Rina Matea gets her break at Bendel's

NEW YORK — All serious shoppers know what the 3 B’s of Manhattan stand for — Barneys, Bergdorf and Bendel. And all fledgling designers understand that getting into any of the three is a break that pretty much says they have what it takes to make a name for themselves in the industry.

So when multi-faceted Filipina and New York resident Candy Benedicto of Rina Matea was invited to show her millinery line at Henri Bendel last week, I just had to meet the talent hiding behind the cloche hats.

PHILIPPINE STAR: You named your label after your grandmothers Severina and Matea. I see that your hats are inspired by the ‘20s era. Did they inspire you to make the hats or did the ‘20s inspire the hats?

RINA MATEA: My grandmothers were both amazing! My Lola (Matea Uy Benedicto) was a pharmacist who owned and ran her own botika, while Mama (Severina Zook Sayoc) was a dentist — this at a time when it was unusual for women to be professionals with their own careers.

I owe so much of my curiosity, creativity, and confidence to them. They both instilled in me an appreciation for working and creating with my hands. All those afternoons they would spend with me together with my mom — sewing, crocheting, drawing, learning, experimenting, creating. Whatever I made was welcomed with enthusiasm. So, naming a line of handmade pieces after my grandmothers seemed natural.

Millinery is only one part of Rina Matea. But as for the inspiration behind the hats, yes, the ’20s are definitely the source. It was such a fertile, kinetic, and creative time for music (Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong), art (Mondrian, dada, Max Beckman), architecture (Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier), and fashion (Chanel, Lanvin, Vionnet).

I’ve always loved the cloche hat created by Caroline Reboux that became really popular during the “jazz age”—the way it’s cut to flatter the wearer’s face, its versatility in both style and function. It can be trimmed to be either an uber accessory, or a minimal and functional piece.

You have a law degree from Fordham University, studied interior design at Parsons and millinery at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Do you think every step proved useful when you started your own line?

Absolutely. A legal education is a good foundation for anything. There’s a certain intellectual rigor and thoroughness that one takes away from such an ordeal— being able to see issues from different perspectives and appreciating the implications of potential solutions.

A design education is also an education in finding solutions, but it is one where you can imagine and toss around ideas in your head, and then create the solution with your own hands. Through interior design, I rediscovered my love for building models and sewing (I used to sew little cushions for the couches and beds for our interiors models), and so here we are.

When did you start taking millinery classes at FIT? You mentioned that it was born out of a void you felt was there in the market for hats at the time. Do you like wearing cloche hats?

For years, I had been wanting to learn the “dying art of millinery.” Although there are lots of amazing milliners in New York, I was looking for something different, something that married distinctiveness, style, and function.

You know what they say, design for living? I’d like to think that is what I’ve accomplished. There’s a certain minimalism to my designs, saved from asceticism by an unexpected drape, a tuck, a trim.

In 2005, while I was still working as an interior designer, I finally had the time and took two millinery courses at FIT.

FIT is unique in offering a millinery certification program. I was lucky enough to take the introductory class with respected milliner Janet Linville, who is the head milliner at the Metropolitan Opera.

Ms. Linville has given me a solid foundation for design, patternmaking, blocking, and sewing. I am still a student-milliner. As soon as I have more time, I plan on finishing the program.

You are currently working as a legal editor at the Practising Law Institute. Where do you find time to make your hats?

I believe that if you really love something, you will find the time for it. Oh, and a good organizer/planner helps a lot. When I found myself pasting Post-Its all over my Blackberry, I knew it was time to go back to paper.

When did you present your designs to Henri Bendel and how soon did you get an offer to do a trunk show?

And does Bendel’s always accept new designers to do trunk shows at their store?

Bendel’s is the only one of the city’s flagship stores that actively reaches out to unknown designers. They hold a biannual “Open See,” which is their version of an audition.

If the buyer likes what they see, they will offer you a trunk show to test your products. I went last March and scheduled dates for this past fall. As you can imagine, I still can’t remember how I got back home after the buyer offered me a trunk show—I was walking on air.

Where do you see Rina Matea in five to 10 years? Do you see Rina Matea growing into a full accessories or lifestyle line?

The one thing I do know about Rina Matea is that it will remain small. By placing a premium in making everything by hand—my hands—I’ve built in a growth restriction. And though I concede there may come a time when I can no longer do everything by myself, it is important that I remain involved in each piece.

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The Rina Matea millinery line will be back for its second trunk show at Henri Bendel on February 7 and 8.

The line is currently available at jan & äya, Caroyn Veith Krienke’s shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Candy will start accepting custom orders through her website (http://rinamatea.com/) very soon.