When it comes to your Christmas tree and table, nothing makes you feel the spirit of a genuine Pinoy Pasko than Filipino Christmas ornaments and tableware, especially if it’s done with a dash of French flair.
Liwayway Ph, the home and fashion brand founded by Frenchwoman Aurore Prudent-Roiland and her adoptive Filipino daughter, Marjorie delos Reyes, will be celebrating its fifth anniversary on November 17, and after five years of celebrating Pinoy culture through fun, creative, eye-catching iconography, Liwayway is still all about art de la table, or “table art,” as they say it in French.
Their latest tableware collections are all fine porcelain made in the Philippines. Yes, you read that right. Our country produces fine porcelain, and Liwayway’s artisans — the last remaining producers of fine porcelain in the Philippines — also make tableware for big global brands.
“It’s unique, hand-painted one by one, but we love to work with them,” says Aurore. “It’s a long, long, long process; it’s not mass production. There are 50 workers now only. So, can you imagine, a plate takes one week, talaga, and all the finishing is not by machine, it’s by hand. We give the design and they make the mold.”
Sampaguitas and sea urchins inspired the new collections, and it seems but natural because Aurore named her humanitarian foundation, which has been helping barangays set up play centers for street children for over 25 years, after the spiny sea creature.
“The name of my foundation, it’s in French — Oursins — meaning sea urchins,” she notes. An artisan made a sea urchin-inspired design Aurore liked almost 15 years ago, “so we decided with Marjorie, let’s continue a line of that.”
One design took six months to a year to complete, so Aurore emphasizes that this level of craftsmanship — plus the fact that it’s genuine fine porcelain — means it’s not cheap, even if it’s made in the Philippines.
“I’m so impressed by the Filipino,” she says. “They get it. Today, there are plenty of brands saying they’re local, but they’re not making it in Philippines. If you want to buy porcelain, don’t expect to buy a set for P4,000 — it may be beautiful, but it’s not porcelain.”
Liwayway also has many affordable options for your Christmas table: ceramic and melamine plates with native prints, woven placemats, embroidered coasters, carabao sauce pourers, salt and pepper shakers in the form of pineapples, jeepneys, and bulols; even lampshades that bear the outlines of Philippine churches.
“Balikbayans love the small items, like the salt and pepper shakers,” observes Marjorie. “The bookends — people appreciate that it’s in resin and not wood, so it’s not so heavy.”
Aurore recalls that Liwayway started with the salt-and-pepper shakers: “Our main line, it’s all about the symbols — ethnic, animals, jeepneys, etc. Now we’re happy to see in local fairs that everyone is using all the symbols, but five years ago we were really the first to do it.”
Liwayway’s signature symbols are also now being offered in a set of porcelain Christmas ornaments. The brand also features fashion pieces, like their bestselling wrap pants, shorts, dresses, and embroidered kids’ clothes that sustainably use native fabric scraps as appliqués.
Aurore is set to receive an award from the French Embassy for her humanitarian foundation Oursins Delepine, so she and Marjorie haven’t really had time to plan a big anniversary event for Liwayway, but when I asked her how she plans to set her Christmas table, she shares, “Liwayway is always part of my table, mixing with other Pinoy brands and French cutlery. Hopefully we will have our new collection, Sampaguita fine porcelain, ready, but we don’t want them to rush because it’s handmade, one by one!”
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Liwayway Ph is available at Manila House, Rustan’s Makati and Rustan’s Shangri-La Plaza, Katutubo PH, and online at www.liwaywayph.com .
Follow them on Instagram/ Facebook @liwaywayph, and Viber/WhatsApp +639054577043