of it, there's no doubt that its bags are durable and made of quality materials. Its products are very light and features a lot of compartments suitable for workaholic young executives and active business people. In their attempt to fuse style and creativity in a corporate set-up, Hedgren's designs are characterized by clean lines, understated details and functional elegance.

The cheesy stuff (haha)
Experience is experience. You know what I'm saying? So even if I got really exhausted, to the point that I just slept directly when I got home without changing clothes (haha), I'm genuinely happy. Blessing kasi yun, yung at least may ginagawa ka sa buhay mo diba (haha).

I loved the group of people that I worked with that day: Tatie, Ana, Argie and Aisa plus, I met two new friends with impeccable working ethics, Kim and Celina. :)