The stuff that makes a fashion legend

An Art Deco-style men’s watch from the Seventies. An antique tortoiseshell fan from Vietnam. A black lace and silk dress from the Fifties. Black satin French pumps from the Eighties. A set of chrome chairs with pink upholstery from the Sixties.

These are among fashion maven Tina Maristela-Ocampo’s favorite things. And they’re all vintage.

Peeking into the home, and especially the dressing room, of a stylish woman is like peeking into her mind, her character and her uniqueness. Understanding what makes certain possessions so dear to her – and the choices and discernment that went behind them – is understanding what makes her a woman of style and substance. Especially when it comes to vintage finds.

Wearing vintage and having a sense of fashion history certainly add to the character of one of the country’s consistently best-dressed women. "I think it’s great that you can see what fashion was before, not just in photographs, but in the real thing. To wear them, to feel them," Tina explains.

One of Tina’s daydreams is to go on a time machine and travel back to the Fifties.

"It was the time of Dior’s New Look. It was so glamorous. Their fashion had volume. It gives you an impression that it’s maximalist, not minimalist," she says. "My favorite dresses now are Fifties-inspired."

She points to some vintage full-skirted dresses and a vintage ivory-colored raffia cape she bought in New York.

"Fifties clothes weren’t about beadwork. It was just the fabric that made them look beautiful. The structure, the silhouette," she adds. "Even the makeup was great – pale face, black liner, red, red lips. Even the face had volume!"

A disciplined and trained eye, according to Tina, is much needed when it comes to scouring flea markets.

"I guess my style has a lot to do with discipline. When I was much younger, I had a tight budget. My mother would only give me an allowance of one dress a month. I’m basically not someone who started out with exposure to really beautiful things. I can’t say what the others say: ‘Oh, I got my taste from my mother – she wore Halston, Pucci, etc. My mother was a very simple woman, she didn’t collect jewelry. She wasn’t into clothes," she admits.

Tina began acquiring her own pieces one at a time. "Slowly… very slowly," she describes it.

The nature of the fashion business she shares with her husband, retail giant Ricco Ocampo, also gives her the opportunity to travel constantly. Tina does most, if not all, of her shopping when she travels.

"When I shop, I enjoy the moment. I don’t shop because I want to look better than the others, or because I’m thinking of a party or an occasion. I simply enjoy looking for what I like. I only shop when I travel, which is not very often, three times a year to the US and once a year to Europe. At that moment, you just purchase things you’ve never seen or might never see again. It’s a great feeling," she says.

Her most treasured finds range from furniture to books and from dresses to jewelry.

Among the most eye-catching is a lapis lazuli and diamond watch by Piaget. It has a green dial and a black satin strap. It is definitely one-of-a-kind.

"We got this in Hong Kong and we really had to haggle for it. It’s very interesting, because it’s supposed to be a men’s watch, but it’s so ornate. It’s from the Seventies, yet it has an Art Deco feel to it. I usually wear it in the evening," she says.

Less colorful but just as elegant is an antique Corum oversized watch from Time Will Tell, a watch store on Fifth Avenue, New York. The timepiece consists of an unusual square-shaped face complemented by a bracelet of intricately braided strips of platinum.

"When it comes to jewelry, I don’t want to be so serious with it," Tina explains. "Ricco is from a family of jewelers, so he’s always telling me to think about the investment value. But I just can’t! I can’t buy something just for the sake of investment. I’m not into those big chunky gems, where the setting is more important. My pieces aren’t really flashy or showy. Maybe it’s because of my age. I like to play with my jewelry. I’m sentimental in that sense."

An example of this would be a fabulous pair of Cartier earrings – two intricate bouquets of small yellow-gold flowers set with tiny diamonds and emeralds – which Tina purchased very recently in New York. "They don’t make jewelry like this anymore," she laments.

Another favorite is a zebra Bulgari bangle, which she bought from a lady friend. Highly dramatic, the bracelet is rendered in stripes of black, white and gold enamel, topped by a zebra head with ruby eyes and a diamond mane.

