Veejay Floresca's Design Class

Fashion designer Veejay Floresca teaches garment construction in a design class in St. Benilde. The Ed Calma designed building of the school looks amazing. Just goggle it. In the chaos that is Manila urban planning it actually juts out like a sore thumb. Anyway, Veejay invited moi and Bo to critic the works of his students. In an earlier class Philip Tampus was the guest critic.

I love the challenge of mentoring young designers. I'm a self-taught designer and I really valued the lessons I learned from senior designers like Frederick Peralta who give nuggets of wisdom culled from his experience. I have mentored some of the more exciting young designers in Iloilo and I'm happy that most of them are doing great in designing.

Project Runway Philippines season 1 Bo Parcon and Veejay Floresca.

I truly felt Veeejay's passion to teach. Baka sya na ang susunod na Dean of Philippine Fashion ala Mang Ben Farrales?

It's so funny how the students feel so nervous presenting their designs that they made themeselves. It has to represent their own style, also. It's really obvious though who has a grasp of 'fashion' versus those who are not sure of their own style. But it's expected that young designers should experiment and explore at an early stage. That way they'd be able to discover what style they have an affinity with. One lesson that helped me greatly is to learn fashion history. It's also important to discover how garments are constructed so you can develop your own technique later on. I enjoy the process of creation when I'm designing more than the presentation and actual product, actually.

One designer that stood out for us was this student who did a feathered skirt. She needs to polish more of her construction technique but it's unmistakable that the skirt she made has potential, non?

It was indeed an enriching afternoon sharing our thoughts to Veejay's student and I hope we were effective in communicating some lessons that they can apply in their quest for greater fashion design. Hope to be invited again.

DP at Style Anywhere

I would like to thank Onin of Style Anywhere for supporting me this latest Philippine Fashion Week. He posted a preview (was his idea actually) and my collection (photographed by the generous Mr. Bruce Cassanova). Salamat po! ;)

Going to that charming resto

Bangkok - After boarding a taxi on one end of Central World and, thirty minutes after, just right in front on another end of the same mall, Kawadjan and moi decided to get off our taxi (nice guy because he initially didnt charge us full for the fare but Kawadjan insisted) and took the BTS. I honestly didn't know where we are going except to this special restaurant owned by K's friend.

Fashion Diary commercial first: my fave Maison Margiela AIDS tee, DP pants, Longchamp bag, Giordano Concepts sneakers from Kiks, Wonder Anatomie pin from K and Marc by Marc Jacobs snake bracelet from Liz. See, I really use the stuff my friends gave me.

After going to the last BTS station, we had to ride a taxi for about 30 minutes more before arriving to this little labyrinth street where at the end of waits a tuktuk. By that time I had to check my bag for my passport just in case we had to go through immigration. Medyo, it felt very close to the border na, actually.

We passed by rows of shanty houses and other clusttered buildings, to finally arrive at Baan Rabiang Nam, which roughly translates to River Restaurant (yata?). Anyway, the resto is beside the river. And no, don't ask me what river it was. I do remember K telling me we could have taken the riverboat cruise going there but then again he knows I'd have to change outfit for that, non? Prada Cruise 2009, perhaps?

For my Ilonggo friends, daw Villa Beach or Roxas Beach lang kami. It reminds me of Mang Inasal, actually. Hehehe!

Except there's little cute touches like that banca effect tableu.

Here's K with his good friend Fred who owns the place. Such a charming and generous guy. He totally gave us the best area and lots of freebies. The service was prompt and efficient. Not to mention we had a wonderful chat with Fred. Was that Germany that they're opening a branch with his partners?

The food was typical Thai but not overly spicy. I guess they know we couldn't take too much heat. The thing about the resto and what most gourmands and foodies recommend is to go to places where the locals frequent. It is such a place, fully packed with locals, when we arrived around 10pm. We started with pomelo salad loaded with dried chillies (!) and garlic. Sharap!

For soup we had this coconut seafood medley, winning the best in presentation award.

Now this fried fish coated with garlic was such a revelation for moi. I could have eaten only that. This sealed the deal for moi and I wouldn't mind the epic trek just to taste it again.

And K's fave, Somtam, a papaya shrimp salad. I initially resisted eating the raw string beans because I hated the sulfuric aftertaste but was pleasantly surprised that it's different. More like singkamas or guava, honest!

This is their kitchen area. Looks like a set in some cultural village, non?

Do check out their site and please try it sometime when you are in Bangkok. It's an adventure you shouldn't miss.

Bangkok last October

I was in Bangkok again, last month.

I attended a leadership seminar of APLA with my fellow church siblings. From right, Blady, Cielo, Tshi-ven and Nong.

Nong, Nika, Nimol and moi having some quick bite at the Food Hall of Siam Paragon.

One thing I love seeing in Bangkok are the art installations and galleries. These cloud like installation looks so cute.

Bangkok Art & Culture Center has little galleries inside that feature cute stuff and exhibits. One even sells vintage stuff, a tad overpriced than normal.

