Inno Sotto, Rustan’s creative director
MANILA, Philippines - A store window should... be new. It should be current and exciting. It should tell a story and capture the imagination of passersby. It can make us laugh, smile and, most importantly, make us feel happy with the season.
Our current Ayala window is inspired by... the rare and endangered animals found only in the Philippines. The theme is “Care for the Rare.”
Our best windows... are the past windows that have won the Ayala citation awards. In fact, Rustan’s Christmas windows have made it to the hall of fame. We have also won international awards. Rustan’s bagged the International Martin Pegler in Chicago last 2008. We have an excellent visual merchandising team led by Ross Morante, who does advance research for all our windows.
Our most unique Christmas window... was in 2009, called “One World, One Christmas.” It was a gloomy year as “Ondoy” had greatly affected our country. We wanted to create and show something positive. A message of hope. So we chose white as an overall color theme. I designed white paper cutout gowns for 15-foot mannequin windows in different national costumes. We got very nice feedback and reviews that year.