Pinoys bag the world market

When Edna Cruz and her daughters Trisha Cruz-Cuason and Lally Cruz-Dizon saw Catherine Zeta-Jones toting one of their Martinique/Padudu bags in the movie Traffic, they were bursting with a bagful of pride and joy. Padudu made the native tote bag for award-winning Pinoy bagman Rafe Totengco, who gave it to Catherine as a gift. Another Padudu native beauty was once spotted on the famous shoulder of pretty woman Julia Roberts.

"We’re proud to show the world our very own products," professes true-blue bag lover Edna Cruz.

Martinique has been making bags, all certified objects of desire, for Rafe Totengco for the past four years.

"We met him at the Manila Fame fair," Edna relates.

"I was with him at a Milan trade fair," says the young, newly-married Lally.

"Rafe was with Mina Gabor then and he was telling us that we have to join trade shows even if the market is soft so our presence is there," Edna shares.

It was actually Rafe, much admired by the Cruzes, who came up with the name Padudu for the Martinique label. Lally explains, "Originally, it was pas deux deux, French for ‘the two two,’ to signify my sister Trisha and I. But we changed the spelling to make it more Filipino since we make use of Filipino materials."

Martinique was a participant at CITEM’s "Ties That Bind" Philippine solo exhibition held recently in Shanghai. Edna is happy to report, "Layefe, owned by a French-American lady, wants to buy from us. It has a store at the plush Plaza 66, where all the European brands are. It’s a high-end mall that’s not doing so well but the European brands are there to keep their presence until the time is ripe."

"Exposure is really important," Lally agrees with her mom. "It’s also educational. Like me, I design for Padudu. When I go out of the country, I see a lot of new concepts that are not here. I can make use of them, like in my design/market research. In Shanghai, we went around the stores and checked out what we can make for the Shanghai market."

Edna points out, "When we went to the Shanghai fair, our attitude was not only to make a sale, but also to learn, to network. Shanghai is a new market for us – we went there not knowing what the Shanghainese wanted. But from the comments of people who visited our booth, we learned something about the Shanghainese market. When we were part of the European Economic Community program, we were going to France, Italy, Germany for three years. We had technical assistance, we were visiting the factories. We couldn’t penetrate Europe, it was hard, but we learned a lot – what they were doing, what they were looking for."

A picture of contentment, Edna elaborates, "When we went to Shanghai, we had a pretty good attitude. We didn’t have expectations. Every morning, we simply prayed the rosary for our intentions. I always pray that the Lord would open doors and opportunities for us. I pray, ‘Lord, make us sensitive.’ Because if you don’t have focus, you won’t know it when the opportunity is already there."

The Lord heard Edna’s prayer and read her heart. Aside from Layefe, the soon-to-open lifestyle store Magazine – co-owned by Bench’s Ben Chan, young Oishi heir Carlson Chan and restaurateur Franco Lauro – has placed orders for Padudu bags.

"We hit two lifestyle stores in Shanghai," says a beaming Lally. "It’s a very good start."

Edna didn’t really have a good start when she ventured into the bag business 21 years ago. She quit her nine-to-five bank job to join the wife of another banker in selling leather bags. "I love selling," she enthuses. "When I was on vacation from college, I’d fill up our family car with different wares and sell them to my mother’s friends. But what counted wasn’t the money but the sheer thrill of selling."

