Viña Romero is launching her exclusive Palagi collection at Rustan’s. Photographed by Colin Dancel. Courtesy of Viña Romero
Palagi is the Tagalog word for “always,” illustrating the essence of life’s ongoing journey. It’s also the keyword behind Viña Romero’s latest collection.
When artists go against the grain of the system, artistry overrides commerce. Like a tightrope, with a need to ‘respect the balance’ to keep a business afloat whilst entertaining a market. “Pressure is a good thing,” says Viña Romero, a fashion designer who has managed to nurture her eponymous label into a thriving business with an exclusive collection for Rustan’s.
“I think there’s a lot of pressure for designers to make innovations and make something new out of nowhere,” she acknowledges in the global industry, but this notion doesn’t disrupt her process. “I want to enjoy the process first, then move forward to the next, and becomes our signature style: our fabric manipulation.”
Pressure may be a stunting force, but for Viña, it’s what motivates her drive to create, as a recent newlywed, mother, and currently with child. “I don’t want to be pressured, but I need to be pressured because I want to have time for what matters most…my family.” It makes sense why she’s titled her collection Palagi, reflecting on her current chapter in life “palagi translates [to] always, but it also translates to other values of constancy, just being there, trusting the process.”
She’s been in the business for over a decade, after trusting her gut to pursue fashion design over becoming a doctor in her youth. After completing AB Fashion Design and Merchandising at De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde, she entered the Inquirer Look of Style Awards; to her surprise, won the grand prize of a scholarship to attend the London College of Contemporary Arts in 2014.
Romero’s work isn’t about mass production but rather constructing seasonless staples that endure in the wardrobe of life, inspired by her own emotions and experiences. Captured with a single word, each collection represents a chapter of her life in physical form: “Palad” [Palm] was a love letter to her father, and “Oras” [Time] was the rebirth and re-establishment of her presence after the pandemic.
It was during one of her pop-ups at MaArte Fair that led to her big department store break to the Rustan’s office. “We got the invitation because of this exact piece,” she says, holding up one of her patchwork shirts via webcam, a similar piece worn once by Enchong Dee at the Locarno Film Festival.
Viña Romero’s most recognizable trademark is the hand-pintuck fabric (or ‘Pintox’) which requires a demi-couture level of labor, demanding 20 hours to produce a mere three yards. “It’s really labor of love; I don’t want anything to go to waste.” So, she collects the discarded scraps and adorns garments with the fabric swatches. “The patchwork kind of allows you to appreciate that tiny little detail on how much work goes into it.”
Alongside her core use of Piña and cocoon-silk, the new collection will include a new fabric with a composition of “10% piña and 90% recycled polyester” from a local manufacturing company. All her pieces are made in-house in her native province of Bulacan. “It’s where I grew up, my family home is here, my production,” she elaborates. “Everything’s here in San Jose de Monte,” from fabric weavers to seamstresses working at her atelier.
While most stick to the status quo, Viña’s clothes have an ageless and unisex appeal. It was Rustan’s that compelled her into making menswear for the store. “I immediately said yes, because at that time, fake it till you make it” and now finds her female clients heading to the men’s department for shirts and barongs. One of her bestsellers is the Simeon, a baro-baroan-inspired top with front pockets and tie-sides named after her son.
Later this year, she will be launching another collection at Rustan’s, and will have a solo pop-up in Power Plant Mall in August or September. In the meantime, we can all adopt Romero’s universal sentiment: “I love the word palagi because of the essence of it—it’s both a celebration of life’s ongoing journey and a testament to my belief that with persistence and trust, things will always align in their own time.”
Viña Romero’s “Palagi” collection is available now at Rustan’s.
Photographer: Colin Dancel. Videography: MV Isip. Creative Direction: Esme Palaganas. Communications and Strategy: A BLANK CD. Models: Tinay Montelibano and Aidan Palis of Monarq. Casting: Lorenz Namalata for Fat Brain Collective. Make-Up Artist: Harvey Castro. Photo Assistants: Dan Durante & Titus Yorrick. Retoucher: Pia Pantangco. Video Assistant: Denzel Joaquino.
