MORE THAN A DESIGNER

Pepito Albert was in a league of his own regarding fashion design; he was also larger than life, called it as he saw it, and the best friend a girl could ever have. Seven of his muses pay tribute to a man we lost too soon

- Chit L Lijauco

The noted chef Margarita Forés was at an artisan shop in Comporta, Portugal, showing her travelling group the beautiful ceramic cross she bought the day before. Suddenly, she had a spark and blurted out, “Let’s buy one for Pepito, too!” Then she went out briefly to greet her son Amado and his girlfriend. It was 2:45pm. When she returned, she saw friends Monique Villonco and Maricris Brias crying and embracing. Monique just got a text message that Pepito had just died—almost at 2:45pm Portugal time on May 27. He was 63.

Pepito De Leon Albert was a pillar of Philippine fashion. An architect by profession, he got his rudiments in the fashion business from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, California. He launched his career in LA in 1987, earning a paean from the Los Angeles Times in 1989 as “the current West Coast darling of the fashion press”. Albert’s rising star peaked with a covetable cover in Vogue showing Uma Thurman wearing his dress to a red-carpet event. He returned to the Philippines in 1990 after 15 years of living abroad and, armed with this excellent track record in fashion, immediately drew a formidable clientele from society’s A-List crowd.

“Clientele”, however, is not entirely accurate to call his muses. Albert becomes more than just a designer to them; he becomes their friend, their confidante.