In an exclusive interview with Lifestyle Asia, Martina Lebron unravels her story, inspiration, and how she decided to focus on luxury scarves.
Scarves are arguably the most versatile piece in your closet right now. At first, it seems unassuming, basically just a large square of silk. A silk scarf, at face value, is nothing more than an accessory. However, with a creative mind and a stylish approach, a silk scarf can turn into a headpiece, a top, and even a bag charm. For Martina Lebron, scarves serve as a canvas—serving as a vessel of culture, style, and stories.
In an exclusive interview with Lifestyle Asia, Martina unravels her story, inspiration, and how she decided to focus on luxury scarves. Her creativity, style, and lived experience serve as the foundation of her brand.
“I am Martina Lebron, an artist, designer, and Filipina currently living in London,” she introduces herself.
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Where It All Began
Martina studied at the University of the Philippines (U.P.) Diliman College of Fine Arts and graduated from the London College of Fashion. She has been working in the fashion industry for over five years.
Innately creative and fashion-forward, Matina recognized and saw the potential in silk scarves. “Silk scarves were always an interest of mine; I admired how Hermes captured their brand heritage through their prints and never steered away from playful designs,” she shares.
For her, scarves were a way to integrate both of her interests: arts and fashion. A scarf’s versatility makes it an integral part of anyone’s closet. It is something anyone of any size, age, or background can appreciate. A universal product with endless opportunity, as she describes it.
This idea of scarves as a way to tell stories led her to pitch the concept to a local brand back in 2021. Sadly, the brand decided not to pursue the idea or her designs. “It was something I had to shelf, but the idea never really left my mind,” the Filipina designer adds.
Her passion for the idea reignited when she worked for the accessories department of J.W. Anderson.
“Watching Jonathan Anderson work was particularly influential, his ability to take elements of his Irish and Spanish inspirations and elevate them to global recognition, made me reflect on how I could do that for Filipinos, and at this point, I felt like I didn’t have any excuses not to do it,” Martina recalls.
Martina Lebron’s Design Ethos
The young designer’s design philosophy comes from seeing the beauty in the duality. “I like to create with a balance of East and West, tropical and urban, traditional and contemporary, and I believe such has informed the conception of my brand,” she explains.
Martina also heavily leans on her Filipino heritage as an inspiration. “Looking at Filipino Romanticism paintings, how Fernando Amorsolo captured our culture has inspired me to bring that energy into our generation,” Martina adds. For the London-based designer, she sees her scarves as the modern-day panuelos or alampays.
“I wanted something to make me feel Filipino, and needed an outlet to represent my culture more,” she further explains. As a Filipino living in London, being thousands of kilometers away from your motherland makes you long for a connection to your culture.
Aside from revisiting her culture and heritage, Martina recognizes her time at J.W. Anderson as a pivotal moment in her career as a designer and a business owner. “Seeing how raw inspiration and mood boards had evolved into tangible products made something click for me,” she shares.
Her style also heavily influenced her designs. “When I create, a lot is dependent on my inspirations and how I can make those inspirations wearable,” she explains.
I like looking refined, classic, and artistic
Martina Lebron
Filipino Print On The International Stage
Her brand distinguishes itself through its subtle yet deliberate storytelling. It illuminates often-unnoticed facets of Filipino culture: landscapes, patterns, games, and everyday occurrences. These are elements that, while not always prominent, are profoundly intertwined with identity.
Instead of relying on overt or conventional symbols, her designs strive to encapsulate the essence of Filipino culture through refined specifics, such as the rhythmic arrangement of rice fields, the structure of a pabitin, or the bloom a grandmother cherishes most.
Each scarf is conceived to be contemporary and adaptable, yet rich with significance. The aim is for wearers to experience pride, recognizing it not merely as an adornment but as a vessel of narrative. It’s about repossessing and reinterpreting the legacy in a manner that feels novel, sophisticated, and universally pertinent—something to be valued by all, not solely Filipinos.
Photos courtesy of By Martina Lebron
