A cosmopolitan lifestyle

Her favorite color is red. It dominates her studio in Makati which she calls home. She has quite a few red shoes, bags and accessories. The acrylic boxes where she keeps bottles of skincare products are red, her bookshelves are red, so is her desk which is paired with a sinuous red chair. Her headboard is red and white, her sofa is red, a large painting of a woman with her back bare has a red background. And tucked into a lower shelf at the foot of her bed is a red book with the title: The Cosmo Kama Sutra: 77 Mind-Blowing Sex Positions – one of the many, many books that are scattered throughout the studio.

Apart from the fact that you can deduce her favorite color by standing in the middle of her apartment and looking around, you can also see that she is a reader. At the moment, her reading fare includes the cynic’s guides Enough, Dammit! and Be Happy, Dammit, but she wants to state for the record that she’s just glancing at these books, not reading them. And she’s definitely not a cynic.

Surprisingly shy about her private life and yet very bubbly about everything else, Myrza Sison, editor in chief of Marie Claire, the newest magazine of Summit Publications, explains her penchant for the color red: "It’s bright, bold and it inspires me. People say I look good in red."

Myrza is the former editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, a position she held for eight years. Summit Publications brought the Philippine edition of a magazine that was seen by some as too liberated to the top while giving voice to women who were trying to make sense of their careers, relationships and sexuality. Before Cosmo, Myrza was the fashion editor of Preview magazine.

Her foray into the written word began with The Philippine STAR, as a lifestyle columnist, writing on fashion and doing profiles on the industry’s personalities. "I always wanted to do something that had to do with writing. Millet Mananquil, STAR lifestyle editor, saw some things that I wrote and she invited me to join the paper," shares Myrza.

Before she entered the world of magazines and writing, she was doing something quite different – she was working in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia) – as a model. Yet Myrza was not always the glamour gal we know her to be today. "Nerd," in fact, would be the best word to describe this graduate from Manila Science High School back then. Mind you, she skipped Grades 2 and 7 because "my parents wanted to save money," she quips.

Myrza finished high school at the age of 14. At UP Diliman, she enrolled in Statistics – a course her father picked out for her. Myrza says that at the time she believed that her parents knew what was best for her. Looking back now, it was writing that truly interested her. "If ever a chance to write came along in school, I would grab it."

Myrza’s love of writing was shaped by her early exposure to books and magazines (her father owns Book Sale, a favorite among college students looking for great bargains and titles). So at what age did she read the Book Sale mainstay Fear of Flying? Myrza laughs and says she doesn’t remember. What she remembers is this: There was no censorship in her home. They – she, her two sisters and a brother – were allowed to read whatever they could get their hands on. The arrival of books was like Christmas morning for the kids and they’d burrow through mounds and mounds of newly orphaned books.

For Myrza, that was more fun than going out and playing with friends. "Every time there was a delivery we’d run to the warehouse, which was also our house."

It was also then that Myrza became a frequent reader of magazines, whether it was Cosmo or other fashion and lifestyle titles.

Myrza had actually thought about taking up journalism at UP, but dad, a journalism graduate himself, discouraged her. "There is no money there," she recalls him telling her.

So, like any good daughter, she chose to follow his advice. Statistics or anything that would help her get a job with computers was a better choice. Even when Myrza was busy with her stat classes, she enrolled in subjects that would help hone her writing skills. She even took on writing for the Statistical Center’s newsletter, Sample Space, and completing the yearbook that the editorial staff had left hanging, just because it was her way of doing something she really liked.

After college, Myrza was one of five people who got a scholarship to I/ACT (Institute of Advanced Computer Technology). After that, she got her first job at SGV. "I was a computer programmer for two years. I wrote software for SGV’s clients. I maintained their accounts receivables software for a few months," she recalls.

But even as she became very popular in the building – people from other floors would be calling her up to help them out with their computers – Myrza felt a little restless. She was happy doing her job, she says, but maybe there was something else for her.

And then, major changes in her life started to happen. Myrza saved enough money and, at 20, moved out of her parents’ home because she wanted to be independent. She became a boarder in Makati, sharing a room with two other people. "I was scared because our room had mice. We had to hang our bread on clotheslines so the mice wouldn’t get to it," she says. "One night we were awakened by a mouse tightrope-walking towards our bread."

Even before she started modeling, Myrza says, her friends in SGV thought that she was so weird because of the way she dressed. "Some of them even suggested that I should try modeling," she laughs. "I also used to help some of my officemates with the designs of the clothes that they should wear."

But the thing that sort of sealed the deal was when she cut her hair like Tina Chow’s. "All of a sudden I had a look." Gone was the neneng and nerdy look she was sporting.

