“You Make Your Own Point-of-View”: Pam Quiñones and Trickie Lopa on Styling as a Career

At Vogue Threads Manila 2025, deputy editors Pam Quiñones and Trickie Lopa discuss navigating a career as a stylist.

In the fashion industry, some individuals want to create, while others want to assemble. Not everyone who is passionate about fashion wants to create clothes. Behind every fashion moment, there is a stylist who works hand-in-hand with designers or personalities to help execute, interpret, and bring their ideas to fruition. “Many are excited by the idea of assembling looks, of shaping images and narratives through style,” says Vogue Philippines deputy editor and talk moderator Trickie Lopa. One of the many such people is fellow deputy editor Pam Quiñones, who has built a career in the Philippines’ creative landscape as fashion editor and stylist.

When Quiñones started in the industry, there were fewer opportunities to learn. “When I started, there was no real-life handbook to styling; I learned on the job,” she says. At Vogue Threads Manila 2025, Quiñones, dressed in Levi’s, takes to the stage as the guest speaker for the masterclass, “Styling as a Career.” “With this talk,” she says, “I hope to inspire aspiring stylists to build a sustainable and fulfilling career.”

For Quiñones, there are many realities aspiring stylists need to know. “A stylist wears many hats: stylist, producer, budget tracker, creative director, wardrobe wrangler, emotional support, visionary,” she says. “It’s a gift to do what you love, but there are many hidden struggles in the fashion industry, which has traditionally been known to gatekeep information.”

For Lopa, also wearing Levi’s, the panel serves as an opportunity for creatives to learn and be inspired by established professionals. “You don’t grow in a vacuum; it’s through conversations, debates, and interactions with more experienced peers that you can refine your craft,” she says. “Many artists begin as studio assistants, learning directly from established figures before finding their own voice. That cycle of knowledge being passed on, reinterpreted, and expanded is what allows creative fields to continue evolving.”

In the talk, Lopa and Quiñones discuss best practices, the business side of fashion styling, and the particulars of transitioning from a “creative” to a stylist. 

From her first exposure to fashion to her foray into editorial styling, she takes audiences on a journey through her industry experience. She shared how editorial styling, a significant part of her career, has shaped her styling perspective. “The beauty of editorial styling is it’s not just about the clothes. It’s not just about putting together a look,” she says. “It’s about finding your strong point of view. And from that point of view, you are able to build your storytelling in the most compelling way.”

She also emphasizes that as a stylist, it’s essential to build connections. “Try to be offline. It’s the best way to connect with your work and connect with other people,” she says. “So passion for fashion and beyond.” She also believes in being an “obsessed” person about a subject, in the sense that passion drives the pursuit of knowledge. “Understand the ‘why.’ And understanding the ‘why’ takes a long time to absorb. But you have to get to the ‘why’ to be able to get inspiration for your own ‘why.’”

During the panel, attendees were also able to ask their own questions. When asked by stylist Renée De Guzman about the most fulfilling aspect of the job, Quiñones shares that for her, it’s being able to mentor the new generation of stylists. “To be able to guide them through projects, or just their career through and through, is such a joy to me,” she answers. But she added that, although she’s happy to serve as a mentor, she says that people don’t need to be like her. “Even if you have your own heroes as stylists, you make your own career, you make your own point of view, you make your own style.”

After much discussion, Lopa hopes the panel has accomplished one key thing: to show where being a stylist could lead you. “We offer young creatives a chance to see the possibilities of where this work can take them, and to be inspired by someone who has elevated this field in the Philippines,” she says.

In the end, the conversation between Quiñones and Lopa underscores that styling is not just about clothes, but about shaping meaning, identity, and possibility. For aspiring creatives, it’s both an invitation and a challenge: to embrace the discipline with passion, resilience, and curiosity, and to find their own “why” along the way.

By DAPHNE SAGUN. Photographs by ANIKEN DELA CRUZ. Digital Associate Editor: Chelsea Sarabia. Producer: Bianca Zaragoza. Multimedia artists: Bea Lu, Myc Priestley.