Lessons on Style, Sustainability, and Denim from Pam Quiñones

The seasoned stylist and editor unpacks her philosophy on fashion essentials, and reinterpreting everyday pieces.

Inside a sunlit space filled with emerging creatives, Vogue Philippines’ deputy editor Pam Quiñones took the audience on a journey through her own beginnings in fashion, from a childhood in Cotabato City to dressing models backstage in Milan. Her story was a lesson on resourcefulness, an essential trait, she emphasized, for anyone seeking to make a career in the industry. At nine years old, she was already subscribing to back issues of Vogue, thoroughly studying each page from her bedroom back in her hometown. That fascination would eventually lead her to Europe, where a program in Spain gave her her first glimpse of fashion’s potential. “I saw a woman in a beautiful red dress under the Mediterranean sun on a bicycle. And I thought this is what I’ve been reading about.”

And her entry into fashion was hands-on and physical, a lot of running, sewing, pulling clothes from stores one by one, long before sample directories and social media made sourcing easier. That kind of work, she says, taught her to form a relationship with objects, and to see clothes as both products but as tools for storytelling. It also made her deeply attuned to how garments could be transformed, a skill she considers indispensable for stylists today.

“If you don’t have a budget, you still have to create a look,” she said. “That limitation works for us because it challenges us to experiment, to play, and just go crazy with it.” For Quiñones, styling is never about using creativity to elevate what’s available; a mindset that applies as much to denim as it does to couture.

“You should keep working with the mindset that no one is watching you, so you can be who you want to be creatively-”

Pam Quiñones

She gestured to her own look, a clever mix of Levi’s staples reinterpreted. “I’m wearing a pencil skirt backwards. I wore this as a skirt a month ago, and now it’s a dress,” she explains. “Denim is special because of its transformability. You can wear it baggy, cropped, as a jacket, as a skirt, or even turn a men’s shirt into a sculptural top, and the fabric holds volume and structure, so you can really make it your own.”

Even for non-fashion enthusiasts, denim is an investment piece, and for stylists, it’s an essential part of their arsenal. “Investment pieces don’t have to be expensive,” she reminded the audience. “They’re the ones you can have a relationship with forever.” And following up this advice were pieces of advice, apprentice with someone experienced, build trust with designers, take care of borrowed pieces, and say yes to every opportunity to learn. 

But she also urged young creatives to step away from the constant noise of social media. “Real work happens offline,” she says. “You should keep working with the mindset that no one is watching you, so you can be who you want to be creatively.” And by the end of the masterclass, attendees left with more than just technical tips, they carried with them a new understanding of fashion as a space for reinvention. Much like denim itself, Quiñones reminded them, a stylist’s work is meant to be worn in, reworked, and reshaped until it tells a story that feels entirely their own.

For more denim essentials, visit Levi’s® stores nationwide and levi.com.ph to discover the latest collection