The Filipino identity is tailored with pride

The ink has since dried up. Yet, in the permanent stroke of two pens, a new chapter in Philippine fashion education was born.

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It was not just a ceremonial signing when Mark Lewis Higgins, son of the late National Artist Salvacion Lim Higgins, entrusted his mother’s legacy to the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. It was a solemn promise of commitment to continuity. In that precise, particular moment, history met the future.

Beside Higgins stood Br. Edmundo “Dodo” Fernandez FSC, Benilde’s president, who spoke with the conviction of a steward more than an administrator.

"We want to keep the tradition, knowledge and history of Slim's and introduce it to a new generation of Filipinos," Br. Dodo said.

But now that the agreement has been sealed — what's next?

On one hand, there are the tangible treasures: the more than 300 gowns and dresses of couture brilliance, an extensive collection of international and domestic magazines all from 1939, the valuable fashion textbooks, and the priceless archives.

All are now sound and safe within the still-to-be-opened Benilde Fashion Museum, headed by architect Gerry Torres. This historical collection will be testimonies and embodiments of a memory, a living reminder of Salvacion Lim Higgins, the National Artist for fashion design who dared to build a fashion school in 1960 with her sister Purificacion out of vision and grit — the Slim’s Fashion and Arts School, the oldest fashion school in the Philippines. It is set to celebrate its 65th anniversary in October.