Rhoda Campos-Aldanese’s passion for fashion & curating brands
‘I’m attracted to brands with a soul and meaning,’ Rhoda says.
‘True stories are easier to build; authenticity is key to building a brand.’
If you ask Rhoda Campos-Aldanese what’s the most thrilling thing in the world for her, her answer is unequivocal: “It’s discovering and curating brands.”
Rhoda is an expert at this, having worked for 28 years as head of the cosmetics and perfumes department of luxe department store Rustan’s; a year for PT Mitra Adiperkasa in Jakarta, which operates department stores and independent brands, as general manager for merchandising for Debenhams; and a year in Hong Kong, where she was director for brand acquisitions for the Asian region.
“I’m attracted to brands with a soul and meaning,” she says. “But also, a lot of it is serendipitous and I end up meeting the owners by pure chance.”
For instance, in the mid Nineties, when she was in Paris for a vacation with her family and they were staying at Hotel de Crillone, she discovered that the toiletries in the rooms were Annick Goutal, a brand not very well known in Asia at the time except for the well-travelled. So when she went down for dinner at the hotel restaurant, she brought with her the soap to ask a hotel staff about it.
She asked the waiter and he pointed to the table beside hers — and who was sitting there, watching her rave about the soap? Annick Goutal CEO and owner Brigitte Taittinger-Jouyet (yes, her grandfather was the famous Taittinger Champagne maker). And before the trip was over, she had convinced the perfume house to have their products in the Philippines — a country not on their radar.
It was the same with cosmetic brand Nars two decades ago, and a little less with L’Occitane, which was then just about to burst onto the global market; and Diptyque, which had all but one store in Paris’ well-heeled St. Germain district. And when she was working for her Hong Kong company to acquire brands for distribution in the region, she met the owner of Save My Bag just five months after the brand was created in December 2013.
“Brands that already have representation in other countries, of course, we will not get for those particular markets, but generally it’s identifying mid-priced brands for Asia and creating zoned concepts for them across categories in the department stores. We need to sell stories of the brands’ authenticity to be able to do that. You need to curate and edit the brands and provide an environment for them to tell their stories.”
Or sometimes it could work the other way around, like in Hong Kong’s Lane Crawford and Bangkok’s Paragon Department Store, where the concepts are there but the brands may be incomplete.
That’s where Rhoda’s well-trained eye and instinct come in. “To have a house of brands, you have to act with speed to gain real estate in the department stores.”
But how does one make the brands you want to sell stand out? “It’s both a science and an art,” she says. “In any department store, there’s a decompression zone and your eyes gravitate toward certain products. It’s very visual so you have to know how to put it together, how it comes out in the shelves. When you enter and scan a department store, your eyes already zero in on something — so it’s colors too, which vary from year to year, from trend to trend.”
“I like affordable luxury items because they’re the right products to have in Asia, which delivers on volume. And you don’t need all the drama you have to do for the luxury business. Because my background is retail, I propose concepts. So it’s easy for me to gain shelf space and map out what brands can go into it.”
On her years of traveling the world negotiating and bringing brands to consumers, Rhoda says this has all changed her perspective. “When you come across cultures whose standards of creativity and excellence are unmatched, you grow by leaps and bounds. Europe provides you the height of creativity. They have a soul and all of what they do is attached to a narrative. It is totally mind-boggling and exhilarating. New York marketing savvy is unmatched. Hong Kong provides a system to pull all these together. These cities give you so much that your energy never wanes, it even multiplies because it is infused with so much positive energy. They do things right, they are very disciplined so everything works.”
Her plan for the near future is to spend more time in Manila and bring all her experiences into an industry she’s been in love with since she was a child reading about Audrey Hepburn and Hollywood fashion in magazines.
PHILIPPINE STAR: How do you explain this talent of honing in on brands that eventually become very big? Is it experience or innate?
RHODA CAMPOS-ALDANESE: I’m curious all the time. I open my eyes and leave nothing to chance. Some people say they want to be in merchandising but don’t want to deal with numbers — but merchandising is math, and I’m not even a math person. I studied Clothing, Textiles and Related Arts at UP Diliman.
Why do some brands become successful and others don’t?
A lot of it has to do with marketing. Look at the Mary Janes of Manolo Blahnik, which had been around for some time but did not become popular until Sara Jessica Parker started wearing them on Sex and the City — and even Jimmy Choo.
