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The Best Dressed List 2023: Preview's Most Stylish Personalities of the Year
Meet Preview’s Best Dressed List of 2023. These fashion-forward personalities have broken boundaries and transformed trends this year.
Published Sep 8, 2023
A new slate has arrived. Introducing Preview’s Best Dressed List of 2023, featuring personalities who’ve broken boundaries and transformed trends—one outfit at a time.
In the eyes of the fashion enthusiast, what one wears can be interpreted in a number of ways—as an extension of the self, peeking into their psyche through the use of fabric; an armor worn among society, equipped for a sudden boost of self-confidence; or simply, just as clothes that look good, and ones they really appreciate.
However they may view style, these 11 Filipino personalities have wielded it in ways that placed artistry in fashion at the forefront, spun in their unique ways amid a flux of trends. Below, see the stars who made it to Preview's Best Dressed List for 2023.
Preview’s Best Dressed List 2023
James Reid
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Set Furniture, RESURRECTION FURNITURE, instagram/resurrectionfurniture
When a person spends much of their years in the well-oiled machine of Filipino showbiz, getting into fashion is an inevitability—at least, in the case of James Reid. However, in recent years, the multi-hyphenate has fully dabbled into experimental territory, much on par with the rhythm of his trailblazing music releases.
With fashion as his other artistic outlet, James’ current style deconstructs the norm of the matinee idol with androgynous cuts fused with a retro-inspired touch, inspired by the likes of James Dean and Harry Styles. But they’re only one facet of what forms James’ aesthetic, as his style contains layers upon layers we’re still unraveling—just like his artistry.
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Whose closet would you love to raid?
“I would say Tyler, The Creator, and A$AP Rocky. They’re not just streetwear, they're into a whole wide range, especially when it comes to the designers, the retro style, and all the others they got going on.”
Pia Wurtzbach
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(LEFT TO RIGHT) Set Furniture, JAIKAREI, instagram/jaikarei. KRIS ABRIGO, instagram/krisabrigo
These days, Pia Wurtzbach has traded an array of sashes and pageant gowns for ensembles that radiate who Pia is, post-Miss Universe. But in between outfits that play into her growing love of model-off-duty athleisure and her ready-to-wear staples from Louis Vuitton and Prada, the 2015 titleholder is still keen to fine-tune her own stylistic vision. Her secret, however, is simple: It’s being unafraid of dabbling into constant experimentation.
“My pageant days taught me that it’s okay to experiment, to see what works for you and what doesn’t work for you,” she says. “There really is no outfit out there that I would say no to. I would always try to make an outfit work.”
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Who can we find on your style inspo board?
“I really love looking at the different outfits of Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian. I try to go for the more voluptuous-looking women because I feel like their aesthetics would look good on me, too. Hailey Bieber is also really good when it comes to athleisure. I feel like every woman has a different style, so I draw inspiration from different women.”
Bella Racelis
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Even in the days of the original content creators, budding style enthusiasts would often flock to the pages of Bella Racelis’ YouTube channel. At 21 years old, the lifestyle influencer has built a following as a young sage of style, with an array of fashion-forward challenges and how-tos that have become the holy grail of Gen Zs.
Crediting her mom and her older sister as her first personal influences, Bella’s particular flair has shined in her clever touch with neutral ensembles, echoing her fashion ethos of “classic and comfortable.” Regular viewers are no strangers to her penchant for elegant simplicity, after all, as they were witnesses to her fashion evolution in real-time.
“My style has evolved in the way that I was able to discover my personal style over the years,” she tells us. “I discovered throughout those years that it's important to invest in timeless and basic pieces. I learned that simplicity is beauty.”
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What is your go-to fashion brand?
“When I'm traveling, I always find myself going to a Dior store and getting a piece from them, whether it be a pair of shades or earrings, or a bag like the Lady Dior. Dior, to me, is feminine, which speaks to my style of simple, but elegant and classy.”
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BGYO
(LEFT TO RIGHT) Set Furniture, KRIS ABRIGO, instagram/krisabrigo. JAIKAREI, instagram/jaikarei.
Music groups contain multitudes, and the P-pop group BGYO stands among its pitch-perfect examples. Beyond the quintet’s dynamic stage presence and potent talents that have rocked local and international scenes, Gelo, Akira, JL, Mikki, and Nate are now a formidable force in fashion.
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Growing beyond their pre-debut days of DIY pants, the men of BGYO reflect on the resources their career has opened up. This includes an eye-opening view of fashion, one that even led to collaborations with brands like retail giant H&M.
