Guys, this is good news | Lifestyle.INQ

OCTOBER 27, 2022

Rustan’s senior buyer formen’s Paolo Lobregat, Ricardo Preto, Rustan’s president Donnie Tantoco
Rustan’s senior buyer formen’s Paolo Lobregat, Ricardo Preto, Rustan’s president Donnie Tantoco
Rustan’s senior buyer formen’s Paolo Lobregat, Ricardo Preto, Rustan’s president Donnie Tantoco

 

On any given day lately, Donnie Tantoco has been wearing not his usual made-to-measure business suits, but those he got off-the-rack at Rustan’s, priced nowhere near the usual high five figures, the base price of a well-made Italian suit.

 

And he makes sure to point that out to anyone who asks and would care to listen.

 

“I’m not saying this as [president of Rustan’s],” he tells us, “but as a customer. I’m comfortable in both style and budget. It’s made in Italy, but it’s so well priced, I can have two sets of each. I don’t have to be bringing my clothes back and forth from my city home to my weekend home, and back.”

 

Tantoco refers to Ricardo Preto, the new men’s and women’s fashion line made exclusively for Rustan’s, designed by its namesake Portuguese designer, which debuted in the store six weeks ago, and with its first drop nearly sold out.

 

The executive is wearing a slim dark-blue suit and a pale-blue pinstriped dress shirt. He says the suit cost P12,000—a far cry from the usual amount he spends for his Italian suits, about P90,000 apiece.

 

Gray jacket and trousers, and dress shirt from Ricardo Preto’s Fall-Winter 2016 collection
Gray jacket and trousers, and dress shirt from Ricardo Preto’s Fall-Winter 2016 collection

“I like things to be well made,” he says. “I’m 50, but I don’t want to look my age.”

 

That doesn’t take a lot of doing for this man, who’s fit and buff and always nattily dressed.

 

Relaunch U

 

The introduction of Ricardo Preto is part of Rustan’s’ efforts to bridge the gap between what it already does well—which is to have a vast offering of global brands for eveningwear, and to provide something for the in-between, the everyday casual and work wear.

 

With the help of a New York-based retail strategist, Fatima Whitaker, Rustan’s scouted Preto, a Lisbon-based architect-turned-fashion designer who has worked with the likes of Levi’s and Nike.

 

As in-house designer, Preto was tasked to revamp and relaunch the Rustan’s youth label, U, into everyday casuals that will appeal both to mom and daughter, and the stylish dad and son.

 

A tall, lumbering man with a humble and quiet demeanor, Preto is known for his sleek and modern aesthetic, “structured but fluid,” as he describes it. In Portugal, his clothes are sold in multibrand shops alongside international labels like Celine, which his stockists say is of a similar style.

 

Before taking on the job, Preto says his only knowledge of the Philippines was the Isabel Preysler connection, referring to the Spanish-T1028MORAL-RUSTANS_feat3_2Filipina socialite who’s based in Madrid and is a favorite cover girl of Hola! magazine.

 

The Ricardo Preto and U lines are made in Italy, except for the cottons, which are made in Portugal.

 

“I don’t create clothes that will stay in your wardrobe for one season,” says the designer. “I bring newness each season but I want things to stay in your wardrobe for many seasons. This isn’t fast fashion. I want clothes that have longevity.”

 

He also says that it’s important for him to have “nice price points.”

 

Ricardo Preto is “more city, more modern, while U is more trendy, and cheaper owing to the materials and finishing,” he says. Some Ricardo Preto pieces are hand-finished.

 

His men’s wear is cut “a bit slimmer. Not slim-slim. Big guy like me won’t do well with slim-slim,” says Preto. “Two decades ago, when slim trousers were in, everyone was wearing them, whether you’re slim or big. Fashion is no longer like that. You have to present things for all body types. I do fitted for men. My collars for dress shirts are small and architectural. The lapels are narrower. You won’t see the stitching. Those are the details that inspire me.”

T1028MORAL-RUSTANS_feat3_3

As for choosing a designer who’s unknown, at least in these parts, Tantoco says: “Going for something well known is the path to least resistance. It’s important that we have all the big international brands, which we do, but we also want to get out of our comfort zone.”

 

It’s this executive’s goal to make the Rustan’s customer a Ricardo Preto convert like him.

 

“He just has these little things in his clothes,” Tantoco says, his eyes lighting up as he runs his fingers along the lapel of his jacket. “I’ve been wearing a lot of joggers lately, but he got me back into chinos” because they don’t look like the old chinos.

 

“I may be 50, but if I could look five, 10 years younger in my clothes, I’ll take that.”

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