Rosanna Periquet proves that having multiple passions doesn’t mean spreading yourself thin. It means finding the rhythm that lets each part of your life strengthen the others.
My mom always told me: “You are your nana.” That’s how Rosanna Periquet decides to describe herself, akin to her 87-year-old grandmother, Maribel Ongpin, founder of the HABI Philippine Textile Community. An odd start for a profile on someone young, but she quickly clarifies.
“She is 87, but she is always on the go. She fills her days to the brim, and that’s me,” Rosanna continues, laughing. “My mom is always like, ‘Where did you get that, trying to be everything to everyone?’ She says I have a hard time saying no.”
And while she adds that learning to say no has been a New Year’s resolution three years in a row, that particular trait of hers has worked in my favor. When I initially called Rosanna about featuring her, someone who balances corporate work, civic duty, and entrepreneurship, she confessed that she honestly didn’t know how she manages. But that difficulty saying no? It meant she said yes to this conversation, yes to carving out time in an already impossible schedule, yes to sitting down and trying to articulate something she’s still figuring out.
I put my phone in front of her to record, and asked her for her name and age to start. “Rosanna Periquet, 29.” It’s an interesting age. Old enough to have accumulated some wisdom and shake off youthful delusions, but still with so much ahead. It’s an age when you might have thought you’re supposed to have things figured out, but also when you realize that “figured out” might be a myth altogether.
For Rosanna, 29 looks like this: a full-time corporate career in leasing, a position as the youngest Kagawad in her barangay, and the co-founder of a shoe brand that transforms traditional Filipino textiles into something thoroughly modern.
The brand is named Cariñosa, after the traditional dance of grace and timing, of moving in careful circles without losing direction. It requires knowing when to lead and when to follow, when to reveal yourself and when to remain artfully concealed behind the fan. What Rosanna does follows a similar rhythm of careful choreography between all facets of her life.
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First Steps For Rosanna Periquet
“It was my first big girl move. You know what I mean?”
While Rosanna now serves as the Kagawad for health and physical fitness in her barangay, her first foray into civic work came through the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK). It is the council that provides a platform for youth civic engagement and governing programs for residents 30 and under. In college, she had written her thesis on CENTEX schools and their teacher training programs, imagining a career in NGO work or social enterprise. When the opportunity to run for SK “fell into her lap,” as she describes it, it filled that part of her.
“It also gave me some time to figure out what type of career I wanted,” she adds. “I think, right out of college, it’s very rare to know exactly what you want to do. It’s very daunting and intimidating because there are so many opportunities. So, it gave me some time.”
The two years she spent focused full-time as SK Chairman, she was managing a team of nine. From there, the transition to, or rather addition of, corporate life came easily.
“I really like structure,” she says. “I knew I wanted to be in a corporate environment eventually.” She landed a role in leasing and retail development at Ayala Malls, a role that required both analytical thinking and creative problem-solving.
But what surprised her was discovering how much a structured environment actually demanded flexibility. “There’s a constant need to be agile and you really need to be able to adapt,” she reflects. “I think being open to change is something that I was really taught there because it’s an industry where there are demands for you to to evolve. It taught me to think outside the box. At the same time, there is still structure.”
A Pandemic Pivot
When the pandemic hit, her civic work became more urgent and meaningful than ever with vaccination programs, health initiatives, and generally supporting her community through an unprecedented crisis. Meanwhile, corporate life was shifting too, with remote work and a demand for both immediate action and deeper reflection. It was all about learning how to adapt–taking established ways of doing things and finding new approaches that worked for a changed world.
At that moment, Rosanna found herself thinking more about her family’s legacy, particularly her grandmother’s decades-long dedication to promoting Filipino textiles through HABI. That world of artisans and craftspeople, with emphasis on tradition over trends, had always felt adjacent to her life. But during those pandemic months, she became curious about bringing it closer, making it contemporary, adapting it for a changed world.
The spark came through her discussions with her friend, Nina Magbanua, who was interning at a Marikina-based shoe brand. “Let’s do business together,” Rosanna suggested, almost on impulse. Who hasn’t chatted with a friend and tossed around the idea of starting something together? But Rosanna and Nina actually did the thing.
Dress, ARAW THE LINE; Shoes, CARIÑOSA
The concept crystallized around a simple question, which she articulates: “How can we make this modern? How can we make people our age wear textile and find it cool and current.”
For someone who learned she could successfully manage competing priorities during one of the most challenging periods in recent history, adding a creative venture was a natural evolution. Different aspects of her life could fuel, rather than drain, each other. Community work had taught her about collaboration and serving others’ needs. Corporate life had shown her the importance of systems and sustainability. Now she was ready to see what happened when she applied those lessons to something that honored the past while creating something entirely new.
Read the full story in our July 2025 e-magazine by subscribing to Lifestyle Asia’s digital access and purchasing your copy at Readly.
Photography by AYA CABAUATAN, assisted by JHAY-R BAYLON AND JR GUIYAB
Creative Direction PAOLO TORIO
Stylist QUAYN PEDROSO, assisted by BRADLESS GOMEZ.
Hairstylist JEFFREY PALOMPON
Makeup Artist TATS DIONISIO
Associate Producer MAE TALAID.
