Designs by David Tupaz // Photography by Stanley Tran

There’s No Stopping David Tupaz

By Joan S. Peck

Everyone here at Chic Compass magazine is always happy when David Tupaz, the world-renown fashion designer known for his exquisite fashions, receives the attention he deserves as one of today’s most talented designers. Recently Janet Nepales of the Hollywood Foreign Press interviewed David and wrote the featured article for the Golden Globes website. We are pleased to share that with you below.

David is multi-talented and has accomplished so much. As a young boy in the Philippines and already a concert pianist, David’s direction in life changed when he saw Audrey Hepburn playing Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady” at the age of nine.

“Seeing the transformation of her from a peasant flower girl to an almost princess showed me the power of presentation. Audrey Hepburn coming down the staircase in that white beaded gown to attend the Embassy Ball was the catalyst that made me decide I want to create beautiful dresses for women.”

David never went to fashion school. He is self-taught and learned mainly by working in the fashion industry in Los Angeles and New York. It was not always easy, especially when having limited funds to set up his own design studio but determination and belief in himself moved him forward.

He left New York City and moved to Los Angeles. While working out of his apartment, a good friend and colleague called and asked for his help in providing clothes for a magazine cover shoot. The cover person? Mariel Hemingway. She loved David’s gown so much that Mariel asked him to create another one for her to wear to an awards show. They became friends, and it was the beginning of his long business relationship with Hollywood and many of its stars, some of whom he still designs for.

However, there is much more to David Tupaz than his beautiful gowns and accessories. In 2013, he moved to Las Vegas, becoming the only haute couture fashion designer in Nevada, representing Las Vegas in every fashion show in the country. “I realized that Las Vegas was the last frontier, the last glamorous city in America that hasn’t been tapped in high-end, non-retail fashion.”

Mayor Goodman appointed David to a seat on the Arts Commission for the City of Las Vegas. He has served since 2014 in its beautification projects and development nurturing art in the city.

His non-profit, The Las Vegas Fashion Design Council, mentors new designers in the city.

His future venture?

David is working toward creating the first Fashion Museum in Las Vegas. “I have been collecting garments from every era since the 1800s to the present. I want to showcase some of the couture pieces from the great Paris houses from the turn of the century to the 20s,30s, 40s, etc., with some of the world’s legendary designers and accessories created during different eras. The history of fashion itself. Some of my dear clients have donated their couture dresses that they have worn in the past. It has become a vast collection.”

What happens when you retire? “Part of the collection will go home and retire in the Philippines as I plan to open the first museum of fashion in Southeast Asia. I owe it to our people.”

David Tupaz is an outstanding talent who has the innate ability to make every woman he designs for feel and know she is beautiful. He will never stop creating and sharing his love of fashion in all forms with others. We are so fortunate to have him here in Las Vegas.

To see and read the featured article on David, go to: www.goldenglobes.com