Me in Manila

I was in Manila for only a few days and I didn't stay long. After presenting my fall/winter 2011 collection for Philippine Fashion Week, I flew to Iloilo immediately. In Manila, though it was a short stay, it was relatively stress free and not so frenetic as my previous experience. I met up with my friend Mike and we had a whole day of bonding. He is known as Toxicdiscoboy in the blogging world and 1/2 of the clothing label, Paradigm Shift. We decided to eat at Cibo, one of my fave Italian restaurant.


I had a simple pasta and some chips with Diet Coke. It brought a lot of memories being there in Cibo because I used to frequent it when I'm in Manila.


We hopped to Powerplant Mall and checked out the second Muji store in Manila. One of my friend would love the selections being sold. I think it's much better than Bangkok although I was disappointed with the shoe section.


Then we headed to Univers, a new Homme et Femme store, because they stock Rick Owens. I'm happy you can buy Rick in Manila now. They also have a section for Black Comme des Garcons and exclusive pieces from Eairth. Martin Margiela, Jil Sander, Zero Maria Cornejo, are also sold.


Aside from clothing you can now get some really stylish mags like Arena Homme +, Brutus, Hercules, ACNE Paper, etc., so no need to lug them from abroad. There's also a selection of perfumes, home stuff and little items for gifts.


My Manila trip wouldn't be complete without visiting Eairth, one of my favorite labels. I bought a pants, wrap and an overall jumper this time. I always enjoy my visit there because there's so much love for their craft that you can see. It's something that sets them apart from other hyped label.

I also visited a friend who gave me a stash of really cool pieces from Martin Margiela, Comme des Garcons, Christopher Nemeth and other designer labels for my clothing archive.


My last day in Manila was show day. Mike assisted me backstage and I was truly thankful for it because I was paranoid that the OS jewelry I borrowed might get lost. One funny but nerve wrecking backstage incident was when Mike couldn't find one pair of my tabi footwear. He incidentally dropped it when he was moving it to the men's section. We found it on time but we both were afraid it got stolen.