“Ang aming style as BGYO ay versatile,” says the group’s leader Gelo. And versatile they are, indeed, as their style is another face of their ever-evolving music’s underlying messages. But while they work as a unit, the personalities of the five members who make up the group shine through in harmonious ways–much like their smooth camaraderie on stage.
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What piece is essential to creating your signature looks?
“Any type of boots!”
Chris Nick
Shades of black and the persistent presence of leather have dominated the closet of Chris Nick, the man and the brand. Fashion was a fantasy that he had woven into a reality, beginning with an accidental stumble on his way to a different fashion-related career. But fate has a way of doing things, and so here he was—a fashion designer whose oeuvre spoke to his minimal yet striking style.
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With a heady mix of straightforward cuts founded by a sultry aura, Chris’ works and his personal wardrobe reflect the blueprint Tom Ford and Yves Saint Laurent have laid out, but in a way that’s also his. In his own apt words, the designer’s style is “elegance and sensuality” all wrapped into one.
“It’s the perfect juxtaposition of who I am as a person,” he explains. “You see this very prim and proper side, but once you get to know me, it gets a little raunchy.”
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Set Furniture, KRIS ABRIGO, instagram/krisabrigo
What fashion brand aligns with your aesthetic?
“Saint Laurent. It's effortless, it's minimal, but there's that impact. I think that's also what Chris Nick is about.”
Bianca Umali
If fashion evolutions had a light bulb moment, then Bianca Umali would attribute it to a time in 2021 when the young GMA actress reached an epiphany, that, in hindsight, became a transformative second—she wanted to change “how she dressed.”
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With the help of her eight-year stylist John Paul Dizon, Bianca entered a new era that toyed with the sartorial boundaries artistas often have, into a gender-defying look that rang in her experimental style at the forefront.
“In this industry, there are certain standards that people tell you that you have to meet. People tell you how you should be, how they think you should look like, how they think you should weigh, how they think what color your skin should be, what your hair should be,” she says. “The message that I want to convey through my personal fashion is that we should be comfortable in how we want ourselves to be, regardless whatever the judgment of other people.”
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How would you describe your style?
“Androgynous. There are days when I choose to be 100 percent feminine. There are days when, which is most of the time, I choose to wear masculine styling. It feels good and free to see myself—a petite, little, tiny woman—wearing boy shorts. For me, it's powerful because it shows that women can [dress like] men.”
Jericho Rosales
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Set Furniture, JAIKAREI, instagram/jaikarei.
Contrary to most, for Jericho Rosales, fashion wasn’t his medium for self-expression. For that, he has film to thank. But nonetheless, the way he views fashion is still intrinsically tied to who he is as a person. “It’s a form for me to say hi to society,” he explains.
Before gaining his status as a sought-after teleserye star in the late ’90s, Jericho had hand-me-downs from his older nephews, which gave the tiniest sparks to his awareness of what fashion was. Later on, second-hand clothes would be exchanged for outfits in TV shows, to awards nights where designers would dress him in suits. In the distant future (a.k.a. 2023) where comfortable and functional pieces rule his closet, style isn’t handed to him—now, it’s all his.
“Style is just one part of me getting to know myself even more, and being honest with myself,” he says. “I don't depend on other voices anymore to get to know myself. What you see is actually me. [My style] is proof of my own personal journey as a human being.”
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Tell us about a fashion risk you took that ended up becoming a game-changer.
“For an event last year, Kim [Jones] (Jericho's wife), was like, ‘Buy that Prada suit.’ It was an oversized Prada suit, and I was so reluctant to wear that because in the late ’90s and 2000s, I wanted to avoid that baggy silhouette.
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“There were a lot of trendy pieces then that I said, ‘That’s ridiculous, I can’t get behind that.’ So, now I tried that. I bought the suit, I wore it, and it was a hit. Ever since, I’ve been open to wearing loose clothing again.”
Gabbie Mariano
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Before Gabbie Mariano sought his sights in luxury-leaning content creation on TikTok, the 26-year-old had fashion in his consciousness even as a child. He recalls a time at a mall in Mandaluyong, when he would hop from one store and another, bearing a different outfit every time he stepped out of their doors. “Even from a really young age, I’ve always just been into trying out new clothes and new styles,” he says.
Onwards to the present, Gabbie’s affinity for the sartorial side of life formed into his current digital career. Whether on- or off-duty, the content creator’s dynamic outfit rotation spoke of his liking for classic and timeless silhouettes, dashed with modern twists that fill his fashion-forward feed.
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Whose closet would you love to raid?