Of course, with Kawadjan in tow you would expect we will mess up with the artworks displayed. Remember how we werqd Louise Bourgeois' big spider?

Well, this time it's the mental hospital ang peg.

I love this exhibit.

We also werqd the alien outside BACC. A tad too much if you check my folder, here.

I really had fun and learned so many valauable insights and lessons during the workshop.

Despite the tight schedule during the weekend I'm there, I took time to check out wwa's new location. I must say the bigger space allowed the clothes to shine. I was about to buy this bag with 'pants' attachment but reconsidered since Kawadjan wanted me to see Wonder Anatomie. It's my new fave label in Bangkok!

See more of their designs here. We met the designers and they all looked cute wearing their edgy designs. Will attack their store again when I get back there.

Really loved this nori wanton soup in Marina. I'm hungry now...

Anyway, I experienced doing the landtrip again back to Siem Reap from Bangkok. The first time was a horrible ordeal but thankfully this latest one was a bit long due to circumstances but nevertheless much, much better than the first. Here's moi in Poipet, the Cambodian border which is about 2 hours away from Siem Reap.

Manila

Philippine Fashion Week for spring/summer 2010 started last October 21 and ended October 27. I was in Manila October 20 because my dear friend Bo Parcon requested that I'd be there for his first showing in PFW. My presentation of my own collection was slated October 26, so I practically ended up watching and helping with the shows and presentations of my friends.

Fashion Diary muna: T-shirt by Maison Martin Margiela, DP pants, Muji shoes and Longchamp bag. The clothes I packed for the trip were 3 MMM AIDS tee, 2 DP pants, 1 Muji shoes and a polkadot sweater/tee combo that I bought in Bangkok. I purposely limited bringing a lot of stuff because I expected 'loots' from a lot of friends. Will update more of those loots in my coming posts.

Bo and Jerson was with me from day 1. I actually enjoyed not having a hectic time with them, just milling around MOA and do malling. Past fashion weeks I'm so harrassed coordinating everything about my collection and presentation I never have time to see the shops and do a bit of shopping. I ended up buying Bo a silver Adidas hightops he liked so much.

I also had fun times with THE Veejay Floresca, Project Runway Season 1 finalists. He's such a kind soul and so easy to be with. He even brought me home one time when I didn't know how to go home in the new place we stayed in Makati.

Aside from Bo, another newbie in PFW is Philip Tampus, another finalists of PR Season 1. I assisted him in his presentation and line-up backstage because I remember my first time and it was certainly nerve wrecking not knowing the protocols and rules. I hoped I helped him enough to make his PFW experience a memorable one.

Bo Parcon with models wearing his creations.

Veejay Floresca's designs. He specifically instructed that the ears should go under the headbands.

Aside from our own collections, some of the designers also created one outfit made of traditional handwoven Philippine fabrics provided by the Fiber Industry Development Authority.

Our young designer friends Angel Tan and Peer Banas, and our doctor friend Mikki Licop, were also constantly our companion during the week. It was Angel and Peer's first time to attend the shows and I expect they'd be inspired to present their own collections soon.

Peer and moi (in DP s/s 2010 hoodie/cape, DP 'Lyka' tee, pants and Longchamp x Jeremy Scott 'stomp' Le Pliage bag.

Please see more images here.

Sort of an Update

Hey pips, still here in the Philippines for vacation that's why the lack of posts lately. So many pictures to posts, so many ukay stuff to share, so many tsikas to update and a tad too many parties attended. I hate to admit it but I think I gained weight from all the eating around. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'll have plenty of time to lose weight once I get back to SR, promise!




Anyway, I would like to thank all my friends who trekked to Mall of Asia during my fashion presentation for Philippine Fashion Week for s/s 2010. Special mention to Khaz, Angel Buenaventura and her group of friends...




and Mike. Mike had a cute story of our backstage meet during PFW.

Thank you guys for supporting little ol me.

Another friend who would have loved to be there in the front row but was stuck in Cambodia doing his beloved job is Franco. He kindly posted an Asia Life interview this month of moi. Please see his post here.





Since arriving here in Iloilo I've had a photoshoot with Mezzo Magazine, a funny shoot with Annea Spa, a shoot for F Magazine, judged 2 halloween costume contest, witnessed a proposal and will be directing a show for a young designer's gala show. Of course, insert ukay sessions there. LOTS of ukay sessions that yielded Marni, Comme des Garcons, Jean Paul Gaultier, Undercover, Issey Miyake, Dries van Noten, etc.

I'm off to Bangkok next weekend to visit (again!) the Tourism Authority Muse of Thailand, Kawadjan itself. I hope it's SALE season, already. We plan to hit Chatuchak Saturday.

Be back to regular programming once I'm back to my SR life. For now, lifestyle muna. Hehehe!

Don Protasio spring summer 2010

Photos by Bruce Casanova

Lacking 2 looks, the opening and another men's look. Please message me if you took some pictures during the show and would kindly share it. Thanks!