Edna and her partner were supplying Shoemart with leather bags until the Bulacan businessman, who was making the bags, decided to go straight to the buyers and to simply give the former a P5 commission per bag sold. "I was devastated, and I cried and cried," Edna recalls. "My husband, Ding Cruz, asked, ‘Why are you crying? Why don’t we make the bags ourselves?’ Yes, why not! So we went into research and dug into our pocketbook to buy two machines. That time, the National Youth and Manpower Council had lots of leathergoods experts from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). They helped me set up, taught me what tools, type of machine to use. We were operating from our apartment in San Francisco del Monte. When we had a little money, we rented an old house across the street. And as we grew and grew, we rented another building in Bago Bantay. We were supplying SM, Landmark, Cinderella’s, Rustan’s. We were consignors at SM, along with Sylvia Santos, under the Martinique (named after only son Martin) label. We tried exporting and when it took off, we dropped the local market. Initially, we were supplying popular stores in the US like Bloomingdale’s. Then, we developed the Japanese market. And now, we have agents in the US and Paris, France, where a buyer sells to Galleries Lafayette."

From two machines and two workers, Martinique has about 50 workers and countless subcontractors today. "We sub-contract in different provinces, like our pandan maker is in Davao, our bancuang and lopiz are from Bicol, our sabutan from Quezon, our bamboo from Pangasinan, and our tikog from Dumaguete and Leyte," says Lally. "Our materials are found all over the Philippines – we get what’s indigenous to the place. It’s a backyard industry. In Davao, we went to see workers weaving our orders in their kubo."

But whatever it’s made of, you can be sure of nothing but the best quality. "People say our bags have very good quality," says Edna with undisguised pride. "The reason is I’ve already set certain standards because of what I’ve learned over the years in the bag business. We’re working with a lot of suppliers all over the country, but we’ve also tapped regular ones."

Martinique makes over a thousand bags per collection (or theme) for Rafe Totengco. "Now, we’re doing his spring/summer collection for 2004," says Lally. "Every year, we make his spring/summer collection. He gives us the designs and hardware, and we execute it for him, but sometimes, he goes to our showroom to get ideas."

That stunning bag that looked great with Catherine Zeta-Jones’ outfit in Traffic was Martinique’s own design. "He only changed the size," says lally. "He was so happy when Catherine used it in her movie and he e-mailed us from the US."

"We provide the materials as he knows where our strengths are," says Edna. "The last time I saw Rafe, he said, ‘Oy, ha, next season ko, bibigyan kita ng mas mahirap.’ He’d say, ‘Basta mahirap, bigay mo kay Edna.’"

"We’re very good in embroidery," Lally asserts. "Rafe is very happy with the quality of our embroidery."

"Rafe has no complaints," Edna notes. "When we started with him, he did not have his own company or his own store. He had a tie-up with a company then."

You’ll find a bagful, nay, a houseful of beauties at the Martinique showroom in Novaliches. "It’s a showcase of the bags that we show to foreign buyers," says Edna.

She adds with a passion, "Native bags will always have a market, they will always sell. I, for one, have always preferred native bags over the imported leather and designer bags."

More and more, we’re seeing the return of the native (bags). And not just in Quiapo’s Ils de Tuls (Ilalim ng Tulay) but also in posh malls. "When my daughters joined me in the business, they thought it was high time we revived the local market," Edna declares. "Having been making bags for other brands, my daughters think we should put up our own store. When Trisha enrolled at the Asian Institute of Management for a master’s in entrepreneurship, the dean asked her what her goal was. She said she wanted to have her own store. The dean said she wouldn’t graduate if she didn’t put up her own store."

According to Edna, Nena Tantoco, wife of Rustan’s Rico Tantoco, once saw some Padudu bags and she simply loved them. She asked where these were available.

While a store (and eventually, a chain) is as yet in the planning stage, the good news is that Padudu bags are coming out in a prestigious department store soon.

"For the local market, we’re pricing our bags no higher than P1,500," says Edna. "People now really appreciate locally made bags and we want to make our bags affordable to a lot of people. And if we do have our own store, it will be quite unique as it’ll be the only store carrying just bags and nothing but. Cora Jacobs used to have just bags."

Expect only the most trendy and fashionable from design lady Lally Dizon. "Your designs have to evolve, you have to be in tune with fashion," she says.

Padudu is out to prove that the Philippines is bag country, not a backcountry, offering a bagful of treats!