“There are lots of beautiful women, especially this generation, but elegance is a lifestyle that takes years to develop. Elegance is about being educated, being cultured. It is about being refined in your actions, how you talk, how you walk, how you live your life, not just when you are in public, but every single minute of your life,” - Tinting Cojuanco.
Those are just some of the lines Ms. Tingting Cojuangco utter when I got a chance to have an intimate dinner with her along with other freind bloggers on her very own house.
I felt honored to be invited in the first place, knowing that the one who’s hosting the dinner is someone known in the society.
Born as Margarita “Tingting” Delos Reyes Cojuangco, popularly known as “Tingting. When she was only 18, Ting-ting married the current Philippine Olympic Committee president & President’s Benigno Aquino’s III uncle, Jose “Peping” Cojuangco. They have five daughters, Liaa Cojuangco-Bautista, Josephine Cojuangco, Mikaela “Mikee” Cojuangco-Jaworski, Margarita Demetria “Mai-Mai” Cojuangco-Zini, Regina Patricia “China” Cojuangco-Gonzalez.
Even during her youth, Tingting, had already gained attention of the entire world after appearing twice Harper’s Bazaar, and the second time being selected by Harper’s Bazaar magazine as one of the 100 Most Beautiful Women In The World in 1968 with Jacqueline Kennedy, Dona Marella Agnelli, Queen Sirikit, Gloria Vanderbilt, also known as Mrs. Wyatt Cooper, Mrs. Winston Guest, Madam Grés, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn Marlene Dietrich, China Machado, Princess Ira von Fürstenberg to mention just a few.
“Tingting Cojuangco, still slim, and trim and beautiful as no woman of a certain age has any right to be, has traded the flatteries of the ‘70s for the more substantial expectations of the ‘80s and ‘90s. She raised five achieving daughters, wrote 9 books, fought for freedomand Mindanao causes and Philippine Public Safety College that Trains the Police, Fire and Jail public safety Personnel, and when her women colleagues and peers were discussing the topnotes of the scents of Dior and Carolina Herrera, she became governor of her province, Tarlac working with AFP as a Reserve Full Colonel.”(100 Women of the Philippines – Celebrating Filipina Womanhood in the New Millennium)
She is truly a proof that elegance knows no age and that living a life of substance is truly what completes a woman. And “elegance” was the main topic when the dinner were served at the table. I was sitting just across her, thus I told myself i’ll do my best to be prim and proper (lol!). Though our conversation went on very informal, which is amazing, that she even asked me questions about facebook and other online stuff. Atleast she’s open to trying out new technology.
She was wearing her basic clothes (as she refer it to). It was just a plain black off-shoulder jump suit but she exudes it with elegance. Truly, at her age (71) being elegant is something that remained constant to her.
“When she first appeared in those fashion glossies posed astride a carabao and against the backdrop of the rice fields, she gave America and Europe the first positive image of the Filipina, a world-class beauty, modern, intelligent – a far cry from the colonial-period betel nut-chewing women in the Andrews and Geraurdier lithographs literate Europeans were familiar with.”(100 Women of the Philippines – Celebrating Filipina Womanhood in the New Millennium)
Tingting has undoubtedly set standards of style and elegance, good manners and consistently so, that society belles and beauty must attain in vain.
Because elegance, after all, is more than just high cheekbones and “branded” fashion style. It’s practically “in born” taught by mothers.
It is for this reason that Tingting has found a new advocacy, a list so to speak, that recognizes not just beauty, but elegant Filipinas who have strived to make a change and impact in their respective professions.
“Tingting’s List: The Elegant Filipina” has the vision of uplifting the Filipina, whose impeccable taste in social grace and fashion, transforms women to respect one’s self, inspiring others, and to contribute to one’s community, society and the country.
The proceeds of the event will go to the Kabayan Weaving Arts and Crafts, Kabayan, Benguet Province and women scholars from Tanauan, Leyte who are training to become dressmakers under the Special Training for Employment Program (STEP).
The awarding event is scheduled on September 22, 2015 at the Diamond Hotel Ballroom.
“Tingling’s List: The Elegant Filipina” is made possible by Diamond Hotel, DMCI (Vic Consunji), Berjaya Philippines, Globe Telecom, Century Tuna, Baguio Oil, Ralph’s Wine and Spirits, Malaysia Airlines. Special thanks to Sheridan Hotels, Toni & Guy, Seven Fridays, Uratex Philippines, Eskaya, Florsheim, Wacoal, HyC 150, Carlo Rossi.
