ANNparalleled ‘Bold, beautiful, brutal’

Five years ago, she was a “virtual unknown.”

“I was a struggling designer supporting four children,” Ann Ong recalls. Next week, the housewife-turned-jewelry-and-accessories designer will exhibit her works in New York, under the  Lifestyle Philippines banner organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM). From the Big Apple, she flies to Las Vegas for another exhibit.

The pieces of Ann, who has since bagged three prestigious Katha Awards for Best Product Design in Fashion from CITEM, have been described in hyperboles ranging from “bold” to “beautiful” to “brutal.”

Fashion designer Rajo Laurel, the very first designer to carry her pieces in his atelier when she was still an “Ann Who?” rather than an “Ann Ong!”, says that he took a chance on her because of her artistry.

“It’s balanced between brutal and beautiful,” says Rajo.  “The drama of her pieces captivated me immediately.”

 “If you see my pieces, they are organic, they relate to nature,” Ann explains. For the Katha Awards in October 2013, Ann’s Buko Twigs Clutch Bag won the Katha plum in fashion product design. “I always find inspiration whenever I gaze at trees.”

Aside from using buko twigs and salvaged wood for her unique designs, Ann also sources from the sea. She also turns mother-of-pearl, corals and other semi-precious stones into stunning neckpieces and cuffs. Recently, she also has been designing pieces for the home, like a fruit bowl patterned after a bird’s nest.

“When you say it’s ‘an Ann Ong piece,’ you immediately know it’s really part of nature. You will see my aesthetic, it’s a rough finish. If you see this bracelet,” she points to a pearl-encrusted cuff, “it looks like the trunk of a tree.”

Indeed, the finish isn’t so polished, so much so that you wouldn’t mistake it for the one of the bars of a brass bed! In nature’s natural imperfections, Ann brings out perfect symmetry in her designs.

“A flower is a flower is a flower. But Ann carves it out of capiz, weaves gold around each petal and embellishes the center with embossed gold pollen giving it a three-dimensional effect. She puts that in the center of a modern pearl tambourine necklace and it becomes a conversation piece,” says Mayenne Carmona, one of those who “discovered” Ann when she was selling RTW in The Ramp Crossings Department Store. Mayenne says this particular flower necklace has grabbed attention in the countless times it has adorned her neck.

Julie Boschi, director for retail marketing and leasing of the Shangri-La at the Fort, which invited Ann to open a store there, agrees. “Ann’s jewelry is bold but never garish, always tasteful but stands out and can liven up any outfit. I always get compliments from strangers whenever I use one of her pieces.”

So have I. Each of Ann’s pieces is a statement piece.

“Ann designs with ‘a point of view’ that comes from her inner self — bold, bright  and full of optimism. You cannot separate Ann the designer and Ann the person. Like her designs, both are intertwined into one narrative of fearless passion,” says CITEM director general Rosvi Gaetos.

Ann-paralleled, indeed!

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].) Photos by JOEY MENDOZA