Echoes of the heart

Jericho "Echo" Rosales and Heart Evangelista, one of showbiz’s hottest love teams today, are a perfect match – like a horse and carriage, bees and honey, milk and cereal, spaghetti and meatballs, and, yes, like your favorite T-shirt and trusty pair of denim jeans.

No wonder when Penshoppe was looking around for the perfect pair for its campaign Denim Love, Echo and Heart easily caught the eye of the 20-year-old retailer.

"They’re a perfect fit," says Daisy Go of Penshoppe. "There’s their love for denim and their love for each other, which comes as a bonus, really."

As sturdy and pure as Penshoppe Denimlab, this true-blue romantic pair is washed clean and woven strong with a love that’s designed never ever to fade even as it weathers a whirlpool of intrigues. (You must have heard this through the grapevine: Is it true that Echo got Heart pregnant?)

And with this super-hot love team pledging their love for Penshoppe’s Denim Love, your good old denims just took on a new life: Think dangerous curves ahead, delectable details, devious cuts, delicate washes, and a distinct Pinoy flair to this versatile hard-wearing cloth the whole world seems to be in love with.

As peripatetic as a hardy pair of Denimlab, Echo and Heart are certainly going places, what with their individual careers in and out of showbiz running at full throttle. Luckily, we caught up with the lovey-dovey pair. Excerpts from The Philippine STAR interview:

PHILIPPINE STAR: What attracted you to each other?

HEART EVANGELISTA: It’s really more of his personality. And now that he’s wearing Penshoppe, well, I’m more attracted to him. That’s it, thank you very much!

ECHO ROSALES: She’s a sweetheart. She’s very young and pure. She’s only 21, I’m 26.

Do you think this relationship is for keeps?

ECHO: Yes!

HEART: Definitely!

Any marriage plans?

HEART: We’d like to enjoy what we have right now. We have our careers. At this very moment, we’re both focused on what we need to achieve in life before we do anything.

So what are your career plans?

HEART: I want to get into music again, do movies, be a VJ.

ECHO: I’m launching an album, "Loose Fit," with my band called Jeans. I’d like to do comedy.

HEART: I want to have my own sitcom.

How did you spend your first million?

HEART: I didn’t, I saved it.

ECHO: I looked at my bank account: one million and 100,000 pesos. I let it grow first. The first few hundred thousand pesos I used to buy my first car. When I started in showbiz, I saw myself having a car in six months. I was able to buy a car in six months. Then I bought a house for my mom and a house for my dog.

What’s your biggest indulgence?

ECHO: I like to spend on food. Or cars.

HEART: I like buying bags.

So, we’ll see a lot of bags in Heart’s closet?

HEART: Yeah, I’d have a bag for a certain shoe. I have about 30 to 40 pairs of shoes. I’m not really a shoe freak, but I’m always looking for something to match my jeans or a skirt. I just keep buying and I don’t know why.

ECHO: I also have 30 to 40 pairs of shoes, mostly white. I have one pair of golf shoes.

What else do you have in your wardrobe?

HEART: At least one piece of really nice-fitting jeans, a nice white shirt, a nice black shirt, and a nice coat for traveling or if I want to go and watch a movie and I’m just wearing a white shirt and jeans.

ECHO: I have jeans, shirts, sweaters, sneakers, all comfortable clothes. I don’t have a lot of formal clothes. I have belts, perfumes.

HEART: I’m going to come out with my own scent through Penshoppe.

Does Echo tell you what not to wear?

HEART: He hates me wearing high, high shoes.

ECHO: Not naman "hate." I just want her to be comfortable and confident about herself.

Describe your style.

HEART: My style is pretty broad. It depends on how I feel for the day. Sometimes, I like wearing jogging pants and a shirt. But today, I’m in the mood to dress up, especially because I have a photo shoot. I’m wearing denims from Penshoppe and an Edwardian-inspired jacket, also by Penshoppe.

ECHO: The jacket was made by Mang Edward. (Laughs.) My style is just easy, very relaxed, very comfortable. Just T-shirts and jeans.

