The Philippines, a small archipelagic country in Southeast Asia, is home to beaches, friendly people, and the iconic Jollibee.
While the Philippines is over 8,000 miles away, there are over 80,000 Filipinos in New York City, according to the Asian American Federation.
To bring Filipino Americans a bit closer to home, Mestiza and Narra Studio are two women-owned businesses hoping to elevate Filipino fashion not only in New York City but across the country. Both companies strive to revamp classic fashion and add a more modern twist to their pieces while bridging the culture of the Philippines to clients in the United States.
Narra Studio
Narra Studio, founded by Katte Geneta, was created to give independent weavers in the Philippines a platform to sell their products. Before the pandemic, Geneta was asked by a weaver to share her pieces in the United States. This blossomed into the start of Narra Studio.
However, while it was a unique business proposal, getting Narra Studio off the ground wasn’t an easy feat for Geneta. Not only is she the founder and a weaver for the company, but she is also a museum director and mother.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
On top of her busy schedule, during the first year of the company taking off, Geneta was still raising her one-year-old son while getting her master's degree.
Local
“I was one of those people who just didn’t sleep a lot," Geneta said, adding that many people said she would have to put her dreams on hold while raising a child -- a notion she did not believe. On the contrary, she said she accomplished more after having her kids.
Since then, Geneta has increased the number of independent weavers that can sell their products through Narra Studio. As of now, the company works with about 20 communities of weavers throughout the Philippines.
Geneta said these one-of-a-kind, handmade pieces connect people to their culture and spread Filipino fashion across the United States. There are even times when clients will ask Geneta for a piece weaved in the town they, or their family, are from.
"A lot of Filipino-Americans may not be that connected or be able to visit the Philippines at all, or that often," Geneta said as to why some clients ask for particular items made in a specific town or area in the Philippines.
Additionally, Geneta says that Narra Studio does charitable work in the Philippines particularly when there are natural disasters that directly impact the livelihood of the weavers they work with.
"We try to give back to non-profit organizations when we can, especially when there are emergencies happening in the Philippines that affect our weavers and artisans," Geneta said.
Eventually, Geneta hopes to grow her team and keep bringing more Filipino culture to the United States.
Geneta says the Philippines is a country full of talent, and these artisans, weavers and creatives need a platform to display their work.
Mestiza
Louisa Rechter and Alessandra Perez-Rubio, founded Mestiza after bonding over their shared Filipino culture. It was at a friend's dinner that Perez-Rubio shared with the table how she was originally from the Philippines. Similarly, Rechter's mom had grown up there.
One day while meeting up, Perez-Rubio and Rechter came up with an idea to start their business. They only had one thing that was certain, the name for the company: "Mestiza", which means a woman of mixed race.
"When we started the brand, we really wanted to use a name that spoke to this idea of the blending of our cultures," Perez-Rubio said.
Mestiza's goal was to make timeless pieces that could eventually be passed down from generation to generation.
“Mestiza is really all about taking inspiration from the Philippines and the vintage garments that our mothers and grandmothers left us and making them resonate with the modern woman to create something beautiful and something she feels confident in," Rechter said.
Aside from sharing their Filipino culture through fashion, Perez-Rubio and Rechter also wanted to make sure their company did not impact the environment in the same way that fast fashion does.
According to Earth.org, the world wastes about 92 million tons of clothing every year. Because of this, Mestiza knew they would have leftover clothing and they did not want to be wasteful. Instead, they founded the Heirloom Project, which allows Mestiza to gift dresses to women across the United States. This led to them working with Pink Ribbon Good, an organization that works with individuals and families affected by breast and gynecological cancer. Mestiza supports the cause by gifting their pieces in hopes of making patients feel and look confident.
"Not only are you wearing something that makes you feel good, but you know the brand is doing good things and you are standing for something," Rechter said about the Mestiza brand.
Similar to Geneta, Perez-Rubio was pregnant with her son when launching Mestiza. The day the website launched, Perez-Rubio gave birth.
“Seeing the company evolve and grow up at the same time as him has felt like such an honor," Perez-Rubio said.
Both Perez-Rubio and Rechter say that motherhood helped them be entrepreneurs and better business partners.
“Moms get it done, because [they] have to,” Rechter said.
As for Mestiza’s future? The company hopes to grow its business in different fashion avenues such as bridal, athleisure, accessories, shoes, bags and more.
