Our Desirable Residences tour the other week took us to the MacArthur Suite at the Manila Hotel, former residence of the American military adviser to the Philippine Commonwealth, General Douglas MacArthur.
We were shown to the suite by two charming members of the hotel staff. They were wearing these extraordinary floor-length gowns in old rose, with high collars, fitted jackets, leg o’mutton sleeves, lace trimmings, tassels, and pillbox hats. There was something 19th century Russian about the outfit: we could visualize Anna Karenina at the fateful train station in Moscow. We love 19th century Russian novels, but imagine the layered winter outfits would be a little oppressive for our tropical climate.
“What an interesting outfit,” we told the staff. “Is that your uniform?” Yes, she said, it was their new hotel uniform and it came in four versions. “Who designed it?”
“Go-tier,” the staff replied.
“Gaultier!” we screamed in unison, but silently. We were impressed that the Manila Hotel would commission Jean-Paul Gaultier to do the staff uniforms.
“Surely Gaultier knows this is a tropical country,” we said. “He came here to work with Pierre Cardin at Rustan’s in the 70s before he became famous.”
“Maybe he had a Russian hotel client, and their uniforms were sent to the Manila Hotel,” said Rene.
“Or maybe the uniforms were switched, so somewhere in Russia, the staff are freezing to death in tropical outfits.”
“More likely,” said Noel, “we are over-interpreting, so when we hear Go-tier we assume it is Jean-Paul Gaultier.”
“Ha ha ha!” we all laughed. (The next day it occurred to us to ask the hotel PR person who the designer is. “Yes, it’s Gautier,” she said. “Bon Gavino Gautier.”)
The MacArthur Suite used to occupy the entire fifth floor of the Manila Hotel. The hotel was razed in World War II and rebuilt: the current three-bedroom MacArthur Suite is a replica of the general’s apartments. Next door is the Aguinaldo Suite, which is convenient if their ghosts decide to reenact the Philippine-American War.
History question: What is the link between General MacArthur and Philippine cinema? Answer: Dimples Cooper.
Elizabeth (nee Isabel) “Dimples” Cooper was a Fil-Scottish vaudeville performer who became a movie actress and had the first kissing scene in Filipino movies. In the 1930s she became Douglas MacArthur’s mistress—a fact that the general concealed from his mother, who would surely disapprove. Dimples Cooper moved to Washington, D.C. with MacArthur when he became U.S. Army Chief of Staff. There, as the story goes, he established her in an apartment that she couldn’t leave because she had no clothes, only lingerie. According to William Manchester in his MacArthur biography American Caesar, MacArthur “showered (Dimples) with presents and bought her many lacy tea gowns, but no raincoat. She didn’t need one, he told her; her duty lay in bed.”
History is so much more exciting than the lectures we slept through in school.
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