The designer’s 30-piece ArteFino-exclusive Heirloom collection honors the Grand Dame of Philippine Fashion through an intimate salon-style presentation.
Before the big productions of large fashion shows that draw the, to be acknowledged, necessary attention in today’s saturated marketing world, there were the intimate salon shows. At Makati Shangri-La, a hotel I hadn’t been to in ages, that format made perfect sense for what designer Jor-El Espina was presenting.
Tea for two, or two dozen, and 30 hand-embroidered pieces. Heirloom, Jor-El’s tribute to Patis Tesoro, the Grand Dame of Philippine Fashion, found its natural habitat in the salon format. Both the collection and the presentation seemed to exist outside the usual rush toward the next thing.
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The collection’s origins trace back to those ArteFino ladies, cultural mavericks with an eye for meaningful connections, who invited Jor-El to Patis’s Laguna home late last year. What began as a social call became a master class in cultural transmission.
‘Heirloom’ And The Art Of Cultural Inheritance
“I would ask myself: what would it be like to enter the world of Patis?” Jor-El recalls his design process. Those Laguna afternoons were filled with long conversations about the future of Philippine crafts, followed by workshop hours watching artisans work. “More than a collaboration, this is a tribute; my way of honoring Patis Tesoro,” he explains.
Patis, widely respected as a conservationist of heritage and craft, has spent her career championing the preservation of time-honored traditions in weaving, needlepoint, and embroidery. Her aesthetic, which Jor-El describes as a “multi-colored, richly layered universe,” combines rich details, vibrant colors, and the kind of maximalism that celebrates rather than apologizes for Filipino sensibilities.
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But Espina was careful to make the tribute his own. “Learning from Patis herself pushed me to develop and refine my craft further,” he admits. His interpretation took shape as multifunctional garments—peacoats, parkas, drop waist dresses, kimonos, and piña tops—infused with patchwork, embroidery, and hand painting. Each piece carries both the Jor-El Espina and Patis Tesoro mark, but the creative vision remains distinctly contemporary.
“My takeaway is that as a Filipino designer, you have to always stay true to who you are,” Espina adds as perhaps the most important lesson from his time with Patis. The resulting collection carries that philosophy in every stitch.
See select pieces from Jor-El Espina’s ‘Heirloom’ collection:
Jor-El Espina’s “Heirloom” collection will be exclusively available at the ArteFino Fair, which will be held from July 31 to August 3 at the Fifth at Rockwell, Rockwell Center, Makati.
Photographs courtesy of Artefino Fair
