Estien Quijano: Born to be a Designer

Estien Quijano started professional career as a designer in April 1991. He is a licensed nurse, who graduated from University of Santo Thomas, whose love for the arts pushed him to become the designer he is today. Even as a child, Estien’s love for arts was present. He would browse at Encyclopedias and just look at the different pictures and paintings. Using his God given talents and his own hands he is fond of creating new things.

Estien had been a Finalist in Mega Magazine’s Young Designers’ Competition in 2006 and a Finalist in FDCP Design Competition – Accessories Category in the same year. Estien Quijano has also been consistently landing on the top 10 collections for three seasons of the Philippine Fashion Week. Estien Quijano joined the retail industry through Vatican Fashion Museum at The Podium.

He is a postmodern artist-designer whose artistic flair is seen in every garment he creates, blending innovation and tradition. He considers his works as wearable pieces of art and have been photographed and worn in Paris, New York, Singapore and other parts of the world. Estien finds his inspirations in a lot of things such as music, architecture, and nature. Most of his materials of choice are unexpected, such as the Sebiña, a hand woven fabric made of bamboo yarn, Piña fiber and Philippine silk cocoon. However, he also utilizes conventional materials, his favorite being the garter. In fact, he is known in the fashion industry as the “Garter Guy.”

Estien Quijano on his latest collection:

“I was thinking of North Seychelles, the luxury of idle time, basking in the sun, sand and sea, savouring the relaxed, cool air of island life. This collection is avant-garde meets luxewear: luxuriously draped fabric and 100% hand stitched bikini wraps for the femme fatale—giving my discriminating clientele low carbon-imprint clothes, carefully handcrafted by myself. For the active male, androgynous clothes for the beach and resort, light and loose-fitting apparel, matched with taxi coloured swimwear with contrast stitch detailing.”

His message to aspiring designers out there:

“Put your heart in everything that you do, and it will bring out the best in you.”

THE CURATOR, April Issue is coming your way, Watch out!

Featuring Estien Quijano's Avant-Garde Underwater
plus
Vatican Fashion Museum Designers'
Spring/Summer Collections
By

Arnold Galang
Envoy
Eric Delos Santos
EsAC
Jerome Salaya-Ang
Lizanne Cua
Ulysses King
Yako Reyes

Vatican bridges academe and industry thru partnership with APC

In January 2012, Vatican partnered with the students of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration specializing in Business Management of Asia Pacific College, an institution that specializes in IT education and also caters to Multimedia Arts, Engineering and Business-related courses, with the aim of formulating an effective Integrated Marketing Communications Plan for the designer house, Vatican Fashion Museum, and at the same time, provide and avenue for the students to apply their Business Management learning in an actual industry setting. The plan was laid-out by Vatican founder and CEO of Urban Lifestyle, Inc., Ulysses King, Lizanne Cua, one of the most sought-after designers of Vatican, and Jed Loma, the class adviser.

THE PLAN .The class was divided into groups and formulated their IMCs. On February 22, each group presented their plans to Edmir Lagui, designer for Envoy and representing Vatican, and Gino Go, business development director of Full Cirle Creative Concepts, as the marketing consultant. The best plan was chosen among the four and it was set for implementation. The chosen IMC Plan includes a partnership between Vatican Fashion Museum and some of the biggest brands in the Philippines, aggressive viral marketing through social networking sites, a new and improved packaging, a bigger and better MERGE (the brainchild fashion event of Vatican), among others.

RECENT EVENTS. “It’s Shoetime”, a footwear fashion show organized by the same class, was held at APC on March 6, and was sponsored by Vatican Fashion Museum. 

The Contestants

The event was a modeling competition that focused on footwear with the winning models to be featured on Vatican’s Lookbook account.

The winners

BM-91 with the contestants

The 10^th Season of “Fashiontech”, an annual fashion show organized by Business Administration Major in Marketing students of APC, was held on March 13 at Fiamma Bar, Makati City. Vatican Fashion Museum, with all of its designers, provided the wardrobe and accessories for the event.

Mr. Edmir Lagui is preparing for the Fashion Show

The Organizers with the designers of Vatican Fashion Museum

        

A photoshoot for the Vatican’s Lookbook account held on March 24 at FCC Building, Makati City. Models were Mitzi Nocon, Joven Toledo, Kevin Gener, all from Asia Pacific College. 

 

 LOOKING FORWARD.  

With these different projects already in motion, the partnership’s list of activities is being revved up. To boost customer relationship, an in-house manual is being drafted for Vatican that covers communication and sales training, updateson fashion trends, designers’ portfolio, inventory control, suggestive selling, among others. This strengthened partnership between Vatican Fashion Museum and Asia Pacific College bridges academe with the industry. By providing real projects and real learning, Vatican Fashion Museum lives up its commitment to showcase the ingenuity not just of Filipino designers, but also of the Filipino students. 

Photos from The Manansala Photography, Vladimir Lima Photography & Luis Quisimbing