Love it, live it, buy it

MANILA, Philippines - If life is a confetti of choices, 29-year-old Celline Salapantan-Bautista has thrown it all up in the air and has caught all the right ones.

After graduating Interdisciplinary Studies from Ateneo de Manila University in 2006, Celline passed three interviews that would lead her into her first job. Inclined to fashion, she weighed a store manager position over a merchandising title. And then there was this money broker slot for government securities and treasury bills waiting for her at ICAP Philippines in RCBC Plaza. She was enamored by the building and for that primary reason, she ended up trading financial products between banks as middle-person. But the truth caught up with her.

“It was fun at the beginning, but then after two years I couldn’t pretend. I started a business with a friend doing clothes. We had a clothing line of casual dresses. I used the money I had saved up from the money brokerage firm. We started in the Rockwell Urban Bazaars and did really well,” she exclaims with raised shoulders and a big smile.

For about a year, Celline managed to pull off quite a juggling act. “I was (actually) able to live off from (joining bazaars). In the middle of all this, I went to SoFA to study fashion merchandising and design. I was also handling the family business. Four hours a day I would go to school and then do my (other) businesses.” Family business entails her reporting as assistant treasurer of Specialty Restaurants Inc., which is responsible for culinary favorites Burgoo, Gumbo, Eat and Go. The company also handles Sbarro and Boon Tong Kee.  Celline still presently handles the treasury responsibilities.

But fashion was inescapable. That’s where her heart goes aflutter. As much as she loves selling clothes, this lady also loves buying them. Eventually during one of the bazaars, she met Audrey Ednacot and Kato Chua, who she was asked to do a fashion show together with. They didn’t know each other then but now they’ve become her partners in Super Sale. This terrific trio has been organizing the well-anticipated and jam-packed Super Sale for over four years already. This year, they’ve produced it six times, which has by far been the most they’ve done in a year. The Super Sale is a three-day weekend sale and they just finished their 19th bazaar a few weeks ago.

“The first one was in January of 2009. It was off season for a January bazaar, but wow, people came! Then, we did it about three times a year in Rockwell Tent until it wouldn’t fit (anymore),” she shares with a giggle. Nowadays, the Super Sale takes place in massive venues such as the World Trade Center, SMX as well as PICC. There are about 250 concessionaires and approximately 20,000 attendees who scurry for great catches from young local fashion designers. The Super Sale magnetizes so many it could fill up a coliseum as though it had a sought-after K-pop megastar over and over again!

When you drop the word “sale,” it seems that you’ve got one large bait, but when you prefix it with “super” you’ve hooked most of womankind into the point of no return. Celline and her partners have taken advantage of this oh-too-simple yet brilliant idea.

This October,  the Super Sale girls are venturing into their very first bridal fair with high-end suppliers. “You have a lot of tenants and there’s a lot of different kinds of people that you encounter. You try to make everyone happy in the bazaar, (the) 250 tenants times how many people who come in with their brands. I think that talking to them and handling them would be the biggest challenge every day for us. But at the end of the day it’s something the three of us love doing. It really doesn’t feel like work except on those days when we have a problem,” she elaborates. By problem, it means that a few things or people in particular, weren’t handled properly. 

All in all, the bazaars have been nothing short of successful each time. The DIY promotions involved tagging each and every one of their Facebook friends, to which they admittedly owe Facebook much more than a high-five. Celline carries on the conversation. “We also did a lot of radio promotions. We would guest (because) we had a lot of friends who are DJs. That helped a lot. Now we have so many promotions (like) Instagram, Twitter. We have a billboard now. We try doing bus ads and TVC. We eventually had to think out of the box.”  On top of all this, in 2011 she opened her own line of RTW clothing, Celline, at the Bellitudo Lifestyle Strip in White Plains.

Opting for subdued muted colors, she gives this writer a glimpse of her talent through her perspective. “I think I’m good at hiding what should be hidden and showing what should be shown. I think that’s why people come to me because it’s flattering the way I make pieces that are not too trendy (but) classy.” Celline hid her baby bump so well, that this writer wouldn’t have guessed that she was already nearing her third trimester, and yet the lass is still on-the-go with her bazaars. Holding a few of them at The Grove by Rockwell across Tiendesitas (along C-5) got her to think about having a place of her own, even before being married to husband Jacob. “It felt impossible to buy a unit, my priorities were really just to buy myself stuff. I was familiar with The Grove because we would have bazaars here. I was close to buying a 45-sqm unit a few years ago, thinking if ever, I’d have it rented out. (But) my mom advised that if you’re gonna buy, make sure it’s something you can live in,” Celline remembers vividly.

She scouted for places keeping in mind that she wanted to be close to her mom who lives in Katipunan and her then boyfriend who lived in Pasig. Plus, the office of Burgoo is along the edge of Katipunan, too.

“I couldn’t see myself living in Makati because it’s so far from my life. (Here at The Grove), it’s like living in a resort.” And her dreamy eyes travel away. Celline may be all over the place, but her home is built around her life and her life is not merely just about selling and shopping. It’s about the perfect balance of knowing what to give and how to receive what you want.