Tag: Joseph L. Garcia

MOS burger, one of the largest brands in Japan, will open in February in the Philippines.

THE INTERNET was abuzz with Gucci’s Fall/Winter 2020 collection, launched last week at Milan Men’s Fashion Week, and BusinessWorld had to take a look. An article from Vogue about the collection says that the brand’s look revolves around “the characteristics of masculinity through an allegorical journey in clothing back to childhood.” A giant swinging pendulum dominated the runway, which BusinessWorld takes to mean a sort of hypnotic regression to childhood. Allesando Michele’s vision of childhood seems to revolve around the following interpretations: androgyny, thrift shop and schoolboy/schoolgirl chic, plus the uncool part of the 1970s.

FASHION DESIGNER Jean Paul Gaultier announced on Twitter last week that his upcoming show on the 22^nd would be his last Haute Couture show. The show, taking place for Paris Haute Couture Week, celebrates his 50 years in fashion.

IT WILL be the Year of the Metal Rat in the Chinese Zodiac starting on the Lunar New Year (Jan. 25). BusinessWorld, attending a luncheon at the Marco Polo Ortigas last week and got this year’s lucky feng shui forecast from geomancer Master Hanz Cua.

IT’S NOT every day that a Filipino brand makes it into the pages of British Vogue, but here we are, talking about Annie & Lori, a homegrown brand featured in this month’s issue, under the Designer Profile section.

I WILL TELL YOU now that this review will be clouded over by a certain incident. Before going to Maginhawa’s Van Gogh is Bipolar, a restaurant in Quezon City, this reporter was listening to the song “Dominique” by Souer Sourire. I was thinking of a story my mother told me, that in another world, I might have been named Dominic (a variant of the name), because of her and her father’s shared fondness for the song. I was contemplating what life would have been with another name — that name — right before meeting artist and chef Jetro Rafael, the founder of Van Gogh is Bipolar (which we will call Van Gogh from here on in). As I stepped into the restaurant, Mr. Rafael greeted me: “Ah! Dominic.” I then proceeded to interview Mr. Rafael with the sort of wide-eyed curiosity one accords to a magician.

IT’S EXACTLY 100 years since the 1920s began. The “Roaring ’20s” came in a few years after the end of the First World War (allegedly “the war to end all wars,” but who knew then?). The Western world was in an extended period of mourning for the lives and the way of life lost after the war, and were eager for something the world had never seen before. And fashion, art, music, theater, dance -- all aspects of cultural life -- went for it.

AS WE leave the old year behind, we’re entering 2020 with a little bit of baggage: holiday leftovers. For the first week of this new decade, we’re giving you a few recipes using things you might have left in your fridge after the holiday rush.

A SUPER MAN landed in the country last week when Henry Cavill — known for playing Superman — flew to the country to promote his latest project, an upcoming web TV series by Netflix based on fantasy series The Witcher. The first episode airs on Dec. 20 on Netflix.

AFTER MAKING waves in Australia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, a Singapore-based clothing brand, Beyond The Vines, is finally hitting Manila.

IF YOU WERE someone with a smidgen of fashion sense in the 1990s and the very early 2000s, you had at least three pieces in your closet from Marithé et François Girbaud. The name was too long for most people to bother saying so they would just call the brand by the last names of the French founders: Girbaud.

THE PLANET’S seasons shape our lives, and one might think that this is limited to agriculture, but think about how they alter your wardrobe, travel, and work plans. Those powers are heavily reflected in Putien’s menu, which changes according to the seasons. Perhaps it’s that respect given to the planet’s axial spin that is the reason the restaurant has consistently earned one star in Singapore’s Michelin Guide for four years straight.

AN ASIAN-AMERICAN brand has crossed the oceans to bring American-Chinese food to the Philippines. Panda Express opens its first branch in the Philippines, today, Dec. 12, in SM Megamall.

WE KNOW that the planet is in bad shape when even luxury brands are taking a stand. Oceans rise, empires fall; but people will always shell out a little more for something special. In 2018, Chanel announced that it would no longer use exotic skins, which would include crocodile, lizard, snake, stingray, and fur. As part of its efforts to make responsible fashion, Chanel unveiled a gold boater hat earlier this year, using a faux leather called Piñatex, derived from pineapple fibers -- from the Philippines, no less.

FROM SUSHI delivered by train, we now have sushi crafted by hand.

WHEN YOU think of the empresses who ruled China, one name immediately comes to mind: Dowager Empress Cixi. A former concubine plucked from obscurity when she bore the Emperor a son, the woman shaped the last years of Imperial China. Cold and imperious, she eliminated all competition to the throne, even going as far as usurping the throne from her own son — the sanitized story is that she served as regent when her son was taken ill and eventually dying.

JAPAN is a place of many contradictions. It is simultaneously old and young; frighteningly modern and comfortingly aware and compassionate of its past. Its people hold on to who they are, and yet openly takes influences from the West. Several fashion designers call it home, and the easiest names to recall from that region are Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake. When it comes to large-scale production meanwhile, Muji and Uniqlo are successful global exports. The Japanese seem to have it all in their own set of islands, and the thought of making it there makes penetrating the Japanese market a worthy, but also daunting prospect. BusinessWorld talked to two stakeholders in the competitive Japanese fashion market to help Filipino designers understand what makes Japanese customers tick, and the steps they’ll have to take in order to make it in Japan.

NOT ALL superheroes wear capes. Some of them wear Chanel suits.

