“Do you wanna help style for Amina’s Inquirer Column?,” asked Mads, the extremely fabulous (there really is no better fitting word) SoFA student affairs head.

“Ummm. Sure!,” was my reply. I never really thought styling would be my chosen field but since it was for THE Amina Aranaz, of course I was game to help. And the whole time I thought ‘help’ meant they needed manpower. So I came in the set day wearing (gulp) rubber shoes.

Turned out, it was a meeting and apparently, I didn’t sign up for mere manual labor, or to be a julalay, as my friend Dan Con and I like to call it. They were letting me style style. for an actual column. For Amina’s column. (That doesn’t happen!) So of course I was ecstatic. and not just that, but extremely lucky too because I got to work with friends (more on that in a tad bit).

The first article was about Filip + Inna, a clothing brand that takes inspiration from the different tribes in the Philippines. The products are somewhat pricey to be honest, but the quality is good as each piece is hand made/embroidered and boasts of our great Filipino workmanship.

The pieces: 1) Denim shift dress, 2) high waist embroidered shorts, 3) Metallic a-line dress and 4) white cotton chambray dress. 

Model: Nicole Ramos

Photographer: Paelo Pedrajas

Make-up artist: Lawrence Garbo

Yup, I got to style the gorgeous Nicole Ramos, who is actually a stylist herself, with way more experience than myself. (the other model I had the opportunity to work with was the amazing Patricia Prieto, who we all know is another professional stylist.) So you can imagine just how nervous I was. Styling stylists!! But because they’re extremely humble and real gorgeous that anything you make them wear looks good, everything went well.

We just wanted to showcase different ways of wearing the pieces. The looks probably would’ve made more sense if the last layout was included but I don’t know what happened to the pics from that set. Anyway, I had fun. And seeing the article come out was just an amazing feeling altogether.

Read the article online here.

Crossing fingers for more gigs in the future!

Thank you so much to Ms. Amina and Mads for this. 🙂