MEGA MILESTONES

Two former editors detail memorable moments and the evolution of the 32 years of MEGA

- BIANCA SALONGA and TRINA EPILEPSIA BOUTAIN

2005-2009: A SEAT AT THE TABLE

The early 2000s was an exciting time in fashion. It ushered in the pinnacle of the It bags and introduced the first wave of It girls who made them painfully covetable. It was also regarded as the decade of rock-star designers. Under the watchful eye of fashion editors and pioneering style blogs, they went through rocky marriages with conglomerates of luxury. Some even unraveled right before our eyes. Social media was at its infancy then with Facebook unceremoniously rendering Friendster obsolete. Fashion blogs were our real-time portals to the style capitals, the unraveling of fashion greats, and all the changes that were happening in a post-grunge era.

As Charles Dickens so beautifully wrote in A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." In Manila, every member of the MEGA editorial team had their eyes perpetually glued to Style.com. Tim Blanks and Suzy Menkes were prophets of fashion. Their runway reviews from Paris, Milan, New York, and London were considered truth. Macchiatos and lattes in the morning were often consumed with copious amounts of Bryanboy and Perez Hilton. As young and ambitious editors, we were eager spectators watching everything unfold on our computer screens-oceans away.

With Carla Sibal as our editor-in-chief (EIC), we bonded over a collective desire to bring our own unique voice to the conversation. Her global and future-forward vision for the magazine inspired us to push the envelope in Philippine fashion journalism. As editors of MEGA, we felt that we owed it to our readers to produce stories that were more than just echoes of what had been written about or photographed from abroad. There was a place for our local designers, and retail brands in the international landscape. It was just a matter of getting them there one editorial at a time. We also re-evaluated our roles as storytellers.