Adoring Adora

Bambino Wise wrote in an issue of WWD:

Forging a path separate from his family, Pineda this year opened Adora, a 25,000-square-foot store in Manila’s Greenbelt 5. It is a retail showcase featuring limestone floors, modernist furniture and velvet draperies. Adora already has set a benchmark in the market in terms of luxury and personalized service.

It seems I'm not the only one adoring Adora these days. The Manila department store has already made it's way into the New York fashion business source, WWD, a few times.

On my last trip to Manila I was taken on a personal tour through the store and explained how Adora really has the owner's personal touch, including the handpicked merchandise featured. With some local deisgners that caught my eye, I found myself back there again and again.

Who knows? Maybe, at this interesting point in the evolution of Philippine retail along with the country's economic growth, in the near future New Yorkers will have more of a taste in Philippine fashion. Maybe even an Adora?

You can read the entire article on p.31 in the October 13, 2008 issue of Women’s Wear Daily
Philippines’ First Family of Retailing http://www.wwd.com/media/issues/2008/10/13/wwd1013.pdf

Fashion Week Fall 2009

Isaac

Donna

3.1 Phillip Lim

This fall's Fashion Week was about American classics. Classic. Basic. Athletic. Lord knows especially as a New Yorker when you step outside on the street you need to be able to survive the jungle of walking the city sidewalks, hailing a cab, or getting on that subway, not to mention looking fashionable all at the same time.

The best designers this season took what we already had in the closets, looked at what was going on around them and most importantly felt what was happening here in the country. No one felt more that $700 billion dollar debt and uncertainty of who would lead us out of this mess than us. What fashionistas needed this time around was familiarity and comfort, leaving out the unoriginal.

The All-stars got it. Isaac Mizrahi, Calvin Klein, and Ralph Lauren went back to the essence of American fashion. 3.1 Phillip Lim tried to keep the swing of the good times and showed us a bit of Rock-n-Roll for those who are still on beat. Catherine Malandrino took us past today's hard times and gave us a look into a positive future that is to come, taking full attention to the woman. (Thank god for women designers) Anna Sui joined in the fun and brought us on an adventure through a different world inspired by Proust, the French novelist and gypsies. Last but not least DONNA KARAN. She hit the nail on the head dead on. She simply made us look at the same things we've always had but the detail made it seem as if we were looking at it through a different lens. It was all nothing short of brilliant.