That architecture, interiors and fashion are first cousins have been proven by a man barely in his 40s. His name is Francisco Espiritu Carlos. Before her early passing, his mom noted that her only son Parrish (as Francisco is fondly called) was getting enamored by fashion designing and not, as she thought, by architecture.
Just when jobs and commissions for house and interior designing started piling up, this graduate of architecture from the University of Santo Tomas decided he would fill in the shoes of his uncle, this writer, who opted for hurried retirement from the volatile world of fashion.
He would have a different approach in marketing, he mused. Instead of setting up the usual atelier, replete with a display window and showroom, his foray would be more discreet and exclusive. And so the moderately sized family residence that was completed not too long prior to his mom’s passing became the address his multiplying clientele looked up when they thought of owning a Parrish Espiritu Carlos original to add into their wardrobe.
Said house is by no means an architectural achievement in its original design and form. When the house was designed, Parrish was only graduating from high school at San Agustin. Aware of the house’s major architectural deficiencies, the young man is saddled with continuous face-lifting and some near impossible reconfiguring.
At a young age when fellow cousins would ask for expensive toys or gadgets during birthdays, he would hint to his Mom Maris to purchase this Coromandel screen or this Cinnabar vessel instead. When Maris passed away, the Carlos abode was already very oriental in atmosphere.
Fast forward. Collecting items of beauty displaying Asian persuasions has become an addiction. Bachelor Parrish does not frequent casinos nor night-hop to watering holes. To unwind he visits antique shops or book stores. So any client or friends who come to visit almost always notice the latest addition to his growing Chinese, Thai, Cambodian and Balinese collection.
Collectors can sometimes end up having rooms looking like antiquarian store rooms or a rapacious pirate’s den. But Parrish has become an expert on layering or juxtaposing so that every nook and cranny in his residence-cum-fashion atelier serves as an efficient back or fore ground of delicate and imaginative tableaux.
One novel and imaginative Parrish Espiritu Carlos touch: He refuses to create a fitting room that will grab some more space from the already tightly furnished living-cum-dining room. His smart solution is enlarging the guests’ powder room, so that when it’s fitting time, drawing panels of hidden drapes provide a tented commodious fitting salon provided with full length mirrors for viewing.
Spread across these pages is what this author calls a fashion-cum-interior pictorial. Parrish requested his favorite client and friend, Eileen Gonzales of the Muebles Italiana fame, into modeling a Filipino terno and a formal hostess gown. Through digital magic, it’s easy to see that fashion, architecture and interiors are, indeed, buddy-buddies.