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________, Nagmamahal, _______

Words by Olivia Estrada

When asked, “What is the last question you'd want to ask a loved one?”, a well fills up with various strains of emotion. Significant others who were once forgotten are confronted, parents gone too soon are missed, friendships found only in time out mind gush forward. It is from this well that Gabbie Sarenas draws her latest collection: ________, Nagmamahal, _______ .

This collection won the Stilo ArteFino best product in Fashion 2018

Confronted with the constraints of piña and hablon, Sarenas proves there is versatility in tradition. Much like the question posited above, these bibs can be appropriated to mean differently for each individual. It brings the ease of white shirt higher, the warmth of an additional layer, the uniqueness of a statement piece. The story of each bib, named Cecilia and often adorned with hand-sewn sampaguitas, is much the like anecdotes behind the last question we wish we could ask a loved one: limitless in variation but effortless in the way we don't realize how we carry the sentiment in our heart. The title of the collection also reflects the same fluidity. The blanks could be filled in according to the role we wish to play, either as the sender or as the receiver of the loving thought.

As with love, art, fashion, and memory, this collection only truly comes full circle when the wearer gives it meaning. When we look at a piece of art or fashion, we subject it to the memories we hold dear. And this is the key to the variety of interpretation. In explaining the dynamic of Picasso's paintings always invite the viewer to the artist's creative process, Noble laureate and neuroscientist Eric Kandel says of the human mind as it recalls memory through art, *“We have the tremendous ability to fill in details that are missing.”

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