Design Folder: Your Online Design and Decorating Resource

style shopping: kish

Kish, home furnishings store by designer and tastemaker, Ito Kish, probably has the most playful yet very sophisticated mix of furniture and accessories here in Manila. If you’re looking for a statement piece for your home, whether it’s something traditional or something modern, you’re sure to find something you’ll like here.

The store’s merchandise are sourced both locally and abroad. The local pieces that they carry are mostly from Cebu. In fact, Kish is the exclusive distributor of the VS furniture line from Cebuano designer, Vito Selma.

With an extensive background in visual merchandising, Ito is very particular about maintaining a well-put together and well-accessorized store. I appreciate his special attention to detail, filling every corner of the store with something beautiful and interesting. Also, a lot of people who are familiar with Kish, myself included, look forward to the store’s eye-catching (and sometimes, thought-provoking) window displays.

At the recently concluded Manila FAME 2012 show (March 14-17), Ito went into a new phase in his career and took on the challenge as a furniture designer. He debuted his very first furniture collection Gregoria (named after his mother), which explored the ubiquitous baluster or turned wooden spindle. Though this is his first attempt at designing furniture, it is not surprising that he immediately captured the attention of the judges for Katha Awards, and earned himself two awards: one for Best Booth Design, and another award for Best Product Design for his two-seater chair Gregoria. This is an impressive start for him, to say the least.

If you missed the Manila FAME show but would like to see Ito’s collection, the Gregoria chair and the rest of the baluster-inspired furniture pieces will be in Kish starting tomorrow, March 19, Monday.

Kish is located along N. Garcia St., Makati City.

manila fame 2011: handmade with love

Probably one of the highlights of the recent Manila Fame show is the addition of live vignettes featuring craftsmen (and women) in action—weaving fabrics, carving wood products, and weaving rattan and buri furnishings. Whoever thought of this is a genius! It gives a human face to the featured products. At the same time, seeing how the furnishings and decors are tediously made somehow adds to their value.

On top of the usual furniture and decors, there was also a section for Philippine textiles. Twinkle Ferraren’s collection made from paper fabric (fabric made from plant fiber pulp) caught our attention. They look very similar to linen but they are actually made from pineapple fiber pulp. Twinkle is a young fashion designer who designs paper-art clothing since 2005. See her collection here.

Another interesting collection is the recycled crafts from Bayan ni Juan. I think most of them are made from shredded magazine pages, rolled, and made into small beads and cones.

This just proves how much talent we have in this country. I’m not just talking about the designers behind the furnishings, but also the men and women who make it possible for the drawings to become actual objects. We’re definitely a handmade nation!

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manila fame 2011: stripped, bleached, natural

I was in Shangri-la Mall yesterday and saw for the first time the newly renovated 2^nd and 3^rd levels of Rustan’s Department Store. The clean and sophisticated design of the store made everything look even more expensive! It was a huge transformation from the store’s very dated appearance (circa 1991). I especially love the look of the home furnishings department—floor in bleached wood vinyl planks with accents of woven abaca matting, white walls with shiny stainless steel trims, and streams of bright light from metal halide directional lamps.

The design, especially the color palette and textures used, actually reminds me of the predominant look of the furnishings and accessories featured in last month’s Manila Fame 2011 exhibit. Many of the products look raw, bleached, lime-washed or unstained. Does this mean we’ll be saying goodbye to wengue, and hello to white and “bleached” finishes? Here are some of the pieces that we saw:

1) Coast Pacific (above & below):

2) Detalia Aurora & Accessoria:

3) Las Palmas:

4) Masaeco:

5) Tadeco:

6) Mood Indigo:

7) Naturalist Pavillion:

i saw design: manila f.a.m.e.

I’m in the design industry for 5 years already but it was just last Saturday (Oct. 17) when I got to attend the Manila FAME exhibition. Either I didn’t have the time or I didn’t have any requirements for a design project. This year, thanks to df, I finally got the chance to see what the Manila FAME is all about.

To those who are not familiar, Manila FAME is a bi-annual trade show organized by CITEM that showcases the latest trends and collections in home and lifestyle products from the country’s best manufacturers.

There is also a special display of designed items from the participants of CITEM’s product development program. This year, it is headed by interior designer, and owner of A-11, Eric Paras, as the program’s design consultant. Seven companies participated in the said program: two from Cebu, two from Iloilo and three from Manila. Aside from being CITEM’s design consultant, Eric also styled the special display booths for the event.

We saw several interesting booths and a whole lot of really good furniture and décor:

…modern vernacular lamps from one of my favorite lamps store, Azcor,

…country style accessories of From The Islands,

 …and interesting pieces made of abaca and beads from Tadeco. I wanted to buy a floor lamp for a client, but it’s not for sale  The company is based in Davao. Some of their pieces (particularly the abaca and beaded pillowcases) are available in Rustan’s. Hopefully they’ll open their own store here in Manila. I really like their stuff.

Seeing all those great designs made us feel proud to be Filipinos! Unfortunately, only a few exhibitors allowed us to take pictures of their booths. We just noted the ones that we love and hopefully we’ll get to feature them here on df.