Filipina & proud

MANILA, Philippines - It’s not every day you come across a young Filipina designer showcasing her work at the prestigious New York Fashion Week. Rosenthal Tee recently presented her collection at the New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2016 show. She has already been invited to show her collection for the Spring/Summer 2017 at the NYFW!

“My debut in New York Fashion Week, which happened on my third year since officially entering the fashion industry that is still based here in Manila, has definitely validated my vision of the Rosenthal Tee label as a globally-recognized brand,” says Rosenthal, who, after finishing an MA in Fashion Design Womenswear at the Istituto Marangoni London, acknowledges how the opportunities outside of Manila are “incomparable and surreal.”

That’s not to say that her journey as a fashion designer didn’t come with its share of challenges. She gratefully credits her experiences in Manila for toughening her up, which made her all the more determined to grow and excel.

“I’ve often come across a number of potential clients who demand that I deliver yet they don’t fairly value the work we put in because of being much younger,” she confesses. While based on her experience in New York, ironically “they are excited about looking for new blood since most of the current lineup of designers are all very much world-renowned and established already.”

Indeed. The iFashion Network and the Council of Aspiring American Fashion Designers or CAAFD, both responsible for inviting Rosenthal to participate at NYFW, are the groups that once granted the same opportunities to the likes of Vera Wang and Christian Siriano to showcase their work in the past as well.

Confident yet anxious, Rosenthal realized that as a creative, “there comes a point where one has to stop trying to make everything perfect and let the show experience run organically.” Needless to say, Rosenthal Tee’s Fall/Winter ‘16 collection was well received. Now, the anticipation builds as she prepares for NYFW Spring/Summer 2017.

Excited, inspired and hungry to take her work beyond the comforts of home, she shares how fashion designer, Diane von Fürstenberg is “one of the primary inspirations as to why I never stopped myself from thinking global rather than become complacent and simply settle in comfortable Manila.”

Very much like the designer she looks up to, the Rosenthal Tee aesthetic generally encapsulates subtlety, adventure and seduction; offering laid-back elegance and sense of youthful femininity to the women she dresses.

With two ateliers in Manila, she projects that one of the challenges is how to really plant herself into the NYC scene while still growing the Rosenthal Tee product here at home. By the looks of things, her inspiring, whirlwind journey to success on the global runway is looking bright and promising.

(For more information, visit Rosenthal Tee’s main studio at 1 Virginia St., Barangay Sto. Nino, Marikina City and her satellite studio at Unit 205 Vine Villas, Firefly Street, Valle Verde 6 Village, Pasig City. For inquiries, call 0917-8526923 and 584-5064 or check out www.facebook.com/rosenthaltee and @rosenthaltee on Twitter and Instagram.)