We didn’t hear about Mossimo Bikini Summit last summer. Or was it a hush-hush event, not even the most avid bodywatchers in this part of the planet heard anything about it.
This summer, though, Mossimo is determined to revive the Mossimo Bikini Summit. After all, this is the competition that paved the way for the likes of Brent Javier, Carlo Maceda, Einar Ingebrigtsen, Jordan Herrera, Martin Jickain, Denice Montecillo and April Tanjueco to hog the limelight and build a career from thereon in modeling and show business.
Despite the raised eyebrows this competition induces among those who seem bent on taking a condescending look at men and women showing off their physical assets, there are really hundreds who wish they could be like Javier, Maceda, Herrera, and Jickain who are now enjoying the fruits of their unfettered love to be skimpily clothed for the most part of their lives.
So those who wish to follow in their footsteps—as well as those of last year’s winners Jerome Ortiz and Joyce So—should better get ready for the 2007 Mossimo Bikini Summit: Take It Underground.
Yes, the most anticipated modeling event in the country is back—but with a twist. As in previous years, there will be boys, babes and bikinis aplenty. But in addition to all that, the summit will also promote the “street” lifestyle.
What is the “street” lifestyle? “It is a lifestyle befitting Mossimo’s status as one of the world’s leading street and urban clothing companies,” explains Alan Tecson of The Village Advertising and Promotions, the production outfit behind this year’s competition. “In fact, this year’s summit will incorporate key elements of the ‘street’ lifestyle.’”
When asked to elaborate, Tecson had only this to say: “One of those key elements involves reggaeton music—a style of music vital to the ‘street’ lifestyle. This year, Mossimo will take the summit to the streets of Metro Manila via a reggaeton-themed party.”
Yes, you heard it here first: The culminating activity of this year’s biggest and sexiest summer event will be an underground reggaeton-themed party.
For the uninitiated, reggaeton is a widely popular blend of hip-hop, dancehall, reggae and techno that is fast becoming the sound of today’s dance floor. In fact, one of today’s best-loved party anthems, Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina,” is a reggaeton song.
Jeff Paulino, also of The Village Advertising and Promotions, defines it as follows: “Reggaeton is the anthem of the hip, the young and the rebellious. It is a reflection of one’s desire to be free—to fit in and stand out at the same time. Reggaeton represents the ‘street’ lifestyle, a fun, fast-paced life of struggle and survival.”
The Mossimo Bikini Summit has always been known for setting the hottest trends in fashion and music.
In 2005, they brought different style of music—namely classical, pop, hiphop and rock—together in a pageant-concert at the Araneta Coliseum. Last year, the summit satisfied the Filipino’s need for speed with an Asian Formula 3-themed event held at the NBC Tent at the Fort Bonifacio Global City. Those events were exciting in their own right, but this year’s reggaeton theme will surely blow past summits out of the water.
Presented by Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, the 2007 Mossimo Bikini Summit: Take It Underground is designed to emulate the “street” lifestyle—one that consists fast cars, high-tech gadgets and the best in street and urban fashion courtesy of Mossimo.
It will be held at an as-yet undisclosed location in Metro Manila on April 21.
Hot copy, still
Don’t write off Imelda Romualdez Marcos yet. She is still a hot copy. Well, among foreign journalists, at least, she is.
In the April issue of W, the bible of true blue fashionistas, the former Philippine First Lady merited a front cover teaser (Kirsten Dunst is W’s cover girl for April) with the blurb: “Forever Imelda: Inside Her Strange, Strange World.”
W staff writer James Reginato does a not-so-interestingly written re-hash of what the rest of the world knows already—the aging matriarch’s unmitigated penchant for the ostentatious.
A Filipino friend living in California e-mailed this reaction to the article.
“At 77, Imelda continues to be gossip fodder. Apparently, there are still those who remain gaga over her rags-to-riches story, which is primarily an American fascination. The hometown-boy-who-does-good saga is really more of an American dream. In more feudal-like societies, like the Philippines, it is where you come from that matters. As the ‘altas’ of old are wont to ask, ‘Hijo de quien?’
“While there is mention of Mrs. Marcos’ recent foray into the faux jewelry business, that segment of the article opens with: ‘Then it’s time for the jewels, and things get even weirder. Imelda, it turns out, is now hawking her own line of costume jewelry—which she proudly describes as ‘recycled junk’...
“Her wares are described as an unusual combination of cast-off gems and junk. Imelda herself admits that her jewelry is made to disintegrate so the wearer gets a chance to re-cycle.
“Reginato concludes that Mrs. Marcos may be deemed weird but to her, what matters is that she still can hog the spotlight.”
Nadia to Congress
She has been out of show business (officially) for the last three decades (if I remember right), but Nadia Montenegro has never been really out of the showbiz circles, having maintained good relationship with those she came to know and worked with in the limited time she was in the business.
When she chose to live a life with then Caloocan Mayor Macario “Boy” Asistio, she quit the business and became a dutiful wife to the mayor and a beautiful mom to their equally beautiful kids.
Now, the kids are all grown-up and Nadia is ready to play a new role in her life. She is running for Congress representing the first district of Caloocan.
Nadia’s awakening came when she started mingling with her husband’s former constituents. She listened to their problems, complaints about the current administration’s lack of concern for their well-being.
Over lunch at Annabel’s not too long ago, Nadia intimated to us that every time she’d meet the destitutes in the city of her husband, she would be enveloped with sadness.
“I don’t know why, but I get emotional listening to the people’s stories about their sufferings, their lack of material things, their struggles to cope with day-to-day problems. I told myself that if I don’t even raise my hand to do something to help these people, I won’t be able to tell my grandchildren later in life that I did anything meaningful at all.”
And so, with the blessings of Boy Asistio, Nadia launches her bid for a seat in Congress this coming elections. Already, the former teen star has been pitching for support from fellow showbiz personalities. And she might just get that come campaign time. After all, Nadia is a child of the movies, her fellow actors will come to prop her up.