What are your cheap thrills?

HEART: Ice skating or just shopping at Penshoppe!

We heard you love shopping for each other.

HEART: We do.

ECHO: I can shop for her – her shoe size is 7; for clothes, she’s a small or medium or zero.

HEART: Me, I like buying ties for him.

ECHO: I use them (Heart’s ties) for special events like movie premieres. Like at the premiere of the (Manny) Pacquiao movie, I was wearing my Penshoppe denims and I put on my coat and necktie, with my hair like this.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever given each other?

ECHO: Her heart! Which came with a pendant she bought at Tiffany’s that says "Soy feliz contigo" (I am happy with you).

HEART: Dami-dami na. There’s Davis, a Jack Russell (breed of dog).

ECHO: We were looking for a male dog. Then we saw this dog whose eyes reminded us of the late actress Bette Davis, so we named him Davis.

You’re both pet lovers?

ECHO: She has 10 German shepherds in Cavite.

HEART: But I don’t see them anymore. I only get to see Owl and Kisso, who are both cocker spaniels.

ECHO: Kisso is my dog, but she lives with Heart muna.

What can’t you leave home without?

HEART: My Ventolin because I’m asthmatic, my cell phone, my mascara, red and nude lipsticks, my credit cards, my chewing gum, my dangling earrings. There are lots of things in my bag.

ECHO: My camera, telephone, ballpoint pen, paper, anything I can bring to record something, my sunglasses, perfume, hand sanitizer.

What are your other passions?

HEART AND ECHO: Surfing!

And you do this on weekends?

ECHO: Not really weekends, but whenever we have free time. And when the time is right to catch the waves, the swell. You have to check kung saan may alon.

Where do you surf?

ECHO: From Zambales to La Union to Vigan to Laoag to Pagudpod. We also go to the southern part – Bicol, Samar, Leyte, where there are good surf sites. For me, surfing is a lifestyle.

HEART: There was a time when I was sobrang abala with what I was wearing. I wasn’t really comfortable with what I was wearing. But when I started to surf, I became medyo laid-back, relaxed. Although sinusumpong pa rin ako, sometimes I still wanna dress up. You can’t take that away from me. I’m a girly surfer.

ECHO: She’s like the French surfers of the ’60s with their fingers like this (he gestures with curled pinkies). She’s very elegant when she surfs, even when the waves are four to six feet high. But she’s really brave; she does not have any idea what it’s like to be wiped out by the waves. She gets good waves.

Is that why both of you look so fit?

ECHO: Oh, thank you. I learned surfing six years ago. I was swimming so I got into surfing, too. I used to play hockey, but they closed the rink at Sta. Lucia Mall so I had to find an alternative sport.

HEART: I tried to run. I’m very asthmatic so I need to swim and run. I also work on my diet.

You have to diet?

ECHO: I don’t think so.

HEART: To maintain my weight.

What’s your diet like?

ECHO: I make her eat rice. She has to eat rice. (He turns to Heart and says, "You have to eat rice.")

HEART: I like to eat naman din. It’s just that on TV, it’s very hard because you gain 10 pounds. I’m only 5’2" and I feel I need to always be slender so I look tall. I weigh 102 pounds.

ECHO: I’m 5’10" and I weigh 160 pounds. The average weight for my height is 165 pounds.

HEART: The average weight for my height is actually 98 pounds, according to one magazine I read.

ECHO: What magazine? That’s according to your own book. C’mon, babe, you look good! This (dieting) is what I hate talking about. I eat rice at 2 a.m.

You both have good skin, too. What’s your beauty regimen?

ECHO: I use camote extract and pineapple. (Laughs.) Joking aside, I just wash my face.

HEART: I go to Vicki Belo and I use Palmolive Naturals. When I wake up, I pray – for inner beauty. You have to extract the juice, the aura. I don’t use foundation, I just use sunblock. I wash my face; sometimes, I just use cleansing oil to rinse it. I hardly put on makeup when I’m not working to let my skin just be as it is.

* * *

So, say hello again to these true-blue lovers!