WE ALWAYS want what we can’t have; and the good ones always run away.
Margarita Cojuangco-Zini, once known on the society pages as Mai Mai Cojuangco, disappeared from the Manila social scene dominated by her mother, the socialite Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, after her marriage to an Italian businessman, Andrea Zini. Ms. Cojuangco now makes a reappearance in a totally different capacity: the pretty young woman who once graced magazine covers now stays in the background as a bag designer for a brand culled from her and her grandmother’s shared name, Demetria.
And not just any bags, mind you. Her last collection only had 24 pieces, which were immediately snapped up by power women. Her pieces this year, which debuted at a hidden boutique called Ideé in Makati, only numbered nine. By the time this reporter arrived, only three bags remained in the store, and thus, on the market.
“It’s certainly not a disadvantage,” said Ms. Cojuangco-Zini, when asked how the Cojuangco name weighed over her when she entered the fashion world. Aside from her mother being a socialite, her father is Jose Cojuangco, Jr., a politician, who is in turn the brother of the late President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. This then makes her the cousin of both former President Benigno Aquino III and his celebrity sister Kris Aquino.
About her stylish mother, she said, “I think I’ve appreciated style.”
“Only she can wear the clothes that she wears. Maybe a lot of the clothes I wear, she can’t get away with. I think that’s what style is. It’s not about following what the bloggers wear; it’s about finding what is ‘you.’”
Her bags are designed in Italy and made by four artisans in a small, all-female studio in Florence.
While bag designing seems like a hobby for young socialites, Ms. Cojuangco-Zini takes design seriously — she was a graphic designer for 20 years. Her experiences living, studying, and working in Florence — where she lives with her husband and daughter — inspire her bags. Her bags take the shape of beans and buckets, with scarves serving as bag closures. Ms. Cojuangco assures us that the bags are all unique, maybe with a variation in stitching, in colored details, and the scarves. “You hardly ever find the same scarf twice. And I’m not interested, in any case, getting the same scarf,” she said.
The bags cost upward of P60,000.
The Bucket comes in fuchsia, chartreuse, and cerulean accented with a brown stripe, and in bone white. It may be used as a handbag or shoulder bag. In each a vintage scarf has been hand-cut, sewn, and attached to the bag. Ms. Cojuangco-Zini selected each designer scarf from vintage shops and personal collections in Florence.
Meanwhile, the Demi is a diminutive purse that is made up of an astounding 50 leather pieces cut and constructed to shape a strikingly minimal piece. It comes in red, blue, and black.
As a once-fixture on Manila’s social scene, one would think that every launch is simply a party, and perhaps, friends of hers with money to burn simply buy the bags as a favor to her. Not so much.
“Women who buy my bags know that they’re buying quality, and they’re buying unique pieces,” she said. “These are women who have other bags — they have Gucci, Chanel, Hermes… Most of the time, I don’t even know them. They’re not friends. They’re not going to spend this money to do me a favor.”
“You spend money that’s hard-earned, and I give you something that only you have. It’s like a piece of art,” she said. “You won’t find an artist who will make the same painting twice,” she said, commenting on the unique nature of each bag.
A fashion designer’s success is usually measured by how well their bags are imprinted on the consumer’s consciousness, usually by their ubiquity. The Chanel 2.55, the Hermes Kelly: every rich and famous woman in the world has one on their elbow crook or shoulder. With one-offs, how can Ms. Cojuangco say she’s a success? In a low voice, almost like a whisper, she said her secret.
“Isn’t that what’s beautiful about it? I think exclusivity, and knowing that only you have it is quite attractive. Don’t people want things that only they can have? That other people can’t have — only you do? Do you want something that everybody can have? I think it’s quite sexy, right?”
The Idée Clothing Store is located at 2263 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati City and is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturdays by appointment. For details call 833-9763 or follow them at @ideeclothingstore. — Joseph L. Garcia
