CEBU, Philippines — Long before the basket bags became the must-have fashion bags among elite women and ladies with good knack for elegance, Mac Vengco- Bergantin already tied a love affair with this kind of style.
A full-time mom of three young children, Mac had to leave her promising managerial corporate job as human resource head and decided to be a home-maker.
Her worthwhile journey to motherhood sharpened her creativity that led her to own a promising online shop called "City of Vintage" or COV.
Operating under the social media platform via Instagram and Facebook, this fashionista mom earns more than enough, even way bigger than what she earned in corporate world–just by posting her personally tweaked designs of basket bags made by the weavers in Bicol, Pampanga, Masbate and Leyte.
City of Vintage is now one of the most followed online shops in the Philippines, which also captured sizeable and growing global clientele.
In fact, few of her collections will be featured in a style and fashion magazine based in Poland. All credits are due to Filipino weavers.
Vintage Lover
Mac is a true-blue vintage fashion lover. She adores the fashion tastes of British actress Audrey Hepburn.
This personal expression never fails to get overwhelming attention from friends and social media followers in OOTD (outfit-of-the-day) posts.
Mac found herself selling her OOTD package online, from vintage inspired swimwear, dresses, and lately the most popular hand-woven basket bags.
Her quest to satisfy the prodding of online shoppers for her kind of style, Mac traveled all the way to Bicol to find herself a good supplier -- straight from the source. What melted her heart is that these skilled artisans in the rural areas have no idea that what they are making are of high value and has been sold in the market place pegged a dozen fold its original price.
These artisans who are mostly in their twilight years are strangers to technology, let alone their knowledge of trends and fashion.
Market Bridge
Touched by the humble, yet creative hands that made this fashion sensation in the "bags department", Mac decided to make her City of Vintage shop a legitimate business, not only to grow her online shop empire, but also to help the aging weavers taste the worth of their labor and ingenuity.
Over the years, these rural folks are living way below the poverty line, while making their buyers richer.
A one simple handbag made of Abaca for instance is only sold about P700 from the weavers, the same bag sold in online shops and signature boutiques are already priced at P13,000 plus. This and many more odd stories of overpricing broke Mac's heart.
What is more heartbreaking is, although woven craft from bags to home decors continue to sell in both domestic and global markets, skilled weavers and artisans are waning in number, as the new generation prefers to pursue a more glamorous career in the urban centers.
As long as these artisans and their tradition are not recognized and no one will show them the potential of earning more, this tradition will pale into total oblivion.
"I want to be their bridge to the market. The reason why City of Vintage thrives amid strong competition because I keep my prices low and give the weavers worth of their labor," Mac shared.
More Than Vanity
The City of Vintage is not just a shop to quench a woman's vanity for hard-to-find vintage inspired fashionable finds of what used to be known as "tropical basket bags," Mac's core intention is to revive the old age tradition of weaving and make weavers see the true-value of their craft.
Thus, from vanity bags, Mac is building on to expand her portfolio to home furnishing, considering that these kinds of products fetch a good pricing points in Europe and other parts of the world.
Doing exports through online highway is what Mac is aiming for in the next few months. In fact, she is already talking with interested franchisees or partners in Qatar, Dubai and other potential countries.
Social Empire
From a mere online shop in Facebook and Instagram, Mac is aiming big for the sake of saving the weaving industry in the Philippines and plans to establish a social enterprise. This way, weavers earn much more and they will see the golden opportunity of this industry.
Mall operators are already checking her out convincing her to open a "brick and mortar" City of Vintage shops. But, Mac said she is doing it all slowly making sure that weavers will be well prepared, and her major profession as a home-maker will not be disrupted.
What is certain is, the City Of Vintage will serve as a marketing avenue for weavers all over the country to showcase their world-class creations with a touch of her personal style and fashion tastes.
At 32 and very young kids, Mac is building an empire not for herself, but a social empire that gives the real worth of weavers.
Soon, City of Vintage, in its social media store platform, will add a wide array of handwoven home functional accents such as hampers, baskets, closet organizers, among others.
Melting Pot
Although Mac is now based in Bulacan in Manila, she bannered Cebu as her training ground in online and blogging expertise.
Married to Cebuano Jordan Bergantin, Mac was active in Cebu's fashion blogging community for years. It is in Cebu that she established good relationships with online and fashion virtuosi that whetted her love-affair for striking, modern-vintage style of get-up.
Mac is the brilliance behind the Style Cebu blog.
Way before Facebook and Instagram came into the spotlight, Mac was already doing online selling via Multiply. It was in her years of making Cebu her second home that she develop the entrepreneurial art in online trading.
Mac took her law studies in Cebu, while doing blogging, online selling on the side. Her unconventional taste in fashion captured the eyes of some discriminating Cebuanas with good taste who became her close friends and avid clients up until now.
By The Way
Before the English-French actress Jane Birkin loudly popularized the trend of handwoven basket bags, the Philippines has been making the same kind of bags since time immemorial.
Mac believes that this fashion is classic and timeless. Not just a spur of fashion flavor.
In other countries, like Europe basket bags are must-haves for women, elites included, especially during summer and for resort wears.
By the way, weavers should be informed that their creations are already fetching a high price marks in the world market even before, Mac said.
Now that it becomes an in thing, even a little over palm-sized basket bag already costs not less than P2,000 in branded names and online shops abroad.
Signature bag boutiques in New York for instance are selling these abaca, banig, "tikog" made bags for thousands of dollars per piece.
By the way, a piece of basket bag regardless of size, do not go beyond a thousand pesos from the actual weaving huts in the provinces. (FREEMAN)