Chris Cera: Designer for change

The most striking thing about Chris Cera is his down-to-earth demeanor. Known as the head of product development of Rags2Riches (R2R), the now famous for-profit social enterprise that enables several impoverished women to earn a livelihood through their weaving of upcycled scrap, organic materials, Cera has a blend of artistry, design savvy and social consciousness that makes him perfect for fashion design and social advocacy.

Cera’s design history is pretty straightforward. He shares, “‘History’ is the right word to use because I’ve been designing for ages! I started around 23 years ago but it wasn’t a deliberate move. I was on my last year of college — I took up Communication Arts at the De La Salle University — and only had my thesis to finish. It was a short narrative on video format, which was rather ambitious and took us a whole year to complete. At that time, I no longer had any classes. Our department chairman announced that his sister who had a bag manufacturing company was looking for student designers. A few of us tried our luck. After a little orientation, we submitted our drawings and mine got selected and bought.”

Cera’s foray into bag design started him off in a series of jobs that strengthened his knowledge of accessory concept and production and eventually landed him a job in R2R. “I got a call from someone I knew from a previous job, asking if the company I was working with at that time was willing to take on a client as the factory he works for was too big to accommodate any more orders. So one day, I called up and that’s how I first got involved with R2R. The people behind R2R didn’t really have any order at that time but kept me on file. Soon enough, they had orders and we became their default subcontractor. Our biggest project for them was a Metrobank folio exclusively designed by Rajo Laurel to launch a new credit card. We also did their other corporate accounts as well as their Summer 2011 Collection — Laurel’s Athletenique.

When Cera resigned from his company, he had to personally go and talk to R2R’s operations manager. That same day, he was asked if he would agree to be their consultant for product development. And in August 2012, Cera started working with them on a three-month trial period. His first project was the Holiday Collection designed by Amina Aranaz called Nudos.

(to be concluded)