It's a Wonderlist life

Every year Adora customers are privy to a special gift-with-purchase they’d never get from a conventional department store.

It’s called The Wonderlist, a book that is far from your typical dep-store catalog; it’s Adora’s version of the Christmas gift list you make every year embellished with beautiful images that convey Adora’s Christmas message.

Released annually ever since Adora opened in 2008, in the past The Wonderlist has been a limited edition given to the store’s top 100 customers, or it was sold at a certain price. This year the fourth book is an oversized 36-pager that resembles W or Interview magazine in dimension; it will be given gratis to any customer making a purchase. Like all of the store’s offerings, it’s such a thing of lasting beauty that customers have started coveting and collecting it.

“They say that they look forward to it every year as a valuable memento or keepsake after they purchase a certain gift item,” says Adora president Eman Pineda. “The first time we did it, one teenager even showed it to his dad, saying, ‘We can give it to Mom and tell her we bought it just for her!’”

Dramatic entrance: Sister arrives fashionably early in a Kensie top, Jaspal pants and Schutz suede pumps.

Pineda likes hearing these stories because that’s what he wanted The Wonderlist to be: a permanent book that looks good enough to be a gift or a coffee-table book … something customers could keep even after the yuletide season had passed.

“We have customers actually anticipating what we will do every year as it comes in different formats,” he says. “And be they designers, CEOs or whoever walks in, I’ve seen it proudly kept on their coffee table.”

The inspiration for this year’s Wonderlist is The Art of Gathering, which some might think pertains to shopping but actually refers to the way we come together during Christmastime. Through photographs the book shows a family reuniting at a stately homestead for the holidays. Father greets his daughter and two sons. One son has brought his girlfriend home to meet dad… Mom is not in the picture — perhaps she is away or, as I’d like to think, is busy preparing a Christmas feast in the kitchen.

After the initial happy introductions are made and pictures are taken, you see the family sitting down to talk in separate, more intimate groups — brother and sister, brother to brother, sister bonding with her brother’s girlfriend.

Brothers band together again in Florentino jackets and shirts, Jaspal and Tween pants and Sarar shoes.

On Christmas morning the family gathers in the living room to exchange presents, with the denouement being the daughter embracing her father as he opens Adora’s emblematic mint-green box tied with a black ribbon.

It’s a moving image, and the message is clear: that green box contains a precious gift regardless of price — something as singular as the person it’s being given to. That green box says, “This is how much you mean to me.”

Unlike mainstream catalogs that create an aspirational fantasy they hope will inspire consumers to buy from the store, The Wonderlist is not some made-up reality, according to Pineda. Its creators conceived and put together the book based on their actual lives and families, and they invite Adora customers into that world, to share in this very personal yet universal experience.

“The consistent truth we send out this year is: Adora is based on grounded reality,” Eman says. “Beyond all the name brands, we are and have always been edited and curated items specifically chosen for the customers we meet on the floor every day. There is no fantastical dimension upon which we pick random merchandise to sell. We only offer items that we are passionate about to show and offer, even before they become famous or commercially available. That’s why we have items not everyone has heard of. We’ve done the research.”

He also says that exchanging presents is a cultural “language of love” that is embedded in Filipinos, that gift-giving is so much a part of our lives, especially at Christmastime.

Included in the book is the actual Wonderlist, a surprise pullout containing gift suggestions for the seven most important people in your life, from parents to spouse to your most “reliable partner in crime.” 

“Our customers have told us that these are the relationships that the gifts they give from Adora have had the most impact on: their best friend’s birthdays, their parents’ anniversary, their lover’s surprise gifts, and other thank-you gifts they’ve given these past years,” Eman says.

Like a silent short film, The Wonderlist presents a narrative without words. If there’s any ambiguity it’s up to you to fill in the gaps and supply your own story, but for Adora it’s apparent that visuals are extremely important in getting the store’s identity and philosophy across.

“We wanted it to be more visuals so that there would be more interpretations,” Eman says. “We get a kick out of receiving a vast spectrum of reactions when people see The Wonderlist. That’s where the fun is. Some even say they are emotionally connected with the images.”

As someone who loves to go into Adora to shop or even just to see whatever’s hottest and chicest in the fashion and beauty worlds — usually before they actually “happen” — I can totally relate to The Wonderlist and Pineda’s vision. After all, it’s only at Adora that I was able to find brands I’d been looking for abroad, like Comme des Garçons, The Different Company, Becca, Le Labo, and Maison Francis Kurkdjian. But in browsing through the store, I’ve discovered and come to love new brands like Harlan+Holden, Kensie, Stella Luna, Malin+Goetz, Pretty Ballerinas, Rimowa, Jaspal … pretty much everything they carry. I usually go into the store looking for myself and end up buying a gift for someone else, and vice versa, the rationale usually being: if I love it this much, I’m sure they’ll love it, too. Eman Pineda must be a mind reader or kindred spirit, at the very least. He knows exactly what the modern urban sophisticate inside all of us wants.

“I would say that The Wonderlist is beyond anyone in our company’s life,” Pineda says. “It is whomever any of us consider Important in our lives. If person ‘A’ is not part of my nuclear family or a close friend, I would still give them a gift from Adora because they matter to me in some way shape of form. It’s a place to shop for something where the recipient won’t be let down, that’s for sure. I guess Adora in the end is: ‘For yourself and for your loved ones.’”

* * *

Adora is located on the second and third floors of Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati City.