"Authenticity looks good on you," says Preview Editor-in-Chief Marj Ramos-Clemente as she concluded her welcoming remarks at the Preview Ball 2024. She described Kathryn Bernardo's September cover—and everything else the Preview team has prepared for the evening—"a love letter to our five-year-old selves," which Preview has been writing for the past 29 years.
Held on September 6th at the Marriott Grand Ballroom in Newport World Resorts, the Preview Ball celebrated the homegrown fashion publication's nearly three decades of championing Filipino talent. The annual event presented the awards for Preview’s Best Dressed List, Best Filipino Fashion Designers, and Style Icon of the year, before culminating the evening with the reveal of its much-awaited September cover.
This year’s ball was a celebration of authenticity and Filipino artistry, values that Preview has embodied for nearly three decades. To commemorate the milestone, the event released a special print newsletter, The Preview Daily, which included an Editor’s Letter penned by Preview EIC Marj Ramos-Clemente. In it, she reflected on her personal journey with Preview, how the brand has shaped her relationship with fashion, and what it means to be "truly cool" by staying authentic to oneself.
Read Marj’s Editor’s Letter, published in full below:
An Editor’s Letter by Preview EIC Marj Ramos-Clemente
"I was five years old when Preview was born, perhaps a little too young to be reading magazines but old enough to know that playing dress-up wasn’t just for Barbie dolls.
"I was a wide-eyed 20-something when I joined Preview, perhaps a little too inexperienced to be styling cover shoots but played enough dress-ups myself to understand that fashion is for everyone.
"It’s been 10 years since, and telling stories as an editor still makes me feel like the same girl who saved up her allowance to feel cool enough to flip through the pages of Preview.
"But after all these years, what Preview has taught me is that being truly cool starts with dressing up for yourself, embracing the moments when you’re different, and liberating yourself from the constraints of trends and traditions. And when you are kind and true to yourself—that's even cooler.
"Ultimately, only you can define what 'cool' means. And authenticity is the one thing in this world that should never go out of style.
"This evening at the Preview Ball, we honor the country's movers of style. Our Best Dressed List is a showcase of individuals who have mastered the art of using fashion as a language to tell their own unique stories. Nearly three decades ago, one woman’s fashion story exemplified Preview's values in its inaugural issue in 1995. Tweetie de Leon, Preview’s first-ever cover star and a 2008 Best Dressed honoree, makes a comeback as this year's Style Icon.
"Putting the spotlight on local artistry and our shared heritage, the recipients of this year’s Best Filipino Fashion Designers grant—Martin Bautista, Neric Beltran, Proudrace, Bagasáo, and Gabbie Sarenas—collaborated with Preview to create custom looks for our September cover, which will be unveiled later this evening.
"The cover—along with everything else that we have prepared for tonight’s celebration—is a visual narrative about the beauty of authenticity.
"We are all, in our own way, a work of art. But perhaps what needs to be said a thousand times over is that we are our own artists as well."
*This Editor’s Letter was originally published on The Preview Daily, a special print newsletter for Preview Ball 2024 that was held on September 6th at the Marriott Grand Ballroom in Newport World Resorts.
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