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Vogue Threads Manila 2025

At Vogue Threads Manila 2025, a Rare Look Into the Mind of Legendary Designer Inno Sotto

Photographed by Gabriel Villareal

In conversation with Vogue Philippines editor-in-chief Bea Valdes, fashion designer Inno Sotto speaks of curiosity, couture, and the craft of fashion.

“Let me tell you a little story about myself,” says Inno Sotto, opening his Vogue Threads Manila 2025 masterclass. “I really wanted to be an architect.”

Moderated by Vogue Philippines editor-in-chief Bea Valdes, the legendary fashion designer gave the packed room a rare peek into his mind, charting his journey from the couture runways to the classroom, where he brings decades of knowledge and expertise to the students at F.A.B Creatives and mentees at TernoCon as their Chief Mentor.

Sotto grew up with his grandmother who had businesses in Guam, San Francisco, and Hawaii, and the latter was where he ended up watching a fashion show for the first time. “My grandmother, and the ladies, were invited to watch Karilagan. I watched it, and I was actually fascinated by the things I saw. They were beautiful things.”

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Photographed by Gabriel Villareal

He eventually took up liberal arts in San Francisco, intending to pursue architecture afterwards. During a particular vacation to Manila, his mother and sister placed an order for custom garments from veteran couturier and costume designer Christian Espiritu, but realized that their order was taking a while to complete.

So, one of Inno’s sisters offered Inno to sketch for Espiritu. When the young aspiring architect showed up to the designer’s shop, he clarified that the endorsement was a mistake, and that he did not in fact do fashion drawing. To his surprise, Espiritu assured him, “Okay lang yan! As long as it looks better than my drawings.”

“I am naturally a very curious person. To this day,” Sotto declares to Valdes. Under Espiritu’s tutelage, he spent a lot of time in the backroom with the sewers and cutters. “That’s when I realized, ‘Sh*t. Forget architecture!’”

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Inno Sotto and Bea Valdes. Photographed by Gabriel Villareal
Photographed by Gabriel Villareal

Back in San Francisco, he talked to his grandmother and parents and transferred to Parsons School of Design, where he took up fashion.

What followed throughout the hour-long talk were generous recollections of Inno’s legacy, still forming. He speaks of his favorite color being pink and what it’s like to make muses out of strong women, recalls sending videos of his shows to prolific fashion journalist Elsa Klensch, and advises young creatives interested in fashion (“You have to be curious about things and not just about clothes. You know, I go around Manila just to look at windows. And they lead me to other things”). All this, while making the audience erupt in laughter, and even standing up from his seat for the majority of the talk, teasing that it’s because some guests are starting to fall asleep.

By the time Valdes asks her final question, it feels like the poignant end to a class session with a well-loved, favorite professor. She posits, “If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?”

Inno, with no hesitation, replies, “Why are you insisting that angels wear pink?”

By TICIA ALMAZAN. Photographs by GABRIEL VILLAREAL. Digital associate editor: Chelsea Sarabia. Producer: Bianca Zaragoza. Multimedia artists: Bea Lu, Myc Priestley.

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Special thanks to Maggie Gineta.

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