A Shelter of good taste

There is a hardbound book at Shelter home store that is so precious every time the staff handle it, they wear gloves. It’s not in any way about to crumble (it’s not that old) but it is so rare and so beautiful that such care is taken for the future buyer. With its tag price of P50,000, it’s sure to be a collector who will take this book home — or a big fan.

Because the subject is Audrey Hepburn.

And the book is called Bob Willoughby: Audrey Hepburn, Photographs 1953-1966. On the cover, she is wearing a pink dress and white gloves, her head turned away from the camera; and the book’s spine is Tiffany blue. Inside are photographs that Willoughby shot of Hepburn for 13 years. Willoughby, who died in 2009, throughout his career as a photographer for Harper’s Bazaar among others, also photographed Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda, and he was never shy to say that his favorite subject was Hepburn.

Only 1,000 hardbound copies of the book were printed by Taschen as it was meant to be a collector’s edition from the very beginning, and it has sold out all over the world. But one copy is in Manila — at Shelter home store in East Wing of Shangri-La Plaza Mall.

This is the kind of stuff you find at Shelter, a store curated and owned by interior designers Ivy and Cynthia Almario, and their US-based business partners Joey Luna and Lee Imperial.

Sitting beside collectible first-edition books are unique books on architecture and design, photography, fashion, cooking, cars,  designer stationery and journals by Kate Spade and Christian Lacroix, home accessories, artworks, luggage and furniture pieces — and as any great home store has to have, a coffee shop with delicious cupcakes.

At one point, the store had a limited-edition signed book by Tadao Ando, which sold for P40,000.

“There was a time we bought the entire collection of an American collector, which had signed books by David Hockney and Herb Ritts. People came in droves to our former store in Bel Air and snapped them up,” says Joey Luna, a Filipino who has lived in the United States since he was 17 years old. “The photography books are doing very well.”

This kind of creative sourcing is what Shelter is all about, whether you’re talking about accessories or artworks or books. 

Shelter’s Luna and Lee Imperial go to the design and home shows in New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. “We travel a lot so we find sources everywhere,” says Imperial. “Often we try to find items that aren’t part of the shows, like works of artists we’re exposed to and we deal directly with them.”

Joey and Lee were pioneers in online retail when no one knew what online stores were. “Lee and I started a furniture business called Furniture Direct in Las Vegas in 1994,” says Joey. “Our concept was to sell middle to high-end furniture at a discount. We didn’t have a store, it was more a library of catalogues. We carried about 300 brands and 12 of those — like Ralph Lauren — made up the bulk of the business.  So if a sofa was priced at $1,000, we sold it for $400 to $600.  

“Then in 1996, our third partner said, ‘Why don’t we put up a website?’ My first question was, ‘What is a website?’ It was an idea that was at the right place and the right time. Las Vegas was just starting to grow with the housing boom.”

Lee adds, “The website business took off right away. No one was doing it. Some of the manufacturers almost saw that it was devilish — how can you be selling furniture online with only a picture of it and letting people call you and just order it, and then ship it all over the world? They had a hard time with it in the beginning. We had so many meetings that were very officious and formal and we were reprimanded so many times, ‘What are you doing selling our furniture through the computer?’ They did enjoy the business we were giving them, though they really didn’t understand it. We became the number one retailer for most of these brands, including Ralph Lauren, Heritage, Martha Stewart, Tommy Bahama.”

They grew to three locations in Las Vegas (because the brands insisted that they put up showrooms) with close to 40 employees  and a call center. As expected, the business declined when the housing market crashed.

Ivy Almario was already friends with them in the 1990s, when she herself was living in Los Angeles and practicing interior design in Beverly Hills.

“Who hadn’t heard of Joey Luna in the ‘90s? He was one of the first Filipinos who had a studio on Pico Boulevard in Beverly Hills and he was the trainer for the stars.”

Trainer? “It’s a whole other story,” says Joey with laughter. In those days he was a trainer (as in a physical/gym trainer) for the likes of the cast of Melrose Place.

Even before Shelter opened here, Ivy and Cynthia would source accessories from Lee and Joey during the sisters’ buying trips abroad for the projects they were doing in Manila.

“Then one time in Manila, Joey and I were at an event — the launch of Hayden Kho’s perfume — we started talking seriously about opening a store. Above the din of music and conversations in Nuvo. I said, ‘Joey, we’re always looking for things and you know the sourcing, I think it’s about time we did something in Manila.’

The concept, says Lee, “was to marry the Almarios’ incredible sense of design with our knowledge and expertise in retail. We’re not designers, we’re sourcing people. We still have the catalogues for furniture, but mostly for designers who order from us. We decided to join in with the café so it would be an experience. Sit down to have coffee and cupcakes while browsing the store.”

As the Almarios very well knew, there was something missing as far as home stores were concerned. Joey says, “They said the market was either here (gestures with his hand), the entry level, or the extremely high. The middle was missing. So we wanted to bring better quality products with prices that were more down to earth.”

They started leasing a 500-sqm. space in San Juan, the house of the late antiques dealer Viring de Asis. After that, they rented space on Bel-Air St. beside Romulo Café, and now they are at East Wing in Shangri-La Plaza. “Shangri-La loved what we were doing in Bel-Air and approached us to open when East Wing opened. Here, we’ve filtered it down to accessories in the 200-sqm. store.”

Their loyal clientele include Korina Sanchez, who’s a passionate collector of books, architect Ed Ledesma, and their fellow designers who go for unique pieces.

And the store is packed with one-of-a-kind goodies. Artworks like found things in nature — the works of artist Christopher Marley — such as framed butterflies and insects. 

“Sometimes we deal with artists who are not used to selling on a  retail level but they do sell to us. We have great relationships with publishers in both New York and London, furniture and accessories companies, so our prices remain very competitive.”

Lee says, “We want our customers here to feel free to touch and feel the products and to have a good experience.  To imagine how the pieces would look in their houses, to have a feel of the products. I like going to a store where you’re relaxed, you have fun, and you don’t have people following him around.”

New products at Shelter arrive every few weeks, so there’s always something new to browse in the store. “It’s safe to say quite a few things you find in Shelter you won’t find in any other store in Manila,” says Joey. “But we like to keep ahead of the curve, so we’re always sourcing from new places for new things.”

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For inquiries, call Shelter at 633-1626, email info@shelterhd.com.