Need inspiration as a designer? Take your cue from Veejay Floresca

Aside from techniques and skills, every fashion designer’s secret to success is inspiration. It comes from almost everything—from senses to places, people, and even the most random things in life.

 

Young fashion designer Veejay Floresca is no newbie in gathering inspiration. He gets inspired by places he's been to and people who interest him, like the New York women who became the inspiration for his collection presented during Philippine Fashion Week this year. 

 

"If you're a designer, inspiration always pops out. I mean, you don't know when and where," he said.

 

Last Thursday evening, Privé Luxury Club at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig was jam-packed with people who wanted to see Floresca’s new collection in the club’s Style Series. The collection was inspired by the beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

 

But why pick the Golden Gate Bridge?

 

"I want to create something that would make them remember me, remember where I am going," he said.

 

Floresca is leaving for San Francisco on Aug. 28 to take a two-year masteral degree in fine arts major in fashion design. His classes start on September 6.

 

"It would be a doorstep for me to participate in New York Fashion Week. I'm looking forward to that," he said.

 

Floresca believes that going to graduate school will take his career to the next level.  

The collection 

 

His clothes were modeled last Thursday by his muses, namely Kapuso stars Louise delos Reyes and Kris Bernal, Salome Uy, Meryll Yan, Ruby Gan, Miss World Philippines 2012 Queeneerich Rehman, Janthina Fong, and Floresca’s best friend Dr. Abbie Castillo.

 

"They are the people who supported me. They're the people who really ordered clothes from me, and these are the people that I love dressing up," Floresca stressed.

 

During the fashion show, his pieces came across as architectural but loose. 

 

The collection was in black, red, and skin tone color schemes. Each dress had wire-like details, depicting the architecture of the Golden Gate Bridge, placed in strategic places to accentuate a woman’s assets.

 

The cloths used for the wire-like details were stitched in random places, making his pieces interesting.

 

“The details of the bridge mimic some of the clothes. So it's not really literal, like there's no bridge but it's just the details,” he said.

 

“I want to dress up different types of women. [The muses] are not all model size, they're actually different sizes, different personalities,” he explained.

 

Floresca has shown he knows how to make a woman’s body luscious without removing her poise. He knows how to make a woman want and love herself more. And he makes women confident using his clothes.

 

Knowing Floresca’s aesthetic means understanding his vision; he does not take his designs literally from his inspiration. He envisions something that translates to what art is for him.

 

Not the final bow

 

The designer may be leaving the country soon but his business will still run despite his absence. "I'm introducing a new system in fashion design. It's an innovation where you can actually transact business online," he said.

 

Using the web, Floresca said he will conduct business using Skype to interact with his clients and see if the clothes he designs give them a perfect fit.

 

Although he is excited about graduate school, Floresca stressed that he will miss his busy life here in the Philippines.

 

"I always wake up every day looking forward to meeting different people, meeting clients, and I'm going to miss that of course, aside from my friends, my family. But you know, it's just two years and I think it's the right [time] for me to leave while I'm still young,” he said.

 

Floresca also said he is ready to start the next chapter of his life knowing that he left a mark in Philippine fashion.

 

He knows that he has paved the way for young designers to go professional in the big world of fashion. 

 

“Sometimes when we see young designers, the first thing that they will [ask is] ‘is he a professional, does he deliver on time?’ And I think that I do,” he said.

 

Floresca is a risk taker. He doesn’t stop dreaming and creating because of his passion for fashion—and because of that, he wants to continue inspiring people.

 

“I always want to inspire people. For me, the true measure of success is not about the money, it's not about fame. It’s by inspiring people without trying to inspire them,” he said. –KG, GMA News