A time to detach, to set aside all adult problems and stresses, to be enchanted even for just a moment.
That’s what Rustan’s hopes to inspire in shoppers, according to its president, Donnie Tantoco, as the high-end department store welcomed the 2018 holiday season with the unveiling of its Christmas Village and whimsical holiday windows this week.
“This year is the beginning of the next 65 years of Rustan’s, a start of a new chapter for us, and we wanted to do things that are still traditional but also contemporary and whimsical,” he told Lifestyle during our store tour last Wednesday.
The retailer’s holiday theme is “Enchant the Holidays,” “to inspire people to reconnect with their childhood,” Tantoco added.
The windows on Ayala Avenue in Makati evoke a fantastical Christmas winter wonderland, with lifelike polar bears, unicorns, dancing penguins, and other magical creatures.
The Christmas Village on the top floor is, this early, already as festive as every year past, awash in twinkling lights, with trees decorated in varied themes.
65 years
“We understand Christmas [shopping] because we’ve been doing this for 65 years,” Tantoco said. “We try to understand what customers want and what’s on their mind, and we try to interpret it in the Christmas decorations and the environment that we create. That’s at the core, because all these other things are extra.”
He added, “For us it’s not about the usual things other retailers do, like discounts and promotions. It’s just being a superior place if you want to feel Christmas… We don’t sell products. We fulfill aspirations and offer solutions.”
The goal is to provide inspiration for shoppers to transform their abodes with décor so beautiful “that it brings the spirit of Christmas over a three-month period into your home,” he said. “It changes people— their attitude, how they interact with each other.”
This year, Zenaida
Tantoco, Rustan’s chair and CEO, wanted the ambience of the holidays to extend to food, such that a Christmas café—inspired by the recent success of their Moroccan café—will be set up at the Christmas village, where shoppers can order traditional noche buena fare. “It’s really a one-stop Christmas Village. It has to be convenient.”
For its discerning customers, the service also extends to holiday wardrobe. “You get 50 points for showing up and 50 points for looking good. We want to squarely meet that looking good aspect,” he said.
On the ground floor of the Makati store, a corner they have christened “Iconic” is a curated showcase of coveted and best-selling handbags and shoes from such brands as Tod’s, Loewe, Chloe and Saint Laurent—in partnership with Rustan’s’ sister companies Stores Specialists Inc. and Adora.
The dress salon on the second floor is already decked with fall collections of holiday formals from such brands as Aidan Mattox, McDougall, Tadashi Shoji, Adriana Papell and Allen Schwartz.
On the opposite side are the latest shoes from Gianvito Rossi, Aquazzura, Christian Louboutin, Sergio Rossi and Jimmy Choo, and the Italian favorite Fendi.
Gadget section
The men’s department now has a travel section, alongside its popular gadget section. They’ve also expanded the offerings for men’s accessories. An area on the second floor has also been revamped to display younger, trendy clothing brands.
Holiday gifting is also a focus —not just for the VIPs on every shopper’s list, but also for everyone else “whom you want to know you’re thinking of them.”
In the children’s section, there are personal shoppers to make it even more extra convenient, Dina Tantoco, head of marketing communications, said. “They shop for you within your budget.”
It’s all about getting the “finest level of service, seamless and stress-free.”
With about 85 family members spanning four generations, the Tantoco clan is “very traditional” with its own holiday celebrations. Noche buena is always celebrated with their patriarch, Ambassador Bienvenido Tantoco Sr., 97 (who founded Rustan’s with his late wife Gliceria), before they splinter into their smaller family units.
“Since we’re retailers, we had to do a lot of work during Christmas,” Tantoco recalls of his childhood. “We were required to work growing up. We associated Christmas still with the family, but more in a work setting. Our parents were busiest during Christmas, and they tagged us along.”
Tantoco says they’ve already had a good start to the season, with sales upbeat as early as September.
“We try to be relevant. Whatever that buzz is, when people are anxious, we tell them to temporarily detach from that anxiety. When people are optimistic, we can amplify that because we’re a wonderful place to be.”
