Providore for the Win!

Photos will speak for itself, so ENJOY!!!

 

Best with garlic rice!

Must try. Good for sharing. 

Beef salpicao, medium rare with a butter! SUPER YUMMY!

Zucchini fritters. 

Thank you Carmina and Robby for organizing. To the PROVIDORE team, a great big thanks to you. I will be back!!

Happy Birthday Dennis!!!

Providore

SM Aura

 (in front of Uniqlo) 

8029448

Simbolo on L'Officiel!

Thank you for featuring Simbolo on your April 2017 issue. 

(Sorry for the delay in post.)

www.simbolo.com.ph

Jul B. Dizon, by Me.

When Anna Sobrepena asked me to write about Mom for the 30th Anniversary Issue of Lifestyle Asia, I was a bit apprehensive. I didn't know what else to say about her that people/writers have not yet written about. After much thought, I agreed. Perhaps this would also be therapeutic in a way. It has been 9 years since she left but it still feels very raw in my heart.

With a week to work on it, I thought I could take my time but on the deadline, I found myself with nothing. Every time I started to write something, I would tear up, wouldn't be able to see the screen. I would eventually stop and delay it. This happened every single time I tried to get something written down. 

I took myself to the last few days of Mom in this world. And there I started with my story....

-----------

     God took her away too early. There was still so much I wanted to learn from her, and I am sure that there was still so much she wanted to do. But what Jul B. Dizon wanted, she got. 

     By the age of 35, Mom already had five children. It would have been six if one of her daughters, Joan, did not pass away due to bone cancer at the young age of 12. I was six when this happened. I clearly remember my ate's last day on earth. She was on my mom and dad's bed, and the house was filled with so many family members who came to say goodbye. I was by her side and heard my Mom ask, "If you are to be reincarnated, what would you like to be?" Joan said, "A boy." 

      After this, my Mom told my other sister, Janina, and me to go to the alter and pray. It was her way of shielding us from having to see my sister draw her last breath. My older brothers, Chad and Cedric, remained by her side. A year after her death, on Christmas Day of 1978, my youngest brother Christoffer Jonathan was born. 

      It was also this year when mom wanted a shop bearing her own name. She was after all, trained by her mother, Paz G. Bañas, since she was 12 years old. Opening up her own shop was a way of moving on and fulfilling her dream of making a mark in the jewelry industry. 

      She was strict, the scary kind of strict. An hour-long lecture awaited us if she felt we needed some straightening out. When we were teenagers, we would be required to work in her office after school, whether it be making calls for her, doing inventory or typing up a letter. She was training us the way she was trained. Although back then, I didn't much like it because it is not what teenagers did, now, I understand why she pushed us to learn the ways of her business. 

    In 1984 to '85, she expanded her name and opened Jul B. Dizon Jewellery in Beverly Hills, California. She flew back and forth to Manila to make sure both branches were running smoothly. At the same time, she was a wife and mother raising four teenagers and a toddler without a yaya. 

      It was in 1990, after moving back to the Philippines with all of us in tow, when the business truly became a family-oriented one since we were now all fully-involved into making it what is it today. We also gained wonderful in-laws, who are substantial to its growth. 

    However, Jul Dizon's training did not stop there. She continually taught us the importance of integrity, honesty and hard work. She was not only a wife, mother and the boss, she now also took on the roll of being a grandmother. On the side, she worked hard on making the industry globally acknowledged, and at the same time, became a founding member of the Foundation for the Musical Filipino, a force in People's Patriotic Movement, and a silent philanthropist. 

    More than a dozen local and international design awards later, Jul B. Dizon Jewellery is now located in three 5-star hotels/resorts, namely the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel and The Peninsula Manila and Amanpulo Resort in Palawan. 

    Sadly, she developed cancer. I vividly remember watching over her in the hospital. When she would wake up, she would ask me to get paper and write down a list of names that we, her children, should thank for supporting and patronizing her jewelry shop. She made me repeat this list out loud just to make sure she didn't miss anybody before she fell back to sleep. 

