Here’s a trilogy of Christmas Cool

Different is good, and unusualness doubly so. Strangeness can be a friend. 

Yeah, Christmas brings with it a certain uniformity of aesthetics. You got the lanterns, wreaths and tinsel, some mistletoe, chestnuts roasting, those red balls around a green tree, Olaf’s frosty relatives, the white-bearded, mommy-kissing fat prowler in an all-red ensemble bearing gifts and propelled by flying venison with impossibly cute names dashing through snow, laughing all the… well, you got the picture. The malls are filled with the sound of sleigh bells, jostling shoppers, and Jose Mari Chan.

But there is another way of looking at Christmas. 

For those of us who believe in the message but don’t necessarily subscribe to the imagery, there are other things to like. There is Charlie Brooker’s dystopian Black Mirror Christmas Special — dark, edgy, un-right for the holidays. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant also created the thinking man’s yuletide specials for the boob tube (Extras and The Office). For Christmas carols, there is a world beyond Ray Conniff or The Chipmunks, dear Virginia. The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl had a good one in Fairytale of New York. So did Jethro Tull. John and Yoko made one about the war being over (— we can only wish.) Tim Burton did a mashup of Christmas and Halloween. Santa Claus transforms into a badass in a Billy Bob Thornton movie. Anthony Bourdain even sat down with Queens of the Stone Age for Christmas in Connecticut. And Alexander McQueen had an artsy Christmas tree installation in 2003. 

Here in Christmas Town in the good ole R.P., we give a toast to three stores that celebrate the Yuletide season with a dab of the unusual, a slice of oddness, and a generosity of coolness.

For Firma’s Ricky Toledo and Chito Vijandre, Adora’s Eman Pineda, and Abitare’s Jeanne Lim Wee and Filaine Tan, the Christmas window is a whole wonderland to get lost in. An entire snow globe to play with.

Pa rum pum pum pum.

Firma all is well with Norman Rockwell

It’s always Christmas Day at Firma in Greenbelt. I mean it’s the go-to place whenever you have cash and want a beautifully carved skull to put on your coffee table. Or a pirate ship model. Or those goat’s head bookends. Or… heck, if only Ricky Toledo and Chito Vijandre would sell that prized taxidermied crow or fox or even owl, that would be great.

That black bird is a treasured piece, says Ricky with a smile. “We hand-carried it all the way from Moscow.” By the way, that stuffed crow became part of a minor controversy when it was used along with tarot cards and an image of St. Theresa for a Firma store display.

“It was supposed to stand for the ‘sacred and the profane.’ People found it sacrilegious, so we had to remove it.”

For the holiday season, Toledo and Vijandre have decorated Firma with a Norman Rockwell motif. Ricky shares, “It’s very Fifties, very safe, very idyllic. It harkens back to simpler times — especially now when we have ISIS, wars, and people don’t feel safe anymore. So, it has a retro feeling. Something nostalgic.”

The window is festooned with objects by a French company with graphics from Fifties to early Sixties advertising. The gorilla and polar bear side tables are German-made. There is a Miho racing horsehead ornament, which you can buy as a kit. (“That’s part of the fun — assembling it,” offers Ricky. “Something we no longer do anymore.”). Plus, of course, there’s a reproduction of Rockwell’s Christmas-themed painting titled “Oh, Boy! It’s Pop With A New Plymouth!” Two more Rockwells here and there.

“Last year, I think we had a Surreal-themed display with those hybrid creatures,” recalls Chito.

“We also had an Odette and Odile display with swans pulling the sleigh,” adds Ricky.

The former considers Firma — now in its 13th year in Greenbelt — as a second home. “Chito and I spend half of our time here, so the pieces here are what we like. Many say whenever they see our house, ‘O, parang tindahan ninyo!’”

During trips abroad, Chito and Ricky would hunt for things for Firma (the word means “signature” in Spanish) and AC+632 (named after the area code of Manila)  that they would use themselves. Ricky says in jest, “Well, except the clothes, unless we came in drag (laughs).” 

Here is Ricky’s account of a strange find:

“When we had just opened Firma in Greenbelt 3 we made a trip to Paris and went antiquing at the Marché aux Puces where we visited a favorite African dealer from whom we had bought before.  He had African masks, sculptures and furniture that were perfect for a window that we were planning for the summer.  Although he always expected us to bargain, we bargained harder than the usual because it was wholesale this time, insisting that we could only pay so much for each mask. Although he tried to insist on his own price, we kept our ground so he was furious and started cursing but at the same time going up to the attic to get more masks which he started hurling at us in a mad frenzy while shouting the prices of each one in-between more expletives and protests.  By the time he came down and saw the stack of masks scattered all over the place, he looked at us, stunned, then gave out a hearty guffaw realizing how ridiculous it all had been. He then proceeded to happily close the deal.” 

