A follow-up to the trés successful showroom opening of Porcelanosa Grupo in Manila, dahlings, was another impressive celebration held to welcome its stunning brand ambassador, Isabel Preysler Boyer.
The Filipino-Spanish beauty, regarded as one of Europe’s iconic faces, arrived almost an hour late. But the 100 or so invitees didn’t complain, since they had time to circulate among the crowd, wineglass in hand.
When Isabel finally did her grand entrance, she was in a gorgeous outfit, hand-in-hand with her adorable daughter, Tamara Falco, and top Spanish bullfighter Cayetano Rivera, who ended up surrounded by our town’s alta sociedad set surrounding him like forever, dahlings.
After I said my hellos to Isabel and had an interesting chat with Tamara, moi breezed around the first Porcelanosa showroom in Southeast Asia, located at the mezzanine level of the Infinity Tower along 26th Street in Bonifacio Global City. The showroom boasts a wide array of home finishing products from the eight brands under the Porcelanosa group.
The latest collection of Porcelanosa, Venis and Urbatek tiles are elegantly displayed in this European-designed showroom, allowing clients to appreciate the quality and design of the products. What I really loved were the tile trims and ceramic placement materials from Butech, which “provide new construction solutions that meet the needs of users, builders and architects,” explained Jay Ong, one of Porcelanosa’s heavyweight owners.
Moi also noticed L’antic Colonial, which offers an extensive selection of engineered and laminate wood flooring as well natural stone tiles. Aside from the myriad of tile options under Porcelanosa, there’s also the Gamadecor kitchen and wardrobe systems, and the wide range of bathroom fittings and fixtures from Noken and Systempool.
From modern to contemporary designs, you can find all your home-building needs in this one-stop shop, dahlings. It’s also a haven for interior designers, architects, project builders and homeowners who are looking for unique home finishing products with impeccable quality.
Art exhibit
Vivacious and talented Lilianna Manahan recently unveiled “Funktion,” her first exhibit with AC+632 at the Gallery in Greenbelt 5. Everyone marveled at her collection of furniture, lights, home accessories and objets d’art. She even had toys inspired by her nephew and niece, Jaime and Rosanna Yupangco, who wanted to bring the toys home that night! Their mother, Juana Manahan-Yupangco, convinced them to wait till after the exhibit was over, dahlings.
Lilianna’s proud dad, renowned director Johnny Manahan, showed off the fine bone china decanters and cups to Patty Araneta and Yael Buencamino Borromeo, who admired the impeccable craftsmanship of the pieces. Lilianna’s adorable mother Tats, meanwhile, pointed her favorite brass chicken bookends to her in-laws Mandy and Chuchu Eduque.
Greggy and Irene Araneta were overheard praising the quirky Fishing Floor Lamp, while AC+632 proprietors Ricky Toledo and Chito Vijandre decided to incorporate the exquisite Vanity Mirror with wood inlay for the renovation of their dressing room. From El Lissitzky and the Memphis movement circa 1980 to Chinese celadon pieces, the collection had everyone gaping at Lilianna’s unique artworks, palanggas.
Lilianna studied at Central St. Martins in London and UP in Manila, then worked in the atelier of furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue. She is one of the designers of Hive, dahlings.
She said she draws a lot of inspiration from her artistic parents. Do you know that Johnny, the son of the late style icon Elvira Manahan, actually studied art history and architecture and designed their beautiful home? And that Tats studied surface decoration and restoration in Venice and Vicenza, and teaches historical paint decoration aside from writing on arts, culture and design for the Philippine Daily Inquirer? Well, now you know, palanggas.
One striking skill Lilianna has is tweaking the traditional woven fabric from the weavers of Ilocos Sur into a play of geometrics. Things of a more refined sensibility like tea boxes, porcelain vessels and intricate trays also become the most covetable objects of desire. Now there’s an artist who knows what true art—and her love for it—are all about, palanggas.
AC+632 is at 2/F Greenbelt 5 Ayala Center, Makati; tel. 7582564; e-mail ac632@pldtdsl.net.