     One night, she kept asking me if I saw the number three and eight written on the wall of her room. I repeatedly said no but tried to make sense of these two numbers with her. Perhaps, it was because it had numbers from my dad's birth year? Maybe it was because they were her favorite numbers? We couldn't figure out why she constantly saw these numbers in her mind. The answer was then realized by all of us when at 3pm of December 8, my mom, drew her last breath. She was 66 years young. 

     Often, before I sleep, I would think about our relationship. Yes, she was a strict boss but she made sure we experienced everything a wonderful life had to offer. It was her rule to not work on weekends because family time is a must, not just for her family, but also for her staff. She and my dad bought a mini bus so that when we go out of town, we are all in one vehicle. She filled our memory banks with so much love and compassion. Just before I shut my eyes, I realize why she trained us at such a young age. It was because she also left us early. 

    Yes, it may have been too early, but we were prepared. Jul B. Dizon knew what she wanted. She always got what she wanted and that included having us continue her legacy even after she was gone. And that, is exactly what she is going to get.

------------

Thank you Lifestyle Asia, specially to you Anna, for always paying tribute to

Jul B. Dizon, the most wonderful mother ever.

Grab your copy now!

KASSA by Karen Santos.

 “The eye has to travel,” Diana Vreeland famously said. In the case of Karen Santos, the eye has been traveling all her life. 

 The fashion designer-turned-curator of beautiful things for the home, from table linens and accessories to unique furniture pieces, credits her stint in Europe as a student in England, Switzerland and Italy, for her early exposure to period furniture. “I saw how people lived contemporary lives with furniture from different periods. They were house-proud; their home was alive with the things they loved and used on a daily basis. 

 “The home, I realized, is the centerpiece of one’s style and individuality. It’s the ideal platform for self-expression.” 

 FROM FASHION TO HOME 

 As a fashion designer in the 80s, she entered retail when she launched the Kashieca line of clothing, which was eventually sold to Bench around a decade ago. 

In 2014, she harnessed her creative talents once again to create KASSA, a line of table linens at once timeless and modern, inspired by Philippine embroidery traditions. “It brought me back to my passion for working with fabrics, and reignited my creativity.” 

 In between Kashieca and KASSA, Karen built a successful stone flooring business. While it may at first seem an incongruous fit, stone in fact is an unusual but fitting complement. “Like fashion, linens and furniture, the appeal of stone is visual and well as tactile, and the construction and finish, not to mention installation, are important components of any project, otherwise the beauty of the raw material is not shown to its best advantage.” 

 AN ORGANIC EVOLUTION 

 It began with the renovation of her home over a year ago. “I was looking for furniture and accent pieces and I realized there was a niche in the market. I wanted in particular 18th and 19th century pieces, as well as midcentury furniture, European pieces which I couldn’t find locally. So I decided to source them myself and bring them in.” 

 Once again, her eye travelled to Europe, reveling in discovery, chancing upon exciting finds and special sources, and meeting designers, dealers and collectors, as well as other like-minded friends who shared her passion for beautiful pieces, each with a story, thatone could easily and live with, whether the provenance was lofty or lowly. 

 Karen is drawn to the versatility of European furniture, no matter the period. “There is a substance and solidity to it. In a way it’s a reaction to the disposability of modern life. With my furniture as with my linens, I try to create some permanence with pieces that are not discarded after a season.” 

BY DESIGN 

 With her business expanding from stone to linen and now furniture, Karen also works closely with designers and architects, some of whom have become mentors to her, sharing their expertise. She, in turn, absorbed their advice and continues to learn from them, refining her eye and picking up a few trade secrets along the way! 

 CLASSIC MEETS CONTEMPORARY 

 That said, it’s all about individual expression, with the home as a personal theater. Karen often plays with fabric and color to bring out the youthful spirit of a period piece, making it fun and young and very much of the moment while remaining essentially timeless. Think of a “lola” chair, for instance, jazzed up with a tiger-print fabric. “The fun part is finding unique things in different iterations that people can integrate into their homes.” 

Let your eye travel and discover KASSA by Karen Santos. 

 KASSA by Karen Santos is on show at NEST along Jupiter Street, Bel-Air, Makati City, until June 15th. 

 For enquiries, please contact: Email kassainc1997@gmail.com Instagram @kassabykarensantos