WE REMEMBER End of an Era

It’s hard to say goodbye to someone who meant a lot to us. Maurice Arcache was Tatler Philippines’ Society editor from 2001 to 2019. An icon and a loyal friend, he will always be remembered

- Chit L Lijauco 

It is simply impossible to imagine the social scene without Maurice Arcache. He ruled it from his throne from the early ‘70s till today. He was on everyone’s most invited list. He would regale men and women alike with his charm, wit and wicked tongue. Even when he slowed down his pace and completely stayed homebound during the pandemic, it seemed he was always there, society’s larger-than-life doyen. As such, the news of his death on February 17, 2023, posed a problem: how can there now be a party without an Arcache?

“I don’t like thinking of him as having left,” says Irene Martel Francisco, managing director of Tatler Philippines, where Arcache was the Society Editor and where his column “Arcachat” appeared since its maiden issue in September 2001. “It will be like it was during these past few years of the pandemic. He was just there, a phone call away, although we didn’t see each other.”

Martel Francisco, however, had met Arcache way before he wrote for Tatler. “Maurice was a steadfast constant in my life,” she shares. “He was my Mum’s friend, then became mine.”