“RUSTIC” has come to mean a lot of things as the dawn of the new decade approaches. It can mean just plain and simple, and especially if it was made somewhere rural. These days, however, something having a rustic quality means that it was born somewhere away from the prying hands of the city and modernity, and thus, quite pure.

IT CHANGED hands like a parcel at a party, and it has burst into flames at least four times, but here we are, drinking their single malts.

TIME MOVES ever so quickly, and yet the entities that remind us of its passing move so slowly. I’m talking about watch companies. Built up on one generation following another, time freezes for many of them, and they remain the same, unlike the world that surrounds them.

SEDA FOUND, and made for the paying public a new home in the Ayala North Exchange Tower.

NEVER FORGET: Queen Elizabeth II wore a Jaeger-LeCoultre Caliber 101 (then the world’s smallest movement), concealed within the links of diamond bracelet during her 1953 coronation. Every time you’re wearing a Jaeger-LeCoultre, you’re wearing a bit of history on your wrist.

TWO INCHES doesn’t sound so big, until we’re talking about the thickness of a chicken fillet.

THE PRODUCTS of the brow salon to the stars, Anastasia Beverly Hills, now has a physical counter in Manila in Rustan’s Makati.

THE multi-level marketing platform dōTERRA, built on a bank of essential oils, has arrived in the Philippines. The company, based in Utah and present in several dozen countries, was officially launched in the country at Okada earlier this month as a locally registered product in the Philippines, as were its Makati corporate offices.

WHAT DOES the word “home” mean? In a world of constant movement, it could mean many things: something as simple as having somewhere to lay your feet on after a long day, or else a place where you can belong, either out of guilt or by love. A new restaurant by chef Myke “Tatung” Sarthou gives a diner a taste of what another person thinks is home, and in the process, perhaps finding the meaning for themselves too.

ANTON AMONCIO isn’t on TV just for his looks. He is on TV at the Asian Food Channel and Food Network because he won the Food Hero contest in 2016, which tested his on-screen appeal and creativity, winning with a Cheesy Lamb Kaldereta (helped by his smile). The kaldereta was part of his menu at Antojos (which has since closed its doors). However, the restaurant in itself is a story: Mr. Amoncio opened that, his first, at the young age of 24.

MULTICULTURALISM and luxury, as well as a two new lines for an experienced master were the focus of Josie Natori’s launch last week in Rustan’s.

THERE WAS Wang, Kawakubo, Balmain, Kenzo, and even Lagerfeld. Every year, H&M collaborates with an important brand or fashion designer, and this year, it’s Giambattista Valli. Manila couldn’t have been more pleased.

SANTA’S been meaning to ask if you’ve been naughty or nice, but either way, you get jewelry, and that’s always a good deal.

WE’VE GOT a little over a month before Christmas, so make someone cry tears of joy with collections from some of the best known names in jewelry. Trust me, with just one of these baubles, you’ll get whatever you want this season.

IT WOULD HAVE been easier for the Liamzon family to sell Villa Milagros, the one-hectare property their grandparents built up at the foothills of the Sierra Madre by Rizal province.

THERE ARE two important Judgments of Paris, both of which changed the world, depending on what you’re reading. First, there’s the Judgment of Paris of Greek mythology, where the lost prince of Troy, Paris, had to choose who the fairest was between goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena, and the consequences of that launched the Trojan War. Secondly, there’s the Paris Tasting of 1976, a competition by a British wine merchant, where California wines flushed out their French counterparts in a blind tasting by French judges. This competition paved the way for New World wines to be taken more seriously.

THE BLENDED Scotch whisky brand, Chivas Regal, launched its new campaign last week called “Success is a Blend.”

A BARRAGE of Assumption Old Girls filled Tesoro’s in Makati earlier this month for the launch of a collaboration between Tesoro’s and Veloso by Malu and Letlet, a storied fashion house founded in the 1940s, with a legacy stretching three generations.

THE International Bazaar Foundation’s International Bazaar 2019 (now on its 53^rd year) has a unique proposition: shop -- and help bolster international relations at the same time.

FOR MEMBERS of the LGBTQ community, coming out of the metaphorical closet is the first step into a new life, and it makes the difference between merely surviving and really living. In coming out, someone steps out of the smoke and shadows they’ve wrapped around themselves. It’s not an easy step, and it always takes years of self-examination, and of course, it comes with the fears of rejection, and several hard questions for yourself and others.

OUTSTANDING marketing professionals from the hospitality industry were honored on Oct. 14 at Conrad Manila at the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association’s (HSMA) Virtus Awards. The organization is celebrating its 40^th anniversary.

ARGUABLY one of the most glamorous evenings of the Manila social season, the gowns and the gems were brought out for the Red Charity Gala, which would go on to benefit Philippine Red Cross, Assumption HS ’81 Foundation, and various charities throughout the country.

THE International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management (ISCAHM) has been around since 2003, and its gift to itself is the pride it sees in producing students of a certain caliber.

GLORIETTA’S facelifted food court, Food Choices, is changing expectations of what a mall food court should be like.

DO STORIES really end? We’d like to think that the end of one story just begins another, link upon link like the chains in a bracelet.

THE FIRST Versace boutique in the Philippines opened earlier this month in Solaire in Parañaque.

PHILIPPINE wine company Novellino celebrated its 20^th anniversary earlier this week, marking its hold on the growing wine industry of the country.