As the novel corona virus spread throughout the world, the effects have been particularly devastating for the event industry, and of course, that has impacted the fashion industry, too.

After a number of reports have circulated in the Internet that the event industry would never come back to normal, not until at least 2022, the event industry leaders have been feeling uninspired and hopeless, and fashion designers had prepared to bid farewell to staging spectacular live fashion shows.

But just like darkness in the middle of the night, a small spark of light is all we need to have hope.

Locally, that first spark of light was #RajoRunwayOnline, a digital fashion presentation by renowned Filipino fashion Rajo Laurel in collaboration with SAGA Events, the Philippines’ leading event management agency headed by the leading fashion show director in the country, Robby Carmona.

Robbie Carmona shared with Stylish e-Magazine how he came up with the concept behind Rajo Laurel’s first ever virtual fashion show.

“It happened one morning when I woke up and saw model Ria Bolivar’s message to me which was a post. After seeing it, I had this eureka moment,” the runway visionary said. “I called up Rajo at 6 in the morning and asked if he wanted to do his first virtual show on his birthday which was on May 19.”

Robby further shared with Stylish e-Magazine, “My vision is to inspire the fashion and live events industries to explore different possibilities in this time of pandemic. I want us to think of creative innovations, and experiment with the different platforms available to be able to start strong again.”

“The event industry has always been about human connection. This pandemic is the time that we should help each other, so more blessings will come our way. I am looking forward for us to be stronger in human connections more than ever,” the director said.

The SAGA Events leader mentioned that it only took them two weeks to prepare for the monumental virtual fashion event.

“I’ve been doing events for 25 years, and this is something completely different. The way we made our content were all online, the pre-production meetings, the approval process were all virtual. Even that day, we were all in different areas, doing the live fashion show. We were all sharing this moment,” Robby said.

On the other hand, fashion designer Rajo Laurel shared his thoughts on this first virtual fashion show during Facebook live, “The story behind #RajoRunwayOnline is essentially a way to start strong, a way to communicate and keep in touch with our colleagues and friends . This is the brainchild of my friend Robby Carmona. Two weeks ago, he called me at 6AM and he was so excited, he said, ‘’I have an idea on how to begin, an idea to inspire everyone out there in this brand new world of ours’,” Rajo narrated. “I thought this is a great opportunity for all of us in the fashion and event industries to start strong.”

“The process of this project was not easy. Our industry lies in communication. It lies with the fact that we come face to face with the people that we work with. However, no matter what the challenge is, I believe that some good things do not come easy.”

Rajo further said that fashion is a “collaborative art”. It is like an orchestra, working piece by piece, heart by heart,” Laurel said.

Rajo expressed his gratitude towards all the models of Mercator modelling agency, Jing Monis for the hair design, and music director Byran Cua who created an original music for #RajoRunwayOnline

Rajo’s new collection dubbed as ‘Hacienda’ was first conceptualized by the designer six months ago. He was starting his country life at his rest house in Batangas then. “As I was literally planting seeds in Batangas that inspired the ‘Hacienda’ collection, I am figuratively also planting seeds on the runway through my first virtual fashion show.”

The ‘Hacienda’ collection is composed of wearable yet fashionable pieces in nude, neutral and nature-like colors. Most of the ensembles are in nude hues, while some are in neutral and light colors of green, white and blue.

The Hacienda collection was inspired by “serenity, blissful times admiring nature”.

The digital fashion show highlighted some of Laurel’s muses through the years. Stunners like Charmaine Lagman, Divine Lee and Duday Tuason,actors Iza Calsado, Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillio, and Ruffa Guttierrez as well as socialites Stephanie Zubiri, Tim Yap and Liz Uy took part at the historic fashion event by wearing Rajo during the show’s audio-video presentation.

“Just like any artist, the art and fashion industries are inspired by muses. I’ve clothed these women during special moments in their lives, almost like creating windows of special memories with them,” Rajo said.

Robby further said that RajoRunwayOnline is all about keeping human connection alive.

During the Facebook Live event, celebrities like Lea Salonga, Raymond Guttierrez , Bianca Gonzales and Rina Benipayo were seen joining and watching the special event.

“The events industry has always brought people together, allowing them to share beautiful stories. This human connection that we share have allowed us to build a community. So to keep this human connection alive, we must continue to inspire. We must continue to harness creativity and support one another,” Robby said.

“We are given this unique opportunity to experiment with unique platforms by new ways of engaging audiences, and hone more of the undiscovered paths so we can continue to create significant human connections and experiences. With the the resources we have and the creativity that fuels us, we will continue to move forward to the future together. Our businesses will evolve and our industry will thrive. This is where we start, and this is how we start strong,” Robby concluded.

When Stylish e-Magazine asked how does it feel to uplift the morale of both fashion and event industries, and what can we look forward from SAGA Events, fashion show director Robby had this to say:

“We will be announcing our next project very soon.  At that moment, we were already creating digital contents and planning live-streaming events for some clients.  Our focus is to strengthen the digital aspect of the business by equipping us with the right technical and creative people and of course the technology needed  to run these kinds of events,” he said.