ROSA CLARA PRESENTS HER SEXIEST BRIDAL COLLECTION EVER
Every bride-to-be who dreams of looking like a white princess on her big day is a woman who perceives herself to be the queen of her destiny; the walk down the aisle as a red carpet moment where she is the biggest star. She could be inspired by the divas that dominate its Hollywood version, flaunting the female form in trends like the naked dress, characterized by a figurehugging silhouette and sheer overlays. As a bride, she is definitely confident and unafraid to break tradition. That’s the woman that inspires Señora Rosa Clará and her eponymous bridal ready-to-wear label this year. “We are presenting the sexiest collection I have ever designed,” she says, in town to unveil her 2018 offerings. “We have set for backs uncovered and plunging necklines to create flattering lines. We want to highlight each woman’s natural beauty and personality. The result is a collection with a sensual and romantic look that doesn’t lose elegance.”
Rosa’s line evolves with 21st-century femininity — that’s how the brand got so big. Planting the seeds of her bridal fashion empire from a small shop in Paseo de Gracia, Barcelona in 1995, Rosa Clará is in full bloom with hundreds of locations worldwide, creating 4,000 designs each year, divided into 10 to 12 collections. The fashion house is adept at haute couture details that it also makes and sells bridalwear by haute couture designers Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld, and Zuhair Murad. Every year, Rosa Clara has the honor of setting the tone as the opening show for Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week, dubbed by Philippine managing partner Valerie Zayco as “the New York Fashion Week of the international bridal industry.”
It is Rosa’s personal ode to natural fabrics — the love that got the law school graduate started on designing her own clothes until she set out to fill the gap in Spain’s niche nuptial industry. For her 2018 line, she tells The STAR, “We have given great importance to French lace, but also to our characteristic fabrics such as Italian plumetis, tulle, crepe, georgette and hand-pleated muslin for skirts.” Why these fabrics? “They adapt well to the body and highlight the female figure.”
Rosa Clará’s first Filipina muse, bride-to-be Martine Cajucom, known for her LA cool-girl style informed by cult classic films from the ‘80s, is the perfect fit. “She epitomizes the woman we envision wearing Rosa Clará. She is entrepreneurial, independent and successful in her career. She knows what she likes and she appreciates quality,” Rosa says of the lifestyle brand Sunnies creative director. She will design Martine’s wedding gown in a “collaborative engagement” in her Barcelona atelier to take place close to Barcelona Bridal Week in the last week of April. Martine’s Rosa Clará picks from the latest collection are ones in lace with a deep V neckline and a slit front that is not only alluring but also allows for greater freedom of movement.
Rosa’s own wedding gown in 2013 is covered up and sleek in contrast but the theme is the same: to showcase her natural beauty. She showed up as a more polished version of herself to wed the love of her youth, businessman Josep Artigas, who stayed by her side during her Manila engagements before they flew out to a vacation in Amanpulo, Palawan last week. No bells and whistles, no tail — Rosa wore a pearl gray long-sleeve column dress of her design made of natural silk crepe embroidered with rhinestones in the waist to the back in a style that calls to mind the ‘30s. Accessorized with nothing but pearl drop earrings, she went for comfort, against the expectations of grandiosity as Spain’s queen of bridalwear.
With this in mind, she gives her ultimate advice to brides: “Follow your instincts and let your wedding be like what you have always imagined. About the entourage, this is a good moment to choose vivid colors.” In her latest offerings, Rosa encourages focus on the “fiesta part of the wedding” with dresses you can eat, drink, and be merry in. Rosa’s readyto-wear model is more relevant today. “It’s perfect for millennials who want to know exactly what they are buying. I know of some brides who, the night before their wedding, are unhappy with their custom-made gown and they rush to Rosa Clará,” says Valerie, herself a millennial. She discovered the brand from her friends who, until she brought the franchise to Manila seven years ago, had to fly to Hong Kong to buy a gown for their peace of mind. Whatever the case, a sense of self is most essential for Rosa. “The bride who knows herself is the most beautiful,” she describes her ideal bride. “The one who wears her ideal gown for herself, the gown that does not make her metamorphose into who she isn’t.”
The Rosa Clara 2018 Collection will be available at The Residences at Greenbelt, Makati and at S Maison, Pasay starting July 2018. Follow Rosa Clara on Facebook or Instagram @RosaClaraPH, or contact The Residences at Greenbelt 238-1310 or S Maison 805-1782 for updates.