From Manila to Tokyo and everywhere in between, JV Librea builds a wardrobe stitched with memory, meaning, and a quiet kind of magic.
The life of a luxury fashion buyer looks glamorous from the outside: traveling the world in pursuit of rare Hermès bags and vintage Chanel. However, for JV Librea, lead buyer at Luxclusif-Farfetch, the reality is more complex than her Instagram and TikTok posts suggest.
JV spends most of her days in airports, waiting for her next flight, as she travels back and forth between Manila and Tokyo, her two home bases, with the occasional work trip to Shanghai. For two years now, she’s maintained this lifestyle, specifically sourcing second-hand luxury leather goods.
However, hopping from one plane to another eventually takes its toll, and she admits that it isn’t just physically draining—it eventually becomes a mental battle.
Still, there is something in this nomadic existence, exploring new places and experiencing new cultures, that suits her relentless curiosity. “It takes more than two years to understand a place,” she reflects. “You can live somewhere your whole life and still not know it.” The challenge becomes finding a balance between exploring and grounding.
Style becomes crucial, both a professional necessity and personal anchor.
“It’s [style] the first thing people see,” she explains. “A lot of it comes back to identity—who you are at the core. And that has so much to do with how you present yourself.” In the absence of a fixed address or predictable routine, JV has learned that consistency comes from within. “I try to make sure that I leave room for curiosity wherever I am, but I also try to balance it with figuring out how to make a new space feel like home.”
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The Hunt For JV Librea’s Closet Favorites
Her personal collection carries stories of exciting pursuits, each taking time and energy to acquire. She proudly mentions a vintage Hermès Kelly from the 1980s, a Birkin 35 from 1998, and a medium calf-skin Chanel Classic Flap from 1996. But perhaps no piece better illustrates her dedication than the Chrome Hearts Infinity Ring: a silver band that sparked a quiet obsession. The hunt began after discovering a pink silicone version at Dover Street Market. This prompted her to scour secondhand boutiques across Tokyo, and even consider a year-long custom order through the Hong Kong store. Eventually, she found the near-perfect size at a specialty shop in Japan, and she wore it daily with a ring sizer for months before having it professionally resized by local artisans. Now altered and unmistakably hers, it carries the history of her relentless pursuit.
Not every acquisition, however, needs to be practical to have a space in your wardrobe and your life. “I have these Prada Spring/Summer 2009 shoes. I’m happy just to look at them. They’re the ones where all the models were tripping. I have a pair of them, and I wear them at home,” she shares with obvious delight.
“I firmly believe everyone should have a few pieces that sort of build up to iconography, like things that they wear all the time that become synonymous with them,” she shares with conviction. For JV, the journey to find a piece can add more meaning than any straightforward purchase.
Form And Function
When your office spans countries and your schedule changes by the hour, building a wardrobe can be difficult. Her “uniform” is created out of constant travel as she moves from country to country, adjusting to different climates and weather patterns. But calling it a “uniform” undersells the thoughtfulness behind each choice: a white or black shirt that fits perfectly, well-tailored jeans or trousers, and either a pair of Manolo Blahniks or ballet flats.
“Real emphasis on well-fitting clothes; they have to be tailored perfectly,” JV insists, understanding that luxury lies in the details. “I’m a very, very big advocate of tailoring even your white t-shirts; you’re never going to find the perfect-fitting shirt in one go. I do believe you have to tailor everything.”
This attention to detail reflects her background as an artist who works primarily in large-scale drawings, exploring the human experience. “The idea behind it is how every person you come across is a movie that you may never be able to watch,” she explains. There’s a parallel between her art and her approach to style, both requiring an understanding of how the external reflects something deeper.
Her style is influenced by women she looked up to while growing up: Lee Radziwill, Tina Chow, and Carolyn Bessette–women who understood that being well-dressed was just a part of a life well lived.
Timeline Of The Soul
For someone who spends her days evaluating the world’s most coveted luxury goods, JV has developed a grounded philosophy about what luxury goods actually mean. Not the price tag or the brand name. It’s the story, the journey, and ultimately, the joy.
“It’s a timeline of your soul,” she says, describing how personal style evolves with experience. “There’s nothing more intimate than clothing for people who care and dare to be themselves.” This perspective comes from someone who travels through time and space, handling pieces with decades of history from all over the continent.
In her own timeline, her grandmother’s influence shaped her early on. A woman fascinated by Elizabeth Taylor and her legendary jewel collection, she taught JV to appreciate heirlooms with stories. Today, JV pairs those Chrome Hearts favorites that she hunted down with inherited rings.
What doesn’t she subscribe to? Taking style too seriously. “That’s the most boring thing,” JV laughs. “There’s this quote—I forget who said it—but it’s something like, ‘It’s better to be happy than stylish.’ I totally agree.”
“Honestly, it’s better to have bad taste than no taste,” she insists. “And really—there’s no such thing as bad taste.”
This philosophy informs her approach to building lasting style in a world obsessed with trends. Personal style, she believes, should be foundational—“the core of your brain and your being”—so that whatever trends you layer on top still feel authentic.
Her final advice carries the wisdom of someone who has traveled the world in pursuit of beauty: “Own your life, it’s yours, it’s absolutely yours.” In the end, the greatest luxury isn’t what you buy, it’s the confidence to be yourself, wherever in the world you happen to wake up. “To anyone who’s still trying to figure it out, I wish you—genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, I wish you well, and I wish you find whatever it is that you’re looking for in style and in life.”
The article was originally published in our September 2025 Issue
Photography by Solène Ballesta
