Uniform behavior

It is a May-December "affair" and his mom approves of it.

Rajo Laurel and Digna Rosales are inseparable these days, bound together by the threads of a common love.

"I’ve known Rajo since he was about 14 years old. He was a schoolmate of my son Maynard at De La Salle Zobel," begins Digna one Wednesday afternoon in Rajo’s red-hot apartment in Rockwell. "Whenever he was in the house, he would go to me and ask questions about fashion. He would talk to me about his dad’s objections to his pursuing a career in fashion and I advised him that the best thing was for him to get a basic business degree to please his dad. And after that, I told him, you please yourself."

Rajo, for his part, recalls that he was simply mesmerized by the tall, fair and long-tressed Digna, then president of the Fashion Designers Association of the Philippines, a post she held for six years.

"I would be sitting in her bedroom, just looking up at her," he recalls. They would talk about fabrics, design, silhouettes. They spoke the same language.

"At a very early age, I knew what I wanted to be," says Rajo. But just as his Tita Digna had counseled him, he dutifully took a business course at De la Salle University.

Nine years ago, as Digna was leaving the lobby of the Peninsula Manila, someone shrieked from across the hall, "Tita Deeegna!"

It was Rajo, and his designing star was already starting to shine. He had placed second in the Asean Young Designers competition, and was a finalist in Mega Magazine’s First Young Designers Competition.

Digna told her peers, "You watch him." In 1996, Rajo was chosen Most Promising Designer of the Year. The rest is fashion history, chronicled in glossy detail in the country’s fashion pages.

Digna, for her part, had become the industry’s leading designer and supplier of corporate wear.

The idea to join forces and marry couture with corporate wear bloomed last year, and in November, Digna and Rajo formalized their union. "Laurel et Ross" was born, with Rajo’s mom Bebot Laurel as the finance chief, Bernice Palanca-Go and Chantal Ysmael in charge of marketing, Meynard Rosales Peñalosa in charge of technology and Glenn Lopez as illustrator.

"The new jobs which we have created have really inspired us," says Rajo proudly.

Laurel et Ross dresses up the staff (over 1,000 of them) of the Westin Philippine Plaza, the crew of Cebu Pacific, the staff of the Waterfront Hotel, among others.

Is Rajo abandoning haute couture for the equally lucrative business of corporate wear? Is he bored and shifting gears?

"I’m not bored with anything," laughs Rajo. "If a challenge comes before me, I just take it up. I don’t believe one should just stay in the circle he is in."

In Rajo, Digna sees someone "to pass on the baton to."

"With Rajo in the team, I expect a 100 percent increase in business," says Digna, who is casting a moist eye on retirement to concentrate on earning her doctorate in business.

In the meantime, she and Rajo are conquering a new world.

Rajo’s tips on corporate dressing

1. First and foremost, dress accordingly for the occasion.

2. More importantly, dress appropriately at all times. Always come to work prepared for the unexpected.

3. Always remember the four C’s in corporate wear: Cut, class, comfort, confidence.

4. Merge your individual style with your company’s profile and image.

5. Your personal hygiene is as important as what you wear. (Hair, teeth, nails and body scent.)

6. The little details count! Finish a great outfit with the proper accessories.

7. Thick, dark makeup and strong perfume are no-no’s!

8. Closed shoes and pumps are preferred.

9. Dark, opaque stockings during daytime are definitely out.

10. If unsure, stick to neutral colors and add a hot color for accent!

11. Avoid too much prints and crowded patterns.

12. Dress your style rather than fashion!

13. Simple is classy! Safer to stick to classic lines and uncluttered looks.

14. Monochromatic tones of neutral colors will achieve power dressing.