Charlie Fleming is officially eighteen! After marking the milestone on September 7 with a birthday photoshoot, the actress is continuing the festivities with the grand celebration she’s spent the past few weeks preparing for. Fleming has kept the rest of the details close to her chest, but there are a few things she knew she wanted from the beginning, namely to have the people closest to her there for her big night and, of course, her dress.
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For that, she turned to Sassa Jimenez. The design itself features a strapless, softly ruched bodice that gives way to a full skirt composed of sheer, gathered layers, finished with an oversized bow knotted at the hip. The voluminous skirt extends into a sweeping train, with translucent tulle falling into a gentle sway. The scale is made for an entrance, but the overall effect remains light. No crystals fighting for attention, no embellishment covering every available inch.
“Charlie was such a joy to dress,” Jimenez shares with MEGA. “She has so much personality that I didn’t want the dress to wear her.”
It’s an apt approach from Jimenez, who has built a career out of embracing femininity and whimsy. “The second she walked into the studio, the space really lit up and that’s when I knew how to go about designing her dress,” she says of Fleming. “There’s so much energy there, and I felt like my job was not to get in the way of that.”
As she sees it, there’s no rush to present the actress beyond her years. Jimenez made it a point to create a gown that keeps all the sweetness intact. “I think when you’re dressing for these big moments at that age, there’s always the temptation to do everything,” she explains. “So I wanted to give Charlie something that felt special without tying it too closely to a trend.”
Together with Fleming’s stylist, Shark Tanael, Jimenez settled on two words: youthful and timeless. “There’s a relaxedness to the dress that feels exactly right for where she is now,” she adds. “More than anything, I want people to notice Charlie first. That’s always the best compliment for me…when you remember the girl, how she looked, how she carried herself, and the dress just becomes part of that memory.”
For this milestone, Fleming gets all the grandeur the occasion deserves without losing herself beneath it. As Jimenez puts it best, “The dress is only one part of it. The rest is all Charlie.”
Photographed by RENZ PANGILINAN and SASSA JIMENEZ
