Moss Manila Home’s California Dreaming makes Manila Living stylish

The idea for the theme to celebrate Moss Manila Home’s third anniversary dawned on sisters and designers Cyndi Fernandez-Beltran and Happy Fernandez-Victorino on a clear day in Palm Springs, California a few months ago.

Cyndi was visiting her LA-based sister Happy and their families went to Palm Springs, a resort city in Southern California within the Coachella Valley that’s known for hot springs, stylish hotels, spas and golf courses. 

“We were so inspired by Palm Springs, a design mecca in California,” says Happy. “The funny thing is that when we make a new collection, we do the sketches while we’re on vacation, so we do them from one city to another. When we got there, we loved the stylish vibe. It felt so unique and relaxing, it encapsulated the vintage era, and we wanted to create a collection based on that.”

There was only one problem: it’s not exactly the style that Moss Manila Home is known for, nor is it the two sisters’ personal style. Cyndi, who heads Moss Manila Events, is known for designing some of the most opulent high-profile dinner parties in Metro Manila for clients such as Hermes, Bulgari, Pandora and Moet Hennessy.

And Moss Manila Home is known for its glamorous, eclectic and feminine pieces. In their first pop-up store in Rockwell, for instance, they introduced agate — a beautifully patterned and naturally colorful stone — mounted on stands or simply laid on tables as accessories. They put mirrored surfaces and patterns on furnishings that would have otherwise been ordinary.

Cyndi says the challenge was to get elements of Palm Springs’ design aesthetic and incorporate them into their own identity.

Happy adds, “What we did was take some elements from mid-century modern pieces like channel tufting, pleating and curves, and married them into our aesthetic of contemporary glam.”

The palette? Blush and forest green. 

If their first collection was about pulling memories from their ancestral house in Pampanga — like their grandmother’s bar cabinet that they used to literally play around, not knowing what it was exactly or that the bottles were wines and spirits — their third collection is also very personal.

They chose three of their clients with similar aesthetics to design pieces for them: model, beauty columnist and co-founder of Happy Skin Rissa Mananquil Trillo, lifestyle blogger and fashion designer Camille Co, and columnist and media personality Tessa Prieto-Valdes.

The result? Pieces with a personality that is very much Moss Manila Home and the designers’ own. 

 Rissa Mananquil-Trillo’s bar cabinet

Rissa grew up surrounded by glamour and design, having been a model since she was a teenager. That carried on to a design aesthetic that rejects the ordinary and focuses on what’s unique and different. Now a beauty-brand owner with her own family, Rissa and her husband, sportsman Paolo Trillo, love to entertain at home — and they both love art and interior design.

“I first saw Moss Manila Home at their pop-up store in Rockwell,” she says. “The weekend after, I told Paolo, we have to go here, I want you to see it. It resonated so well with our aesthetic, it was exactly what we wanted our interiors to be.”

Rissa ordered a custom-made buffet cabinet — over six feet in length — “that’s so beautiful, I was very happy with the design.”

So, when Cyndi sent her an email about a collaboration, “my heart leapt,” she says. “I love Moss Manila. To create a piece from scratch was a different experience altogether, it was very exciting.”

Rissa’s choice for a piece was a bar cabinet inspired by Paolo, who is a wine connoisseur. He was also the owner of Fiamma Bar during his bachelor days, and is now the manager of the Meralco basketball team.

“Also, I chose a bar cabinet because of the entertaining we do at home and it’s the piece that would complete that experience. Honestly, it’s hard to find a good bar cabinet. Most of the time, they’re just wooden wine racks.”

During the months designing with Moss Manila, Rissa would do the initial rough sketches and send these to them. “We have a Viber group and I would send everything there. I was very detailed, like the heights inside the cabinet, the legs, how it would be divided. In the middle of the night, sometimes I’d have an idea or a question and they’re respond so fast that I felt so excited about this.”

From the beginning of the concept, she wanted a bar cabinet that doesn’t look like one. “I wanted it to look like a piece of sculpture because my own home feels like a little museum of sorts, where even the little ordinary things don’t feel like furniture. We want our kids to grow up in a very creative environment, for them to know that anything can be possible. A chair doesn’t have to look like a chair, a bar cabinet doesn’t have to look like a bar cabinet.”

The result is indeed a beautiful sculptural piece in piano finish. When closed, it looks like a piece of art — asymmetrically stacked rectangular boxes, almost as if they’re about to tip off one side or the other but firmly held in order by metal legs finished in gold. It’s big storage, too: it has a wine rack, shelves for spirits and glasses, and a rack to hang wine glasses. The middle door also acts as a mini bar counter where you can mix drinks.

“When we styled it in her house, we found out that she really likes art and the style suits her,” says Cyndi.  

“Our house is always a work in progress,” says Rissa. “Paolo and I are always adding and subtracting things, pieces that inspire us from our travels. We love art and interesting design always appeals to us. He’s very involved. I find it amazing that we have the same taste. Whenever we travel, he’s the first to notice how a bar looks and the lighting inside; he has a very sharp eye for details.”

Camille Co’s bench with table

Lifestyle blogger and fashion designer Camille Co has always been inclined to the world of design, fashion, and art.

Cyndi says, “When we asked Camille what she wanted to do as her piece, she said, ‘Wait, what do I need?’ And what she needed was a bench for her walk-in closet. She’s very millennial, so her take was pink, too. Her main input was that she wanted to have a table attached to the bench where she can put, say, her drinks.” 

Camille says, “I’m actually a frustrated interior designer so I was excited when Moss Manila Home asked me to collaborate with them.” 

She says it felt like a natural collaboration since, as a client, she previously asked the furniture design house to custom make some pieces for her home.

She “feels privileged to design a furniture piece” of her own that speaks to and of her style. The channel-tufted bench with a mini marble table perfectly suits this millennial’s style.

Tessa Prieto-Valdes’ buffet cabinet

Media personality Tessa Valdes is known for her eclectic, sometimes wild style. For Moss Manila Home, she stamped her style on a buffet cabinet that can be used in a small space like a condo unit or as a satellite buffet table in a bigger house.

“My style is so eclectic,” Tessa says.  “What Moss Manila does is put some sense, rhyme and reason to my space. I have multiple ideas, but they make them cohesive in one space, just like this piece. I wanted a marble top to begin with, and normally it’s a traditional white or black Carrara marble, but they said they had pink marble, which is perfect for me.”

The buffet cabinet is lifted from the floor with a curved metal base and the doors feature a chevron pattern in two tones.

“If I’m not having a party, I put tall glass vases on the cabinet, so it’s a functional buffet table.”

Tessa says Moss Manila has styled parties for her, including the themes of New York, tropical plantation and Pretty in Pink.

For their lifestyle pieces, she says, “If I have to pin down a word for them, it would be retro modern. I have so many pieces from Moss Manila Home, like a mirrored chest of drawers and my fave is a small dining table for four with a marble top and metal base, it’s such a versatile piece. I have the étagère and they make all the stands for my mask collection.”

* * *

Visit the author’s travel blog at www.findingmyway.net. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @iamtanyalara.

Moss Manila Home boutique store is located at 1 Granada St. Valencia, Quezon City. Their online shop will debut on October 15 2017 at www.mossmanilahome.com.