Also there’s a story behind every brand. I have a fascination for hunting for the new idea and I love a true story. This is reflected in what I do when I work with brands. I work with real people, share their passion, their story, I dig deeper to get that different story to make it a great idea. When it comes from something genuine, it is easier to work with a brand. True stories are easier to build; authenticity is key to building a brand.
Were you interested in fashion from the beginning?
Yes. When my classmates were reading TeenBeat magazine for Shaun Cassidy and Leif Garrett, I was reading Vogue and the local non-glossy magazines Woman’s Home Companion and Women’s Journal. I was kikay na and loved reading about Chanel, Christian Dior, etc.
What is your fashion philosophy?
You buy fashion that means something to you so that you don’t dispose of it. I tend to choose designers who tell me: every single piece I sell has conviction.
Fashion is art. It brings art to those who do not even have access to it. It is a very visual industry, you see how art movements are reflected in fashion; thus, it is available for everyone to see, in the streets, the tubes, airports, movies, theater. Even making underground cultures over ground. Like how Jean-Paul Gaultier discovered underground culture and made it available for fashion.
It is a very fascinating world and, at the same time, a very serious business. I just love the energy that goes with it. Despite the frivolity it seems to mask itself in — to make it work, it has to go to a process and a very strict discipline.
Which city street style excites you?
London, because they’re more accepting of trends, much more than Paris or New York. To some extent, one that really goes beyond is Tokyo.
Japanese style is very cutting-edge.
Yes, and London is really a mix of all styles and that’s when and where you find the height of creativity. Also because the fashion schools are there, so they’re more experimental and not judgmental.
How do you balance career and marriage? Especially when you were an expat in Jakarta and Hong Kong.
This career can be very demanding so it is crucial to work with partners who share the same vision as you have, that way you manage your expectations. I work with brands whose owners strongly believe in the family unit. So it so good that you share this same value system.
I also work with entrepreneurs whose vision and commitment to their craft are infectious. It is crucial that each brand has a provenance. Our role then as brand custodian will be much easier and a pleasure because your role of defending the brand image is supported by the founder.
You hire also manpower that shares your work ethic of discipline and hard work. When you take your job seriously, you will know who takes his or her responsibility seriously to deliver quality service to customers. The right mix of people allows each and every single individual in the organization to have that balance they need between their career and personal life.
In the beginning though, this may not be possible as these tradeoffs are necessary when you are starting your career. You pay your dues because you have that flexibility, stamina to do so. As you get older and wiser, you then delegate and build an organization that allows you to do that balance.
What role have you played in your husband Vince Aldanese’s successful chocolate business Villa del Conte?
I have very minimal inputs, which is why it is successful (laughs). It is always good to just have one head in an organization, that way you provide a structure of clarity for the people.
What did you learn from Jakarta and Hong Kong?
I have been educated and exposed to the best brands Europe and America have to offer. Asian exposure was a logical next step after local exposure. The challenges included securing brand agreements, government regulations, hiring the right talent, and choosing the right partners in each country.
Do you also have plans on taking Filipino brands abroad?
That would be the most ideal. I would definitely love that.
What kind of fulfillment do you get creating store concepts for brands?
The excitement of discovering new brands goes hand in hand with the encounters you have with the founders or the owners. I get thrilled when they have so much pride and self-esteem for their brand. When I see them defending, protecting it and the passion they have towards preserving the integrity of their brand, then I feel secure and know that I am in the right company. Foremost for them is building the equity of their brand based on the efforts they painstakingly do to give it the best quality.
Was it a hard switch for you, going from luxe retail to curating brands for a bigger market?
Brand building and partnerships are a very rewarding business. Outside of the financial gains, the emotional rewards that go with it are priceless. Aside from their goodness and respect for each person they touch, the education you get from them is parallel to none.
It did not come easy for me, I had to build brand by brand, client by client. When you fall, you pick yourself up right away because moving forward is the only way to progress. This is about passion for what you do and what you believe in. If you share that vision together with the brands, together you are unstoppable. If you are determined to go through life with the right attitude, then even when difficulty arises, you will be prepared to maintain a good attitude. You turn problems into opportunities and life is much more simple that way.
Who are your favorite designers?
For the local designers, Inno Sotto, Pepito Albert, Joji Lloren and Rhett Eala. They are backed by a great education which makes them disciplined and deep in their approach to design and collection. I have recently seen the work of Puey Quinones and was amazed by it.
For international, Cristobal Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Rei Kawakubo, and John Galliano are definitely geniuses. Karl Lagerfeld and Phoebe Philo are good examples in balancing art and commerce.
Photos by WALTER BOLLOZOS
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(0916-2092282)
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