A perseverance in style and excellent execution.

Walking through the exhibit at the Museum of the Filipino People, nostalgia is the feeling least in attendance. There is nothing but awe for the garments that seem as though they belong on a runway instead of a museum. Timeless, elegant, and yet even after 50 years, still relevant and boundary-pushing, the designs of Salvacion Lim-Higgins are a testament to the innate fashion prowess of the Filipino and our esteemed history of style.

Artfully known by the moniker SLIM, which was how she signed her now famous sketches, Lim-Higgins took our pre-Martial Law fashion standing to new heights. Slim reinvented the terno without sacrificing its grace and femininity. A far cry from the overly costumey, two-pieces that we have been privy to for the last two decades or so at international beauty pageants, Slim’s take on the terno was modern and chic, befitting her clientele of society’s elite. “After Martial Law, people began to associate the terno with Imelda, and they began to form an aversion to anything to do with that era,” explains son Mark Lim-Higgins. As the nation entered into the age of the power suit, Slim persevered in style and excellent execution.

Many of the key pieces that garnered for her a well-deserved place among our local fashion greats are on display at the Museum of the Filipino People (the National Museum) until March 31. Apart from a few tell-tale signs of the passing of decades, the garments have retained their runway-ready appeal. Slim’s penchant for pushing the design envelope is clear in the hiked hemlines of the classically feminine and dainty Maria Clara and terno, the circle cape that is attached to the skirt of a Spanish dress, and the subtly superb synching of unlikely colors. “My mother was a student of Fine Arts,” Mark Higgins reveals, “and she used her understanding of colors and how they work together in her designs.” One brilliant example of this that Higgins is quick to point out is a simply cut dove-gray terno that appears almost unremarkable among the other dresses that it stands with. The genius lies in that the dress was designed for a woman who had dazzling red hair, creating a magnificent complement of hues. “Who else would think to make a gray terno?” reflects Higgins. Only his mother.

One of the many reasons for the reverent awe that people feel while shuffling ungainly next to such elegance is the clear talent of execution that is its own element. “My mother believed that before you could experiment with anything, you had to first master the basics,” explains Sandy Lim-Higgins, Slim’s daughter. “It’s one of the key lessons that we teach at the school [Slim’s Fashion and Arts School].” And experiment she did, employing bare midriffs and handmade appliqués before it was trendy to do so. It’s not peculiar to see students and seasoned seamstresses alike groping under the skirts and wondering out loud how the garment was made. Even time, the true judge of quality, becomes evidence of the enduring condition of Slim’s creations.

With a career that spanned over 40 years, Slim is now again making waves in the fashion world, years after her passing. Apart from the school that bears her name and imparts her knowledge (as she wrote the lessons and the text that is still used in the curriculum), a book celebrating her life as designer extraordinaire has recently been launched and is available in bookstores nationwide. Filled with images of homegrown haute couture, the book is a wonderful tribute to a true pioneer of Philippine fashion. “We should not forget that we had our own sense of fashion even as early as the Fifties,” says Mark Higgins. And, as her legacy, the Slim’s Fashion & Arts School, approaches its 50th anniversary, the Lim-Higgins siblings are set to offer a glimpse of the great fashion minds that were drawn to their enigmatic yet disciplined mother with a tome of sketches by students past and present.

SLIM: Salvacion Lim Higgins, Philippine Haute Couture 1947-1990. East Wing, Fourth floor, Museum of the Filipino People, National Museum of the Philippines, Teodora-Valencia Circle, Rizal Park, Manila. 10 am to 4:30 pm, daily except Mondays and Tuesdays. Adults, P100, students, P30 upon presentation of ID. Free admission, Sundays. For information on groups, tours or discounts, please call 527-0278 or email museum.education.nm@gmail.com.