What’s funny is that even as she began dabbling in modeling, Myrza was embarrassed to admit it to her roommates. One of her first modeling jobs was at SM North Edsa, where her roommate, a nurse, spotted her as she was going down an escalator. When asked whether it was indeed Myrza, she grudgingly admitted it.

After two years at SGV, Myrza hung up her programmer’s cap and went into full-time modeling. "I was a model for seven years," she says. Four of those years were in the Philippines and three abroad.

Myrza’s studio, like her, has a lot of character. The studio was designed by Ito Kish. "I called Kish about a couch I wanted to get. It cost P500,000," says Myrza of her first meeting with Ito. She did not get the couch – but the two became friends.

In September, Myrza and Ito started working on her studio. "It was ugly when I first moved in. I took down a lot of things," says Myrza. For several weekends, Myrza and Ito went around looking for stuff that they could put into the studio. Myrza says they were like a married couple.

"I know what I do and don’t like, but sometimes I don’t always know what I might like, so I’m open to new ideas," says Myrza. "Ito would show me new ideas and if I liked them, we would do it."

While Myrza was fixing up her studio, things were also starting to change in her life. Her long-term relationship ended, and then she was given her new job with Marie Claire.

As for the studio space, it’s entirely Myrza – her style, her personality, her needs, which means that, yes, there are a lot of cabinets built into the walls so that her shoes and books can be kept from prying eyes; shelves, too, for her books and storage space for her dinner plates (she claims she can cook five dishes, but can’t remember them all – she does, however, make killer tuyo spaghetti) for parties with her staff.

Myrza admits that it takes time before she starts opening up to people. "You might not believe this, but I am really a shy person," she says.

Indeed.

In spite of this, she is also very welcoming and her warmth is easy to feel in her studio. It’s like being in the home of a good friend.

Myrza’s interest in authors ranges from Milan Kundera to Umberto Eco (only his funny essays), Dorothy Parker and Roald Dahl. On her iPod she has music from the likes of Lisa Ono, Zuco 103, Astrud Gilberto, Saint Etienne, Club 8, Coldplay, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Serge Gainsbourg, Billie Holiday, INXS, French and Brazilian Language lessons, Radioactive Sago Project, Sugarfree, and Rivermaya.

And, yes she loves accessories to the max and makes sure that she buys wherever she goes. Her three most prized possessions are her 12-inch Powerbook and everything in it, an Ixus digital camera and photographs from childhood and those she took on trips.

On Myrza’s dresser is a container for food – an old-fashioned aluminum three-tiered lunchbox – where she stores cotton, cotton buds and other stuff that she uses for her face. Her large vanity mirror – actually, the only mirror in the studio except for the one in the bathroom – has many little mirrors on the side. Opposite a long desk is a queen-size bed (yes, good enough for two), covered in white sheets.

The bedroom is separated by a wooden divider seemingly punched with large red and white circles, making the pattern look like red snowflakes – at least, that’s what they looked like to us.

A huge painting of a woman with her back bare by Kiko Escora hangs in the living room.

"Is that you?" we ask.

"Maybe," she says.

Myrza keeps her magazines neatly stacked in Koziol bags, which she gets from Kashieca. These are shopping bags made of plastic – in red and white, of course. And the red couch – not the one she saw at Kish but one she had custom-made for her place.

What’s it like living in her studio? "I hear Mass daily – literally," says Myrza with a laugh. "Every time I open my window in the morning, I can hear the alleluias."

Brands and brand names were not important to Myrza when she was decorating her studio. "I prefer to get things that are practical," she says. "Robinsons, SM and Landmark are places that I go to for my kitchenware."

So, how does Myrza spend her nights?

"I eat out a lot," she laughs. The restaurants near her condo are where she gets a bite to eat before she goes home. "Friends laugh and say that I am always in the mall," she chuckles.

Change is not something that Myrza fears. Rather, she welcomes it and faces the challenges which come her way with an open attitude.

Doing Cosmo was good for her, but Myrza also believes that perhaps her readers have also grown up with her. "Marie Claire is a mag about women who are at that stage of their lives where they want to give something back to the world," says Myrza. "There are issues like women’s and children’s rights that the magazine will address," she explains.

On her training for Marie Claire in Paris, Myrza says, "I did go out with a few friends when I was there. I met interesting people, too."

"Did working with Cosmo change your outlook on life?" we ask.

"It did. The philosophy of Cosmo is go for it, whatever it is. It has an empowering message that I really had to live," says Myrza.

"Do you practice everything that’s in Cosmo?" we add.

"If I did, who would run the magazine?" she laughs. "I am sure that my readers of eight years have grown up with me. And with Marie Claire, they will find new ways of looking outward."