Pauline Juan Shows Us What She’s Made Of

The driving force behind one of the country’s greatest glossies for 14 years takes on the role of CITEM’s executive director and lets us all know what a woman with a fashion pedigree can do.

MANILA, Philippines — At one point in my retirement, Rajo Laurel called,” Pauline Suaco-Juan says as she recounts the passing of her nomination to become the executive director of the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM). She chuckles warmly as she continues, “CITEM had approached him and Rajo said, ‘Bakit niyo kami hinahanapan, eh may full-time kaming trabaho?’ And then he and Amina Aranaz-Alunan said, ‘Yun, si Pauline, walang ginagawa!’” Laurel asked her if the nomination was one she’d consider, and by last Aug. 10, Citem swore in Juan as its new executive director.

Juan says that the first month in office has been “not as scary as those who went out of their way to warn me have said.” She had prepared herself for the task of working in a government-run institution, and was surprised to find that it was a department that had been running like a well-oiled machine under several of its leaders. There are systems in place, there seems to be a commitment to transparency, and a third of CITEM’s workforce has been on deck for 30 or so years. “That says something about the place,” says Juan. “If people have decided to make this their life’s work, that they’ve found meaning in the mandate and absorb the values of what we’re trying to accomplish, that says something about CITEM as an organization.”

More Than Fashion

  Being the editor-in-chief of Preview for 14 years was not just the making of a storied editorial career, but a necessary step in preparing her for her current role in CITEM.

In The September Issue, Anna Wintour talks about how her family of academics views her position as a fashion institution as an exercise in frivolity.  It is the familiar case of those with an aptitude for style and fashion having to prove themselves as more than just a preoccupation with aesthetics. In Juan’s case, however, being at the helm of the Philippines’ fashion bible for 14 years was not just the making of a storied editorial career, but a necessary step in preparing her for her current role in CITEM. As editor-in-chief, Juan straddled the lines of creativity and business, in drafting content to keep their issues a step ahead of the curve but also in being able to generate revenue that would make printing Preview magazine a consistent possibility. “I think if you work in the creative industry, you’re equipped to anticipate the creative needs of the institution. When you work in creative sectors, you’re forced to adapt or die,” Juan says with a laugh. “It’s in your nature to look for new things, new ways of doing things, new ideas. Which, if you’re already running a successful bureaucracy or corporation, you keep to the formula because why fix it if it’s not broken? In fashion or publishing, you don’t get that luxury because you’re only as good as your last issue. The need to innovate is constant, to be better than your last. That’s what people underestimate from the more ‘alternative’ or ‘frivolous’ areas of the industry, but it takes a lot of discipline and force of personality to be able to drive your vision across.”

As for her vision as executive director, it’s still a bit early to have a fully fleshed-out mission. Her most immediate concern is marketing exports, particularly design and fashion-related ones, and expanding the reach of CITEM beyond trade shows. CITEM for so many years has been synonymous with its most prominent be-all, end-all trade show, Manila FAME. “A lot of people assume that CITEM and Manila FAME are one and the same. In my former career, I would use the terms interchangeably,” she says. “I’ve been a Manila FAME-goer for years. As an editorial assistant at Preview, that’s where I would talent spot, hunt for new trends, hunt for new ideas. Over the years, it’s one of the things you’d look forward to, because it’s really a showcase of the ingenuity of Philippine design.”

Go Hard, Dream Big

Having been on the precipice between print and digital, Juan wants to see what can be accomplished when the trade shows are made to be available digitally, which would provide an exciting reach for local manufacturers. But before any of that can be made possible, the quest for innovation needs to be heightened significantly. CITEM, through the help of Manila FAME’s creative director, artist Tes Pasola, launched a project called Design Commune earlier this year. Where the system used to be that a creative director would oversee new products with a handful of manufacturers, this new project has allowed the mentorship of 90 companies in product development. This means Manila FAME this year is likely to see a slew of newer design and products in the hundreds, unlike before where it was a central exhibition of a few select pieces.

CITEM, quite excitingly, is also finding a way to invest in the human capital via CREATE Philippines, which launched in 2017. This sophomore effort focuses on communication design, with networking and business matching, portfolio exhibitions, and design masterclasses with Emmy award-winning graphic designer Chris Do. Juan explains, “The idea behind CREATE Philippines has been our passion for years now; we just didn’t have a word for it. It’s what we were all working for — working with creatives, gathering them together, creating an awareness of professions and industries that are supporting creative talent. Now there’s a venue for it, and there are people working to organize the sectors so that it can be a bigger force altogether and we can generate more revenue for the economy.” She adds, “Part of the mission of CREATE and of the Creative Economy Council of the Philippines is to rally support through all sectors.”

When asked about what we as individuals can do to help, outside of patronizing locally produced goods and local talent, Juan simply says, “There’s great potential in exporting our creative talent. Maybe the best thing everyone can do is to work for excellence and fire up that ambition. Because maraming magaling, but they’re happy being big fish in small ponds, and we won’t drive the creative economy as a huge force anywhere else if the ambition isn’t there in the first place. We have to dream bigger, because it starts from there.”

 Produced by DAVID MILAN