Dayang Dayang was the first exotic Filipina model that stood out on the Philippine fashion ramp in 1971 with her tall, lithe frame and dark exotic looks.
At that time, all the models were either beautiful top movie stars (such as Gloria Romero, Barbara Perez, Amalia Fuentes and Susan Roces) or the mestiza and similar-looking colegialas that grande dame Conchita Sunico and designers handpicked to represent their haute couture fashion shows here and abroad. The whiter the complexion, with Spanish or patrician features, the better.
Ruby Umali was somewhat of a nerd in the University of the Philippines taking up chemistry and had no inkling of doing anything in fashion or design. On a lark, she was brought by a classmate to then hip and au courant designer Dante Ramirez. He seemed unimpressed with her looks as well as her height and all he asked was if she could walk gracefully — which she was unable to do the first time around since she had never thought of being a model despite her towering height of 5’9’, then considered super tall for a Filipina. He also renamed her Dayang Dayang to further add to her exoticness.
After briefly coaching her, Dante’s next instruction was to just copy the way Ping Valencia walked and projected on the fashion ramp. Every model wanted to move like Ping and every designer wanted her to represent them on the fashion ramp or onstage for fundraising shows.
It did not take long for Dayang to stand out among us and she soon caught the eye of British photographer David Charles who was almost 20 years her senior. He was bringing her to the United Kingdon and that certainly did not sit well with Tita Conching as she looked after us Karilagan models like her very own and was wary of this older man. She would make sure we were always properly chaperoned and looked after when we had modeling stints here and abroad to represent the Philippines. If she felt any of our admirers were not up to her liking, she would say so in no uncertain terms.
Dayang and David moved to the United Kingdom and eventually we all went our separate ways by getting real jobs that would jump-start our careers and pay us a salary (as modeling was considered more of a hobby then since we were unpaid), settled down with our respective families and even moved to different continents. Lucky were those who were able to keep in touch with each other from time to time.
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The Philippine Star | Frannie Jacinto | Read More Article Link
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