Progeny: Literature & whimsy in Neil Felipp’s minaudiéres

What if Medusa and Midas met and fell in love? Each is cursed to never be able to touch or be seen without consequence. Everything Midas touches turns to gold, while Medusa, after incurring the wrath of Athena, was given snakes for hair and made so ugly that anyone who stared at her turned to stone. What if they ignored their curse and decided to kiss?

It’s an unlike narrative you will find in a bag, but it’s there in one of designer Neil Felipp San Pedro’s gorgeous minaudiéres — and there are other references from Greek mythology, literature, French history, the ocean and his grandmother, too.

“Design should tell stories,” says designer Kenneth Cobonpue, Neil’s professor in industrial design when Kenneth was teaching at UP Cebu. Today, Kenneth is the head of the industrial design program at College of St. Benilde.  

“Progeny” is a series of designer collaboration and mentorship by Kenneth with promising young designers who are, in a way, his descendants, his own progeny.  

 “Over the course of a few years, a couple of designers have passed through our doors and I’ve watched their careers and seen that some have really found their calling,” says Kenneth, who encouraged Neil to shift to fashion design when he saw that the young man’s heart wasn’t in furniture design. “We’ve put a bit of our design genes in them, that’s why it’s called Progeny, the Cobonpue DNA in them.”

Why did he choose Neil to launch Progeny? “Even after he graduated, he would keep coming back to me to show his designs and say, what should I do with this? I saw so much fantasy and creativity in his work.”

Progeny, which opened on Thursday at Kenneth Cobonpue’s showroom in Greenbelt, features Neil’s nine minaudiéres and ends today, Saturday. Some of the bags will be available at Idee, a clothing store on Pasong Tamo, but not all of them.

Why only three days? Because Neil wants the minaudiéres to not be too accessible. He wants women to go on an adventure looking for them. That’s the way his mind works — even the search should be a story.

My favorite minaudiére — and story — is called Antoinette the Mad. It features a tiny table setting with brass teacups (which are filled with a gel-like substance that looks like tea), saucers and teapots. On the body of the bag is a silhouette of cake icing.  You can guess the story — the Mad Hatter meets the despised last queen of France who famously said, “Let them eat cake.”

“What if Marie Antoinette survived the French Revolution and goes into the rabbit hole and explores it?” says Neil. “She meets a peculiar man with a large hat offering tea. It was at that moment when Antoinette the Mad was born because in Wonderland, anything is possible.”

Kenneth’s involvement in the development of this piece is especially crucial.

“In the beginning, it was just teacups, then Kenneth said to make it more surreal, to put an entire table setting on it, so I had to go back to my books and that was when the idea of Marie Antoinette clicked,” Neil says.

The cake silhouette is a wonderful detail — something that people who appreciate the two stories being mixed would smile about. And that’s what all the pieces make you do — to smile in recognition of a story that you’ve read or a film you’ve seen.  

The bags are handmade and resin-based over which Neil applies another material such as capiz or acrylic. The brass details are also carved by hand, which showcase the carving skill of Cebuanos.

The Simian minaudiére features more than 30 tiny monkeys and no two are exactly alike. Some are seated, their legs hanging over the side, some are on all fours while others are standing on their two feet.

The inspiration for this came from when Neil was playing with his nieces and nephews and they had a barrel of monkeys.

Anita is another minaudiére with tiny details. This time, ants crawling all over the front. “It was inspired by my grandmother Anita. She likes to spoil her grandkids and she always puts sweets in her bag and forgets about it. Nilalanggam yung bag niya!”

The minaudiére Persephone is a collaboration with fellow Cebuano Dr. Nanette Catigbe. It features hand-painted flowers and brass bumblebees as if feeding on the nectar of the flowers.

The story? “From Greek mythology. Persephone, daughter of the goddess of harvest Demeter, was kidnapped by Hades, and according to the myth, that’s the reason we have seasons. In the fall and winter, Persephone is in the underworld, in the spring summer, she goes back to her mother. What would happen while she was walking in the underworld and with every step she took, flowers would grow by her feet?”

The piece called Suzy Wong features a gold-plated dragon inspired by the book and movie The World of Suzie Wong, which pushed the archetypal “prostitute with a heart of gold” character.  This is how Neil imagines Suzie’s love— as fierce as a fire-breathing dragon.

 Interestingly, Singaporean novelist Kevin Kwan saw the bag when he was doing his media tour in Manila and asked who made it. According to Neil, Kwan told him that the Hong Kong-born American actress who played Suzie is his cousin, Nancy Kwan. “Since then, Kevin and I have been texting each other,” says Neil, “and he said he might mention the bag in his next book.”

The Halycon minaudiére goes back to his childhood days when he would create utopian cities out of wood blocks in his room. His mother took a picture of him once and when he saw that again, he was inspired to create this piece with a skyline silhouette made from aluminum.

The first design was just on the front and Kenneth suggested that Neil put details on both sides to give it depth.

The piece Oceania is the only one with a handle — a fish handle made out of gold- and silver-plated brass. Imagine a sardine run under the waters of Cebu because that’s how the fish are shaped, as if in motion.  

Neil’s thesis for Kenneth’s class in 2007 was a gold-plated brass bowl with tiny fish. He looked at his archives and thought he could do this design for a minaudiére.

And finally, there’s Siren, the first minaudiére Neil designed. “There was this time my mom was going to an event. Her off-shoulder dress was so beautiful and elegant. It was midnight blue and just perfect. But I did not like her bag, it was too colorful and halo-halo na clutch, so I decided I would make one for her.”

The inspiration was, of course, Cebu. It features a mermaid resting on top of the bag with her fish tail hanging on the front.

 “My mom loves Cebu, I love Cebu. When you think of the place, you think of the beach. I grew up on the beach, so I’m like a mermaid anyway,” Neil says, laughing. “I thought I might as well make a mermaid bag dreaming of the ocean. So that’s me dreaming of the beach. All Cebuanos have memories of growing up on the beach and we are inspired by it. The connection with nature is more evident in Cebu.”

Neil is the first designer in a series that Kenneth says he will continue for as long as there are interesting designers to launch. “We can do it forever,” he says.

His mentorship in the classroom also extends to teachers. As chairman of the College of St. Benilde’s industrial design program, he trains the faculty of 50 teachers and is changing the design curriculum.

“The old curriculum was based on the western design industry, meaning it was for mass manufacturing and factories. Here, we have hand-made, we have the skills. Just like Neil’s pieces, which are very detailed. We do more personal and bespoke things. I’m making the curriculum more suitable for our industry, the materials available here and the skills.”

Kenneth himself has collaborated with international designers abroad not just for their brands but for his.

“It gives a more global dimension to the brand, that they’re designing for a Filipino company. Federica Capitani designs for me, and then she got discovered by other big brands like Moroso. Brazilian designer Sergio Matos has also designed for my brand.”

How do they react when they see our indigenous materials? “They get excited because ours are different, very textural and warm, they have so much character, and it’s amazing what we can do with them because we’re very good working with our hands. In Europe, labor is expensive and anything you do you have to plan for a long time, you have to use machines. But here, with our skilled craftsmen, a designer’s ideas come out very fast.”

Teaching, he says, is something that he derives great joy from. “When I retire I want to become a full-time teacher or open a school of Filipino design.”

* * *

Progeny is ongoing until today at the Kenneth Cobonpue showroom at The Residences at Greenbelt. Some of Neil Felipp’s minaudiéres will be available at Idee clothing store on Pasong Tamo, Makati.

Check out Tanya Lara’s travel blog at www.findingmyway.net. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @iamtanyalara.