"Another favorite of mine that I usually use naman for concerts is Rajo Laurel. Rajo naman, he can be simple and yet he can be fun and glittery. Nage-get niya 'yong fashion sense when it comes to the stage or being up there on stage—how small we look sometimes from far away? So, I like that he can adjust to it.
"Si Maxi Cinco naman, I think he's so underrated. I think it's because of his being a simple person. But I think he's one of our better designers also. He can go sexy and yet he can even do costumes for movies. He can make suits for men, while at the same time, he can make outfits for me when I go out for my very private functions. He understands what I like, and he is able to execute it very well.
"There are a lot of newcomers also now that I've been using. Jun Escario is one. I like him. Very trendy but galeng."
Pops admits she's not good at remembering names, places, and navigational directions-but "when it comes to clothes, I remember," she laughs.
"Alam ko pag nagamit ko na siya, let's say, sa TV or sa isang show. So, it rests for a while before I use it again. Most of the clothes naman that I usually purchase are not too trendy, so safe sila. Kung may trendy clothes man ako, I really still store them, because I know they come back to being trendy anyway."
As a fashionista, is she secretly a pintasera when it comes to other women's fashion sense, style, and guts?
"Hindi naman. No, no, no. I think pintasera is too serious a word."
She says she's more of the "If I were" sort of a critic: "In my mind, I'd say, 'If I were to dress her up, or if I were to fix myself that way, it would have been like this.' Parang ganoon. It's really more for myself than anything else. Wala lang."
In fact, she admits feeling bad when stars attending an awards night are attacked mercilessly on TV and in the papers the next day, solely for the clothes they have chosen to wear.
"To be honest with you, naaawa ako. I know everybody has their own opinion, everybody makes comments. But ang feeling ko, we all make an effort to look good. Siyempre, it also depends on our budget, e.
"So, I think we have to be given extra plus 100 or 1,000 points for the effort. A lot of the artists go through a lot when they attend such events. Kasi, really, it's an effort, and it's very expensive, di ba? The outfits, unless you really have a designer friend who makes something for you, magastos din. Alam mo 'yon? So, siguro we have to understand all those factors also."
We counter by saying that some personalities are simply just asking for it.
"Well, tama ka din diyan," she says with a sigh of resignation. Then, giggling, she recalls one awards night that she attended: "I remember I have a friend who was so elegant and who was wearing all her blings. Then, she lost the Star of the Night something to someone who was wearing a feathered gown. She was so upset, and yet she was laughing. She was telling me, 'Girl, I lost to a bird.'"
The feathered gown, it turned out, came with a stuffed bird perched on the wearer's shoulder.
FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING. Most fashionistas, to fit into all their lovely clothes, watch their weight constantly. Pops, who admits to being matakaw, doesn't have that kind of problem. She doesn't weigh herself at all, and she's also not a gym habitue, nor is she an aficionado of any form of exercise. Her heaviest weight has been 120 pounds, and that wasn't even caused by food intake.
