‘The Master Cutter’ stitches a tribute to local tailors
The first time Dingdong Dantes had a suit tailor-made for him was more than 26 years ago when he hosted the Binibining Pilipinas 2000 pageant. “It was a Randy Ortiz creation, and I will never forget it,” he tells Lifestyle Inquirer.
Since then, he has become fascinated with the craft. Having commissioned and worn countless suits—or Amerikana, as he used to call them—as an actor and host, he has developed a keen sense for what makes a good one.
“Manghang-mangha ako sa proseso kung paano ginagawa,” he says. “Now, I know how a suit should feel on my body. I know when it’s too big or too tight. I know when the cut isn’t right.”
Familiar, but underexplored
So, when the opportunity to play a tailor in the action drama series “The Master Cutter” arose, it felt like a lightbulb moment. It was a role Dantes had never really thought about playing. Come to think of it, though, it might be a perfect fit.
“I have to do my research, of course, but I already have an understanding of what the job entails,” says Dantes, who plays Atoy Padua, a former elite scout ranger who leaves the military to live a more peaceful life as a tailor in his parents’ shop in Baclaran.
This is exactly what inspired director Dominic Zapata to make a hero out of a tailor. Professions like that may be familiar, he says, but they are often underexplored. This new series hopes to change that.
“We want to champion a profession that we take for granted. We want to champion people who see what they do as ‘just a job’ or tend to underestimate its value,” he tells Lifestyle Inquirer. “In fact, some people don’t even know what a sastre, or a mananabas, is. I still had to explain what they are.”
Go-to tailor
In a way, the series is also a tribute to Zapata’s real-life inspiration, Mang Delfin—an exceptionally skilled tailor whom he first worked with in the early 2000s, when he needed a suit for a wedding.
Mang Delfin worked for the brand Bergamo before starting his own home service. He would take measurements, bring fabric samples, and note his client’s personality or lifestyle. Then, 10 days later, he would return with a spanking new suit. Best of all, he didn’t charge a leg for it. “I got a lot of compliments on that suit,” he recalls.
During fittings, Mang Delfin would regale the director with stories of his clients—from everyday men dressing for special occasions to businessmen and politicians.
“One time, while working on me, I asked him where he was headed next. ‘To an ambassador,’ he told me. That had me thinking: Here’s someone low-profile, but he has access to people from various walks of life,” he says. Sounds like a story waiting to happen.
Mang Delfin would go on to become one of Zapata’s go-to tailors for years, until he passed away just before the pandemic. “I named Atoy’s father (played by Joey Marquez) after Mang Delfin,” he says. Now, he lives on through television.
The thread that binds
In “The Master Cutter,” now airing on GMA 7 primetime and streaming on Netflix, the tailor shop also doubles as a cover for the double life Atoy lives. But unbeknown to those around him, he moonlights as a vigilante tracker for criminals and fugitives—a fitting role for someone named after St. Anthony Padua, patron saint of missing people and objects.
As he pursues justice, he also seeks answers to questions about his past and the tragic death of his girlfriend, Elaine (Max Collins). While juggling grief and duty, he puts his skills as a tailor to good use—crafting different disguises and identities that help his investigations.
But more than literal stitching of fabric, Atoy becomes the thread that binds the lives of his chosen family, which includes Ame (Jo Berry), a former boxer who used to compete in bouts featuring little people. Like Atoy the tailor, it’s people like her—and others in their Baclaran neighborhood who work in unseen spaces—that the show hopes to highlight.
After all, one doesn’t have to be in a position of power to make a difference in the world—that’s the series’ “guiding principle.” “‘Di sila sastre lang. You’re not just your job,” Zapata stresses. “Be proud of what you do because you matter.”
