retchen Barretto has always loved fashion. In a first-of-its-kind exclusive shoot featuring Louis Vuitton's Fall Collection, she talks about the industry that made her and making her comeback to the movies in style.

“Wow! It's like winter wonderland!” Gretchen Barretto gushes while looking through the rack of clothes from the Louis Vuitton Autumn-Winter 2006 Collection, which she is to be outfitted in for the shoot. “Dominique [her eleven-year-old daughter] is going to love these! If she sees these, she's going to make me buy these for her, especially the boots and the bags. Mapapagasto ako nito.”

Gretchen arrives with a YSL Muse bag in tow, her feet shod in Manolo Blahnik ballet flats. Her makeup is half-done and will need only a touch-up for the shoot later on, but even on a sunless day, the woman is glowing. Perhaps more so in real life than reel life, Gretchen is a scene-stealer; even without asking for attention, every pair of eyes in the room is transfixed on her.

When I am introduced while she is still perusing the clothes, she exclaims, “Tiffany? You also have Tiffany here?” Momentarily preoccupied, Gretchen had misunderstood for a second that the reference was to the famed Fifth Avenue jeweler instead of my name. “Oh, I thought you also had their stuff [for the shoot].” Despite this mix-up, she is immediately, tangibly friendly, leading me to sit with her somewhere out of earshot of everyone else, “so we can chat,” she says.

Unlike myself however, Gretchen needs no introduction; she is a name recognizable both to the Pinoy masa and to Philippine society's upper crust. Together with fellow actresses Nadia Montenegro and Janice de Belen, Gretchen's career was launched in the 80s through Regal Babies 2, a batch of talents handpicked by the head honcho of Regal Films, “Mother” Lily Monteverde. After a spate of successful commercial films, Gretchen chose to temporarily withdraw from show business in the early 90s as she concentrated on raising her daughter Dominique with her partner, billionaire tycoon Tonyboy Cojuangco.

Never mind the fact that the few times the public has seen Gretchen was either in last year's blink-or-you'll-miss-it appearance in a San Mig Light TV commercial or in one of many billboards for Plains & Prints, the clothing brand she currently endorses. Gretchen has continued to make entertainment news headlines even in recent months, whether it is the as-yet unresolved family feud with her two sisters, Claudine and Marjorie or the aborted movie project with actor Bong Revilla after his wife Lani Mercado reportedly became jealous. When it comes to Philippine show business, Gretchen remains in the eye of the intrigue storm.

Moments before the interview, however, I am forewarned by her road manager that there needs to be tiptoeing around these taboo issues. Even my first question, where I ask what she is wearing is dismissed. “It's a secret. It's obvious by now that I really just have a passion for clothes. My intention is not to brag… I feel if they ask me who or what I'm wearing, that only means they're not doing their homework in fashion, they're failing.”

She is equally elusive when it comes to her favorites, whether it's local or foreign designers, travel destinations, or makeup brands. “In anything I have no favorite. I've said it many times, you're not married to any brand. I really don't restrict myself, I really just go by how I feel everyday.”

But she does divulge that she enjoys decorating her home and works closely with her designer Ben Hughes. “When it comes to my house, it's really classic. I don't go for modern [interiors].” She also lets in that she goes to her dermatologist Dr. Vina Javellana for her enviably luminous skin, that she does color her jet-black hair on occasion at Toni & Guy salon and has it styled by Henri Calayag. For her diet, she says “I like eating everything. But again, in life it's not what we like all the time. Especially now I'm preparing for two movies that are coming.”

The first one is Karma, a Joey-Reyes-directed horror film that will be one of the entries to the Metro Manila Film Festival in December. Along with actors Rica Peralejo, Dingdong Dantes, and Angelica Panganiban, Gretchen will be in one episodes of the trilogy movie.

The second film, said to be the Regal Films version of Desperate Housewives is still in the pre-production stages. “It's going to be about four girls na magkakapatid with different fathers. They're making the story now, but I haven't read the script. We just talked about how we want our characters to be, each of us.”

When I ask about the type of character she'll be playing in the film, she doesn't hesitate to answer, “Stylish,” then laughs at how true-to-life this answer is. “I said I want to dress up. They were joking, ‘you're going to be poor'. I said, no way, I'm backing out. I want to dress up.” She continues, almost contradictorily, “I know my audience would also want to see me in my different moods. You know what I mean, you're not always in a gown, and you're not always in a Vuitton.”

This comes as no surprise; Gretchen's well-honed sensibility for style has been evident form the beginning of her career. Director Joey Gosengfiao, for instance, has been quoted on his recollection that Gretchen once wanted to wear a Fiorucci bikini for one of her films. Gretchen admits being in touch with clothing brands even when she was younger. “I liked the bikini so I wanted to wear it. Why not? I'm a star. I can make my demands… When I make demands it's because I know I can and there's nothing wrong with that.”