A matching pair of onyx and diamond brooches in the form of two Moors, purchased in Italy in the mid-’90s, is another rare find.

"I bought this in Venice with my earnings from a Kodak project. I was in the Piazza San Marco, where there are a lot of antique stores. I went inside one, without really intending to buy anything. But when I saw this pair, I thought they were so pretty, and they were the only ones I could afford. I liked the idea of twin brooches. They look really good on black. Sometimes I just wear them with a polo shirt or a ball gown," she explains.

It is the character of each piece that makes Tina love a watch or a piece of jewelry.

"Watches now are more functional, but my old ones were more aesthetic, considering the intricacy of the design," she says.

However, Tina’s real passion, she readily admits, are shoes.

"I start with shoes. I think about them more than clothes. I’ve given away a lot of shoes already, but there are pieces that I don’t want to let go of," she adds.

Tina’s first shoe investment were a pair of Christian Dior pumps, bought in the United States in 1981. Since then, she has found it hard to part with many of her old shoes – though many are in need of repair or are hardly ever worn anymore – because of the affection she has for them. Two pairs that are close to her heart she found in a Baguio marketplace, under the Mercedes label, while another is a silver pair, worn only once, discovered in a shop in Los Angeles. There are also several uncommon Philippe Models.

"My favorite shoe designer is Philippe Model," she says. "He’s very French, very classic, but there’s always a different thing going. I also like Roger Vivier, a Fifties shoe designer. When I was buying for my old shoe store, S, I had to beg for a pair in black crepe with gold heels that I saw at the showroom."

Her bags are likewise a mixture of the old and the new.

"Many of my bags are made of crocodile leather and they come from the Fifties," she says. "They’re falling apart, they’re so brittle. I really want to have them repaired and restored someday."

She adds, "I’d rather spend my money on a quality bag that will transcend trends. With my Hermes bags, I know I’m going to pass them on. I placed my initials on all my Hermes bags so that my daughters will never sell them! Each one has a TMO! You see, I heard from someone that some people stamp their Hermes bags by generation. The oldest Hermes may be generations old, stamped with the grandmother’s initials, then the mother, then the daughter. There’s a sentiment behind it. It’s not the bag itself, or how much you paid for it. And with every generation, it’s a reminder of who the first owner was – her taste, her character. It’s nice to tell a story."

Even Tina and Ricco’s Sixties-style home in North Forbes is filled with vintage pieces, from the sofas to the carpets, from the lamps to the vases. This unique look, achieved by the couple without any help from an interior decorator, is the result of extensive two-year research on the philosophy of furniture design during that decade.

"We accumulated a lot of our furniture from a store named Las Venus in Bowery Park, in the SoHo area in New York. It’s great ’cause that’s where we got almost all of our Sixties and Seventies furniture. Of course, we had to restore and reupholster most of them," she says.

For knickknacks, Tina and Ricco go to Evangelista St. and Makati Cinema Square in Makati City.

"One of my most cherished possessions is this Christofle sterling silver coffee set that we got in the Eighties from Makati Cinema Square. The guy gave it to us for P3,000, down from P5,000. Can you imagine that? I love coffee, and every morning this set greets me. I am so attached to it. I would die without it!" she declares.

Knowing how to mix old with new, says Tina, is one of the greatest challenges in using vintage.

"Margarita Fores is doing that. She’s reinventing her mother’s wardrobe. Sometimes, I do wonder what the relatives of fashion legends like Chona Kasten and Elvira Manahan are doing with their clothes. The children of Tingting Cojuangco, too – she is a woman of such style."

Tina herself is looking forward to the day when her children will don her pieces with pride.

"Right now, my daughters can’t really appreciate my wardrobe yet – too old for them, they say. But I hope someday they will," she says. "My daughter is always trying on my shoes, waiting until she can fit into them. Hopefully soon!"