Ann Ong’s new bling is buzz-worthy
Award-winning jewelry designer Ann Ong is set to generate buzz once again with her latest Insect collection, as well as the opening of her flagship store in Shangri-La at The Fort.
Ong, whose bold, nature-inspired designs are favored by fashionistas, “It” girls and socialites alike, is her own best advertisement for the “handcrafted opulence” she is famous for, dressed in a plain white pantsuit that beautifully offsets the bamboo-bead strands and colorful neckpiece she is wearing.
The on-trend tasseled neckpiece and earrings are courtesy of her son John Christopher Paras’ own line, Maison Elegancia. Ong mixes it with her own gold-plated insects attached to her bamboo necklace — a grasshopper and beetle with green-agate bodies.
As motley as the assortment is, it works, and distinguishes Ong as the most stylish woman in the room.
“When you create a brand you have to be glamorous and be with high society to sell, but at the end of the day my other soul is very simple,” Ong says. “I’m in Bulacan with my plateros (artisans) eating lugaw (rice porridge). I’m not particular about brands, I’m not a branded person.”
The insects she’s wearing are from a prior collection. The latest one is more rough-hewn, with 10 designs that show the insect in its natural environment: a brooch with a gold-dipped brass butterfly alighting on a branch of salvaged wood, for example, or a rose-gold beetle crawling over a semi-precious rock of lapis lazuli. Prices start at P4,500.
“The imperfections make it special,” Ong says. “Because my competitors are very good in fine jewelry, the only way I can compete in the global market is to do handcrafting.”
She has many other collections to choose from, including Tribal, Bamboo, Salvaged Wood, Fern, and a Jade collection highlighting the newly trendy stone, but salvaged wood is a favorite material Ong keeps returning to, as well as the grasshopper motif.
“My favorite is the grasshopper because my buyer told me that the grasshopper is special,” Ong relates. “If you Google it, it’s the only insect that moves forward, so that resonated with me.”
She had to move forward after a difficult time in her life, which resulted in a split from her first husband and required her to muster up all her resources to support four children.
“I was an employee supplying hotels,” she says, recalling the early days when she found creative uses for discarded materials like wood and bamboo. “Those wooden beads you buy from Cebu, I’d look at them one by one, go to Divisoria find out how to put them together.”
Today, after a mere five years she is Ann Ong, global accessory designer, and flush from a recent triumph: “Last January I was the first Filipina to win best product design for sustainability in New York.”
She’s been featured in British Vogue three times, and won Manila FAME’s Katha Award for product design excellence and innovation the same number of times.
Last year she exhibited at seven shows: two in Paris, two in New York, two in London, and one in Los Angeles, where she gave celebrities at the American Music Awards small items like earrings to promote her brand.
“Every time I do a show I create jobs for my artisans, so that’s really my focal point,” she says.
In New York, one of her bags caught the eye of a prominent real-estate family member when her distributor carried it to a Hillary Clinton ball. The billionaire-ess later called Ong’s distributor, put in an order for more clutches and pouches, and now owns 25 Ann Ong designs.
“When you create something you don’t just think of yourself but you think of the market, the culture,” Ong says. “Before, I just wanted my designs to be beautiful. When I got deeper into it, now I design for a purpose.”
Ong’s meteoric rise has spawned a lot of envy locally. “A lot of designers bash me on Facebook,” she says, “so I will just bash them with my accomplishments.”
She prefers the word “accomplished” to “successful,” in fact, since she works hard for each of her accomplishments. Every day she has the discipline to sit down and design — as many as 20 sketches in a few hours — that play to the strengths of her artisans and result in new, one-of-a-kind pieces being produced every five days.
“It’s a must that I do something productive every day.”
She also started designing home décor a couple of years ago, as a way to relax — the same way she started designing jewelry.
Most recently the mayor of Samar asked her to help the weavers of Basey and teach them how to make their woven designs world-class.
“I’m buying materials for them because I said we should upgrade the banig,” Ong says. “So when I go to New York and Paris I can carry their brand.”
In an effort to empower the Basey women, Ong told them her own story. “I told them, ‘This bamboo that there’s so much of in your environment, this wood that just gets thrown away — I created something out of it. And this created a name for me in the global market.” She urges them to do the same.
The offer to open a store in Shangri-La at The Fort came from the hotel’s director of retail marketing and leasing, Julie Boschi. “The vision in Shangri-La is really to feature Filipino designers, so I said yes,” says Ong, who designed the store herself.
“I can’t stop the journey,” she says. “It’s a never-ending process.”
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The Ann Ong flagship store in Shangri-La at The Fort will open by end of April. In the meantime, place your orders by emailing anngianinna26@gmail.com.
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