But apart from matters of style, Gretchen expresses her anticipation about making the second film, since she will be working with good friends Ruffa Gutierrez and Pops Fernandez. “To me, that's important that when you go to the set, you're excited and you know that you can work together in that atmosphere.” She has also particularly requested from producer Mother Lily that her erstwhile leading man Eric Quizon be placed at the film's helm as director.

I ask her about the qualities she values in her friends. “They have to be fun to be with,” she says laughing, and then on a more serious note, she adds, “I like a friend who's not weak in character because then they can lead you to better things if they're not. Loyalty and honesty. There are two things you remember in life when you're down, whether your friends support you or they let go of you. For me, that's important. You don't need to have many friends, but [you need] real friends.”

And even in a gossip-hungry show business laundry, Gretchen has made her real friends. Model and television host Lucy Torres-Gomez says that their friendship owes itself to Gretchen's compassion, but she also reveals a humorous side to the actress. “It's funny because every time we are together, I always end up laughing at the things she says and she complains because she was never trying to be funny in the first place. Her sense of humor is one for the books.”

Jo-Ann Maglipon, editor-in-chief of YES! Magazine, recounts that while she only met Gretchen last year, they immediately hit it off. “Maybe this is the one time you can say that being beautiful has its accompanying baggage. She is so beautiful that it is difficult for the public to instinctively think of her as good. If she was made of less sterner stuff, this wouldn't have been possible. I'm not saying that she is the ideal, that she is someone women should pattern their lives after. But I am saying that she doesn't get half the credit for the person she is inside, as much as she does for her beauty.”

Entertainment writer and host Ricky Lo, on the other hand, has known Gretchen since she was barely fourteen and had entered show business and has seen her profoundly changed. “She used to be very submissive, the type who would suffer in silence but so much has happened, especially in her love life. Naging fighter siya.” He recalls times wherein a negative write-up would be released about her, “Gusto niya mag-react kaagad. It's always heart over head, emotion over reason. [Nowadays], she's mellowed down, especially after her feud with some family members. She doesn't say anything negative, she's very conciliatory. She has accepted the reality that trouble in the family happens to everyone.”

Many have wondered why despite all these false impressions and rumors about her that perpetuate, Gretchen has chosen to return to the limelight and go back to making movies. “I love this business. Intrigues will never take me away from show business. I owe a lot to this business; it's not just something I can turn my back away from. It has given me so much, it's given me my life; it's given me my name that nobody can take away. It may not be the best name but it has given so much confidence. I love the system, I'm sorry to say, no matter what they say, that it's ma-intriga. But the world outside of show business is even nastier.”

Besides show business, if there's any topic that Gretchen mentions often and with much fondness, it is her daughter Dominique. “My daughter inspires me to always look good.” When it comes to whose style she admires, Gretchen says, “I really like the way that Mary Kate [Olsen] dresses, the loose, carefree type. With Nicole Richie, I like her bags and shoes.” Her daughter likes the same teenage fashion icons, including Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan. “Sometimes, I wear my bag once and it's with her and she won't return it. She'll say, Mom we can't be seen wearing the same bag and this is my bag now. I'm always in trouble now, may kaagaw na ako.”

Gretchen discloses that she believes she can pass on the confidence she has gained to her daughter. “For me that's the greatest inheritance that I know I can give her.” And then she adds, “Dominique is capable of greater things.”

Soon, Gretchen is garbed in a Louis Vuitton collection befitting of her, effortlessly conveying both extravagance and understatement whether it is a strong of oversized pearls or Velcro-strapped platform boots. She repeatedly asks everyone but photographer Jake Versoza to move out of sight. “My eyes follow the movement. I get so distracted.” Some of us shuffle to the side, but Gretchen notices, “Can you move away? I can still see all of you.” She is left to focus, but sometime later, she overhears part of a conversation among people at the shoot and she then pipes in. “What's that? What's the chismis? Fill me in!” Shifting between boldness and restraint, Gretchen is exactly the kind of celebrity without whom klieg lights of local show business would appear much dimmer.

As the shoot commences, Gretchen requests for music to get her in the mood, and the Madonna classic “ Holiday ” blares on Jake's iPod speakers. There isn't a moment lost as she strikes one pose after the other, substituting one look for the next, exactly as you would expect from someone whose life has always been in front of the camera.

And then suddenly, right in the middle of a shot, she strides out of character, having remembered a line from another Madonna song. She takes a few steps towards makeup artist Patrick Rosas, reciting the lyrics from memory: “A man can tell a thousand lies/ I've learned my lesson well/ Hope I live to tell/ the secret I have learned.” Only Gretchen knows for certain the memories the song has conjured up but Madonna might as well written the song for her. She declares to everyone in the room, “Bagay di ba? It's perfect.”

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