HOW DO YOU pitch a sale of a piece of diamond to a peasant or laborer, or simply to a hand-to-mouth existence dreamer of a fabulous life when the precious metal is mostly accessible to the moneyed and the privileged few?
There are a lot of ways to skin the cat, anyway.
It may sound incongruous but it takes an enterprising woman like a certain Charo Cordial to bring diamonds and own them to the masses despite the prevalence of inflation and abject poverty in the country and around the world.
Charo seems mindless being tagged as a lady with a delusion of grandeur.
Cordial hopes against hope that she’d sell her wares not only, but not limited, to a certain group of people but to the majority of the Filipinos as well.
As she mentioned earlier in press briefs, she has lowered the price of a diamond to a relatively reasonable rate.
“The lowest price of my diamond is six thousand pesos,” she announced during a press conference.
Before the Maddox Jewelry Iconic Diamond Runway Fashion Show at the ballroom of the EDSA Shangri-La, Maddox’s entrepreneur Cordial breezed through the Lubang Room of the hotel for the presscon in her elegant red gown with matching accessories of radiant stones dangling on her neck, swirling in her arms and reflecting on her ring finger.
She really walked her talk.
From Farmlands to Jewelry Fashion Show
Charo, admittedly, knows how to select and chew her food on her plate where her mouth is.
She said that she can feel the pain in the wallets of the poor and the marginalized who also dream of someday having possessed diamonds to wear on occasions like parties and conventions in their own social classes.
They can party, she asked, can’t they?
“I know how the underprivileged think and feel about the lack of precious stones in their bodies,” she said.
Her instinct answered them all.
She herself is a daughter of a peasant bereft of body embellishments.
“I grew up in the farmlands of Albay in the Bicol Region. My parents were farmers. I know what poverty means,” she shared.
“In this case, I want my pieces of jewelry to be affordable to the lowly,” said Cordial.
Here’s a woman who professed that she is catering to the poor not readily the market of the jewels industry.
Really now?
Popular Culture
In any business enterprise reeling off in a stiff competitive consumerist society, though, one of the ways to market a merchandise is through popular culture.
If we believe her, movies, television and lately, social media are the social fields Charo grew up with in the province and later in the urban landscape so these are her rallying points to a fledgling enterprise.
She was a fan of film, TV and lately, Facebook, X, the former Twitter, Instagram and other digital platforms.
“Paborito ko ang teleserye na ‘Valiente’ noon. Pag oras na, nasa bahay na ako mula sa eskwela (‘Valiente was my favorite television series. During its popularity, I was always at home during its telecast),” recalled the pretty woman.
Local teenyboppers were her idols and their adoration is her bedrock.
Charo, consciously, is the bridge between her pieces of jewels and show business.
It’s her marketing tool, indeed, to reach out to the common tao.
You see, jewelry and glitz and glam truly complement each other.
They are both worn to exude luxury and high society although the possessions of pieces of jewelries are common pursuits as well of ordinary people if not the deprived and, well, the materialistic in the quotidian.
Not All That Glitter is Gold
Take a look at the fancy jewelries, plastic-plated in thin layers of gold or silver, gathered and mounted in a watery or lime-induced bargain table in crowded urban commercial corners of the city.
Not all that glitter is gold, indeed.
Yet there are still the simple, the unadorned and there are the decorated, ornamented, the “jaundice colored fingers, arms, wrists and necks” of brass or gold-plated gems.
In her past, Cordial thought precious stones glitter like stars on the ramp and on the silver screen.
From these allusions, she took those images onstage.
She got all available multimedia stars to wear her metal works in her fashion show.
Although movie, television and stage play stars are believed, arguably, to command high talent fees (relative to theater artists but many of them could attest that performers in dramatics are now earning from their artistic jobs and performances compared from their “hungry days” “maybe one or two decades ago”), theater people are also paid well.
Theater artists were also perfect to show her pieces of merchandise.
Friendship with Yayo Aguila
Celebs are used to wearing jewelries—pearl earrings, expensive wristwatches, trinkets, gem stones etc.
That is why wearing them in a fashion show isn’t new anymore because they are part of their daily lives.
But there are still celebs who are simple, who don’t bother to wear any adornments against the many who show off fancy material possessions.
Conceptualizing for a catwalk jewelry show, Maddox event director Robbie Carmona collaborated and consulted with Charo about the contents and look of the event.
Cordial has at this juncture, had chosen and classified her star models of her creations came from the idea of being friends with actresses like Yayo Aguila.
“Close kami ni Yayo kaya nakakuha ako ng ideya mula sa kanya na iparada ang mga diamonds ko suot ng mga artista (I got the idea of parading stars wearing my diamonds),” Charo disclosed.
Therefore, the stature of pop stars was one of Cordial’s bases in bringing to the audience the handling of jewels in her command.
Ai-Ai delas Alas
“Sayang si Ai Ai delas Alas, may commitment siya kaya hindi puwedeng sumali (I regret not having her because she has a commitment she cannot join),” Charo smiled.
The first star model to sashay on the runway was Ryza Cenon with Diego Loyzaga who trailed behind her in the classified Icons of Forms and Radiance.
One of the most awaited pairs in the section was AJ Raval and Aljur Abrenica who were romantic in public as they displayed their love no matter the costs, literally and figuratively.
It was a kind of a comeback role for Kris Bernal after a lull period in her public life in exchange of a prized private family life unlike Edgar Allan Guzman who after getting married to Shaira Diaz continues his screen and personal appearances ditto with Polo Ravales who might not have married later but loves his public exposures as well.
Ex-Viva Hot Babe and Vivian Velez dead ringer Sheree now sporting the family name Bautista reunited with showbiz colleagues while stand-up comedian Negi was still the magical crowd-drawer black gay.
Couple Aubrey Miles and Troy Montero were always on the go on and off cam.
Iconic Dick and Carmi
Here comes your Icons of Brilliance and Elegance in the still seductive Katrina Halili with relatively inactive performers Diana Zubiri and Nadine Samonte making their presence felt.
James Blanco should not have allowed a heavy facial make-up because it ruined his baby face looks while Brazilian Daiana Menezes was still the perfect towering mannequin.
Oh, Geneva Cruz was a looker in her slimness while Giselle Sanchez never loses her witty self.
Charo’s bloodline Nana and son, Avery Cordial were preferred to be on and off models unlike sex bomb Ara Mina who usually models and has the full control of her body after all these years.
To group them into classics, here’s your Icons of Timelessness in wearing jewelries—her name suggests classic beauty herself, Beauty Gonzales as well as the names and faces of Maureen Larrazabal, DJ Durano, Ynez Veneracion, Regine Tolentino, Gary Estrada, Alma Concepcion and Jeric Raval, the latter watching over his daughter AJ and “unofficial” son-in-law Aljur forever etched in the public minds.
And oh, Pokwang was a scene-stealer as well as Claudine Barretto as the usual suspect.
Icons of Legacy suits the cultural endowments from the artistic, particularly the inheritances of Yayo, Amy Austria, Jackie Lou Blanco, Gardo Versoza, Epy and Eric Quizon and the iconic love team of Carmi Martin and Riderick Paulate from their equally iconic TV show “Tonight with Dick and Carmi” in the 90s.