This blog post is a tribute to my fashion designer sister, Hazel Sta. Ana aka HazelSantana...
One of God's blessings to our family is "creativity". We are family of artists and I strongly believe that! Almost all of us 5 siblings know how to draw and sketch. My sister Hazel and I loves to create our own clothes from scratch and do arts and crafts. My brothers play the guitar well. Our grandma sews well too.
When we were kids, Hazel and I would use our grandma's old rusty but dependable sewing machine to make clothes for our Barbies and other dolls. Our grandma would also sew our doll's clothes for us. She also taught us how to sew and was the one who greatly influenced us when it comes to making our own clothes. Our mom worked for garments factories as a QC/QA for years and years until the garment industry in the Philippines slowly died and she later on became an RTW buyer and seller. So yeah, growing up, our lives revolved around fashion and clothes.
Hazel and I finished college, taking up Nursing. I pursued this career; but she wanted to live her lifelong dream of becoming a fashion designer. Even back when she was in elementary and high school, Hazel would sew her own clothes by hand! yes by hand! Our grandma's sewing machine was not around anymore during this time. She would make costumes for school plays and events from elementary up until we were in college.
These are the costumes she had sewn for me and my friend KSM for our college graduation creative photo shoot back in 2007:
After college, my sister Hazel, didn't took the Nursing Board exams... instead she enrolled herself in one of the best fashion & design schools in the Philippines. She already has the basic knowledge of dress making and designing, she just needed to know the technicalities behind it and learn and hone her skills and talent, by herself, as she goes on.
In 2009, I pushed my sister to join
Project Runway Philippines Season 2. And she was chosen to be part of the second of this US-franchised show. Unfortunately she was eliminated first. But that didn't close the doors for her; instead windows of opportunities opened for her. This became the starting point of her career as a legit fashion designer.
From there, she received so many good feedback and clients came pouring in. Her designs also landed in some well-known fashion magazines, newspapers and advertisement in the Philippines, i.e.
Cosmopolitan Philippines,
MEGA magazine,
Metro magazine and
Manila Bulletin.
Here are some of her works as featured in local fashion magazines:
METRO MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2010 FEATURE:
ANNE CURTIS-SMITH/ METRO MAGAZINE (STRIPE DRESS)
This was the whole dress that
Anne Curtis wore:
COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE JUNE 2010
FOR MANILA BULLETIN:
She was also featured in
Stylebible.ph and was voted as best dressed during the launch of Project Runway Philippines Season 2 held in Embassy Super Club, and of course, wearing her own creation!
Her creations were also used for shoots for some of Philippine's top actresses, namely
Eula Valdez and
Anne Curtis-Smith:
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| Eula Valdez |
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| Anne Curtis-Smith |
She also did an advertisement for
Boysen Paint:
I admire, and at the same time envy, my sister; she's making a living out of something out of her life passion. There are a few people who can do that in their lifetime. Earning and at the same time loving what you are doing and most of all living your life-long dream. We must admit that most of us are in careers that we just do because we need to survive or we were forced to do by our families.
I'm not saying I didn't want to be nurse, I wanted this and if I only I had the chance to pursue Med School (which was my dream before), I would have done it. Yet, I wish someday I will find my "true-north"... be able to do something that is truly my passion and at the same time also gain a living out of it...
I'll be posting another blog for my sister's others creations, including the dress she made for my wedding. :-)
If you want to see her works/creations you can click the link below and LIKE her page.
Until my next post! Thanks for reading! ;-)
