By Emily Opida
Calgary, a cosmopolitan city in Alberta in Canada, is getting popular as a spot for Filipino creatives especially in the fashion and art industries. In fact, the annual Calgary International Fashion and Arts Week (CIFAW) founded by Filipino-Canadian producers Limuel Hayag Vilela and Alvin Masangkay Francia is a runway show event becoming famous in the international fashion circuit.
We’re getting a feel of CIFAW in the Philippines finally with the upcoming Philippine Fashion Weekend in July. It is with the help of Marriot Bonvoy, reportedly the most reputable hospitality and lifestyle program in the world.
“Manila, we are coming ‘home,’” declared CIFAW CEO/president Limuel Hayag Vilela and COO/chief creative director Alvin Masangkay Francia. “Masarap bumalik sa tahanan na humubog sa’yo bilang tao at ibahagi ang tagumpay ng iyong pakikipagsapalaran at paglalakbay! We’re coming home!”
CIFAW gave a preview recently during their press con at the Marriott.
Philippine Fashion Weekend by CIFAW is a first. With the theme, “Home,” the ninth CIFAW aims to inspire every Filipino to take pride in their roots.
SCI PH founded by CIFAW’s Limuel and Alvin, John Ablaza, Odelon Simpao, Kenny Ladaga, Aurea Vinluan, Jaki Penalosa, and Maliyah Abenir are featured in the fashion show.
The Philippine Fashion Weekend is also going to be part of the milestone event “Marriott Moments A-Fair Luxuriant Expo,” a gathering of the best weddings and events suppliers. It is also going to be held at the “inclusive venue” MGBX Exhibition Hall in the Marriott Grand Ballroom, one of the grandest hotel-based MICE facility in the country today, serving as the event’s official home.
The bridal fair will be co-organized by Themes & Motifs, the leading bridal fair organizer in the Philippines since 2001, and the dynamic Spotlight Couronne Internationale (SCI) from Canada. It will gather renowned brands in hospitality, weddings and special events.
The event will also be the platform for networking, education and talks about trends, inclusivity and the future of the fashion industry. The event aims to encourage and showcase creativity, innovation, and collaboration among designers, stylists, models, photographers, and journalists. A unique celebration of “glocal” fashion and arts, the fashion show segment will be part of the “Luxuriant Expo,” with the Manila Marriott Hotel serving as a world-class backdrop.
“Luxuriant Expo” prides itself in being an inclusive event, being a hotel-based expo that is open to all other local and international hospitality brands. This is Marriott’s way of showing support to the thriving wedding and events, and hospitality industries, as the hotel continues to find opportunities to pave the way to more winning moments for everyone.
“Marriott International, a company that has the clear vision of bringing the world together by connecting people through the power of travel by providing a portfolio of the best global hospitality brands, by being in more places with 550 hotels in over 60 countries and territories, including the Philippines, around the globe, and by having in place a dependable lifestyle program, the Marriott Bonvoy. Over the past two years Marriott International has significantly grown its presence in the country, currently with 10 hotels bringing in six of its over 30 hospitality brands to the Philippine shores, namely, Marriott, Sheraton, The Westin, Courtyard, Four Points, Fairfield and soon AC Hotel and JW Marriott,” Area General Manager for the Philippines of Marriott International Bruce Winton wistfully said.
Area Director of Sales and Distribution for the Philippines of Marriott International Lala Quilantang underscores the hotel’s MICE-readiness:
“The Marriott Grand Ballroom remains to be the largest pillarless ballroom in the Philippines, while the MGBX Exhibition Hall fulfills its the promise of providing the quadrants of one of the major segments of the tourism industry, the M-I-C-E (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) with our very own convention space. It is a 3800sqm exhibition space located at Level B1 of the Marriott Grand Ballroom. The X in MGBX connotes collaboration and partnership, and is an inclusive space which can unite individuals, groups and industries.”
The fashion event will be held at the Manila Marriott Hotel on July 26 and July 27, 2025.
Celebrity sisters and it-girls Isabelle Diaz Daza-Semblat and Ava Daza-Zanirato star in the current cover story of STYLISH, as they talk about how they empower women by inspiring them to take control of their sexual wellness through their brand Jellytime.
Read the STYLISH March-April 2025 cover story here.
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