Low-profile designer, high-profile clients

Sharon Stone liked Ito Curata’s designs so much that she ordered a couple of gowns from him to wear to her public functions in Europe. Curata was recommended by his friend, who’s an executive at Warner Brothers. He had to fly to her Los Angeles home for the fittings and it so happened that the gowns fit the Hollywooditie so well.

“Where did you learn how to cut, Ito?” Stone asked as she mentioned the name of a designer who “can’t cut shit.”

“He gave me a big ass in the gown he made for me. I could not wear it. It was all wrong for me!”

Thus started a wonderful client-designer relationship between Stone and Curata, a low-profile designer who finally returned to his native country after 26 years in the US.

In 1977, Curata won a scholarship to a small college in Pennsylvania. A year later he moved to San Francisco to complete his education at the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of San Francisco where he graduated with a bachelor of fine arts design, cum laude. Unable to find a full-time job using his artistic skills, he worked as a trust officer at a large San Francisco bank. He received painting commissions for extra income but the jobs were sporadic. Meanwhile, as his interest in fashion grew, he would find himself spending hours sketching clothes during his spare time.

In 1988, Curata was out of a job because the bank downsized. With no experience in business and in dressmaking, he decided to try his luck in fashion design.

“In hindsight, I was a business disaster waiting to happen,” Curata said.

Fortunately, he had his severance pay from the bank that helped him weather the first year. Slowly but surely, Curata’s business grew.  He moved his workplace to San Francisco’s upscale Pacific Heights area. His client base had expanded to include social mavericks such as Gordon Getty, wife of an oil tycoon; Charlotte Maillard Schultz, wife of former US Secretary of State George Schultz, and movie star Sharon Stone. In fact, Stone wore one of his gowns to her cover shoot for Movie-line magazine.  “I must have bought 20 copies of the magazine,” Curata said. By then, he was discovered by the local fashion press and invited to join local gown competitions. One such contest, where he participated and won, was the San Francisco Style VIII competition. It was a collaboration between the fashion and interior design industries. More than 25 designers entered the competition using interior design fabrics. Curata won the Best Women’s Formal Wear Award — one of the only five given — for an emerald ball gown made from silk upholstery material.  By this time, his couture business had taken off and he had a small staff working six days a week. After the turn of the millennium, Curata decided to come back to the Philippines to try his luck in his native country. “In spite of my success in the US, I was tired working seven days a week, I missed my family and friends and I wanted to design and build my own design house. So I packed everything in a 40-foot container and headed to the Philippines in 2003.”

All that is history now. Today, Curata is well entrenched in his well-appointed house at the Ayala Alabang area where he has his atelier and his residence as well.  He is one big success story and counts many celebrities and Manila’s A-list in his long list of clients.

Curata’s creations have been featured in many publications in Manila, Europe and the US such as Image, Face, Tatler, Woman Today, Sense and Style. He was referred to as the “it” boy of Philippine fashion. 

As he looks back at his 20 years in the fashion business, he says he enjoyed every minute of it and only regrets that he did not come back sooner. Well, SanFo’s loss is Manila’s gain.