“One of my biggest style icons is Steve McQueen, because I’m really obsessed with the King of Cool. I always want to look very sharp but effortless, and I feel like he aces it. I love his leather jacket, the double-breasted suits, and all that. The ’60s is also my favorite decade for fashion, so it would be my dream.”
Rocio Zobel
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What started off as playing dress-up and witnessing her older sisters at events became a budding career for Rocio Zobel, the youngest daughter of Iñigo and Maricris Zobel. As a fashion design and photography student at the esteemed Parsons School of Design in New York City, the 21-year-old has her style ideals that come into play, whether she’s at the Big Apple or back home on the Philippine shores. “I go for basic with one fun piece. So, either a fun shirt and jeans or fun pants, like a good basic top and a fun jacket,” she says.
With bright, popping colors a necessity for any of her outfits, the promising style star favors brands like Pucci, Missoni, and her go-to The Attico for summer-inspired pieces that speak to her love of feminine prints. As for her own creations as a bonafide fashion designer, it’s up for the future to show—and one we’re excited to see.
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Tell us about a fashion risk you took that ended up becoming a game-changer.
“I'm usually pretty girly with my outfits, but for one of the Prada events at Milan Fashion Week last year, I wore a full denim outfit. It wasn’t my vibe at all [originally], but I had a lot of fun. After that, I started trying more streetwear stuff.”
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Isabel Santos
In Isabel Santos’ regular arsenal is a paintbrush, but oftentimes, her artistic medium is the very outfit that she dons for the day. The visual artist describes her personal style as one that lives in the non-existent in-between that can’t be pinpointed, sitting somewhere in a spectrum. Despite the lack of a label, Isabel’s sartorial track record sees an eclectic mix—not just for the fun patchwork aesthetic, but for a sustainable route in an industry plagued with fast fashion.
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Citing brands like Bode and Proudrace, Isabel says that their approach to reusing fabric resonated with her. Eventually, this translated into her designing her own ensembles made from scrap materials, which ended up on the red carpets of international awards shows. Creating something new out of the once-discarded, after all, is a revered art form in itself.
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What piece is essential to creating your signature look?
“For me, parang everybody looks good in a turtleneck. Nakaka-clean siya. I think you have to have one good one, kahit sleeveless. A turtleneck is good.”
Mimiyuuuh
The fashion journey of Mimiyuuuh started off with a TV screen, with the channel flipped to an episode of The Powerpuff Girls. After wondering why the cartoon series had its characters wear their outfits on repeat, a young Mimi took matters into her own hands and sketched new clothes for them. With a scholarship-backed degree in fashion design and merchandising from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and her own fashion brand later, Mimi’s sketches have gone from the two-dimensional and onto the real world–and even to a grander sphere.
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Alongside the right amount of quirk and a personality-driven wardrobe, the content creator says that, at the root of it, her style is point-blank Mimiyuuuh. “It’s very authentic, kasi parang hindi ako talaga ’yung someone who will try hard just to please somebody,” she tells us. “So lahat ng damit ko, lahat ng sinusuot ko, it’s something to please myself.”
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What fashion brand aligns with your aesthetic?
“Very inspirational ’yung Margiela sa akin. ’Nung college pa ako, ito ’yung sinasabi ko na pag nagka-brand ako, gusto ko maging like Margiela. And kung bibili na ako ng designer item, gusto ko also from Margiela. It's a mix of contemporary, classic, and at the same time, parang may personality talaga siya, especially with the Tabi shoes. Pag nakikita ako nang naka-Tabi, [tingin ko] may taste ’to.”
Produced by The Preview Team
Photographer: Josh Tolentino
Creative Director: Bacs Arcebal
Editor-in-Chief: Marj Ramos-Clemente
Production: Isha Fojas and Reg Rodriguez
Makeup: Justin Louise Soriano (Pia and Chris), Thazzia Falek (Bianca and Mimiyuuuh), Emmanual John Caro (Jericho), Muriel Vega Perez (Isabel, James, Gabbie, Gelo and JL of BGYO), Chel Bicar of Team MVP (Mikki, Nate, and Akira of BGYO)
Hairstyling: Jeck Aguilar (Pia and Chris), MJ Rone (Bianca), Dale Mallari (Mimiyuuuh), Emmanual John Caro (Jericho), Moriel Flores of Team MVP (James, Gabbie, Akira and Gelo of BGYO), Bessie Halili of Team MVP (Isabel, Nate, JL and Mikki of BGYO)
Set Furniture: Kris Abrigo, JAIKAREI, and Resurrection Furniture
Story: Katrina Maisie Cabral
Videos: Jana Jodloman
Social Media: Jamie Lou Briones
Shoot Location: Balara Content Studio
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