It’s Chito’s turn:

“We had a dealer in London who had the most exquisite Victorian silver candelabra with a heron perched on a rock under swirls of graceful vines and foliage.  Apparently it was one of a pair bought from an estate sale and the other piece was with the brother of the seller who was not on speaking terms with the sibling because of a family feud. We begged our dealer to try to locate the brother so that we could complete the pair.  She tried but could not find him before our departure for Manila so we settled for just the single piece. Weeks later, back home, we received an unexpected email from our  dealer with the good news that she had located the brother and convinced him to sell the missing candelabra. The pair was finally completed but never made it to the store. It remains happily resting on our dining table with many stories to tell.”

And that’s what they sell at Firma.

Stories in the form of objects.

Adora dreaming of a white-and-Pistachio Christmas

There is also absolutely no merchandise in the window,” says Adora creative director Eman Pineda. “Instead, we put up a miniature Christmas village made of ceramic, depicting togetherness and gift-giving, evoking the spirit of the holiday season — all united in the Adora color of pistachio.”

The look of Adora’s Christmas window display was inspired by the store’s iconic pistachio-green box juxtaposed with a snow-white landscape. It is quite a sight: something you really need to see up close. 

“Customers and passersby keep taking pictures — it’s amazing!” enthuses Pineda. “For Christmas windows and visual merchandising, we plan it at least six months in advance.” The Adora gang is already preparing for the next holiday, which is Chinese New Year. “Let’s just say, we’re painting the town red.”

Adora has always been forward-thinking from the time it opened in Greenbelt 5 in 2008. Last May, Adora officially became part of the Rustan Group.  

“It is a seamless, evolving and eye-opening shopping experience; a world of ‘everyday wonders,’” describes Pineda. The shop floor continually evolves, every visit revealing something new, and their services consistently transcending expectations. 

“We offer an edited and curated shopping experience. It’s all about doing more than just housing brands; at Adora we create an innovative and inspiring mix of merchandise.”

Since Christmas is just a couple of weeks away, we ask Eman who is the person who gave him that gift of unique vision.

“Rustan’s CEO Zenaida Tantoco,” he answers. “She inspires us to keep the vision of Adora intact, and the aim to be the premiere department store in Asia.  She is one of the sharpest, most logical retailers I know. Not only does she have the greatest mind in retail, she also has the biggest heart. Our president Donnie Tantoco also guides the direction of Adora and prepares it for 2016 and beyond. Donnie is so full of energy, every meeting energizes me, and, in turn, this energy is passed on to the rest of the Adora team.”

Eman concludes, “In an environment like that, how am I not supposed to be inspired every time I think of Adora?”

Abitare in the Moooi for Christmas

If you’re walking on H.V. Dela Costa St. in Makati and you spy upon a black, life-size fiberglass pig with a wreath around its neck, you are gazing at Abitare Internazionale’s Yuletide show window. 

“It was super spontaneous,” says interior designer Jeanne Lim Wee. “I asked our staff for suggestions and they came up with the pig. ‘Uy, lechon!’ Symbolic for a Filipino feast.” The mascot is backdropped with a spatially elegiac Moroccan vista by Massimo Listri and with a satellite of other objects, such as a prop light and an egg vase by Marcel Wanders. Jeanne’s friend flower artist Doltz Pilar helped in decorating.

And there are messages on the clumps of evergreen and apples: Christmas greetings in all the languages of the brands carried by Abitare. “We have Dutch, Italian, German, Spanish and Croatian. Of course, we have Filipino and Chinese as well. It’s a typical wreath with a not-so-typical way of displaying it.”

The pig is actually a table designed by Swedish design group Front (composed of Sofia Lagerkvist, Charlotte von der Lancken and Anna Lindgren) for a Dutch brand called Moooi, known for incorporating fun in design. Its tagline is “The unexpected welcome.” There is truly something surprising about being served food and drinks atop Porky’s head — sort of a “mad tea party cum fairy tale meets loony tunes” kind of thing. And the Moooi pig table has friends — a horse lamp and a rabbit lamp — in a virtual animal farm of edgy interiors.

Jeanne shares, “Moooi is Dutch for ‘beautiful.’ They added an ‘O’ so it becomes ‘more beautiful.”

In its 18-year existence, this is the first time Abitare has set up a Christmas window display. Abitare is run by Jeanne and her sister Filaine Tan, who is Abitare’s showroom manager. Both are interior designers who grew up in the furniture business of their grandparents, who opened a shop in Binondo in 1908 renowned for its traditional and oriental furniture. Jeanne and Filaine are in the same trade but their company is geared toward the contemporary, the characteristically radical, European in aesthetics. Abitare Internazionale carries brands such as Walter Knoll (Germany), Montis (the Netherlands), Flou (Italy), Prostoria (Croatia), Arcade and the aforementioned Moooi. The division of labor for the Abitare women is simple: Jeanne is good with planning while Filaine is equally good with implementation.

“We don’t go for objects you normally see,” says Jeanne, admitting her fondness for the avant-garde.

“And because interior design is our passion, it has become like playtime for both of us,” adds Filaine.

Also, Jeanne does paper art while Filaine loves arranging flowers. So, how do the sisters decorate their own homes for Christmas?

“We treat the store as our own house,” concludes Jeanne. “Dito namin nilalabas lahat.”