THE SARI-SARI STORE

The most challenging moments in my life became the most essential in my journey as a designer.

 

Growing up in humble beginnings, I learned responsibility at an early age. As the eldest in the family, I had to help provide for our needs. My mother, in her wisdom, decided to put up a sari-sari store, and I was tasked with opening and tending to it every day. At that time, it felt like a burden. While my friends played outside, I was behind the counter, wondering why I had to stay inside while the world seemed to move freely around me.

 

But in that little store, amid the neatly stacked goods and the rhythm of daily life, I found something unexpected—a way to dream. Instead of dwelling on what I lacked, I focused on what I could create. I started walking around our barangay, visiting tailor shops and dressmakers, collecting scraps of fabric left behind. With every bundle of discarded cloth, my imagination took flight.

 

Back at the sari-sari store, I turned my tiny corner into a world of possibility. With my doll as my muse, I crafted miniature dresses from the fabric I had gathered, stitching together pieces of different colors and textures.

 

What others saw as scraps, I saw as a canvas—a chance to create joy from what was left behind.

 

Today, when people ask if I studied fashion to learn how to design bags, I smile and think back to those early days. My real education came from the sari-sari store—where I first learned how to put things together, to dream, to imagine, and to transform life’s challenges into something magical.

That little store taught me more than responsibility; it taught me that even in the most unexpected places, creativity can bloom. And that every hardship, if embraced with courage and vision, carries the seed of something extraordinary.

 

Every setback is a stitch in the fabric of a greater masterpiece—guiding you, shaping you, and preparing you for the success meant to be yours.