Carla Sibal: Designing Woman

Carla Sibal has been designing clothes for the last ten years–and she is only 33.

After all that experience, Sibal, owner of Baghera located at Glorietta 4 in Makati City, knows a good number of the secrets of the trade.

‘’Image is everything," she says. "It is important that I wear my own clothes to make sure that they are comfortable and that people who chose to buy them will feel good wearing them." For our interview, she is dressed in a simple classic white sleeveless dress. But where did all this love for designing clothes begin?

‘’I was in New York for third year high school and I had a cousin who worked at Details magazine and she would take me around to the different shops on weekends. It was because of these trips that I knew that fashion designing was for me," Carla recalls.

Having made up her mind, Carla went to get a degree in Fashion Design from the Parsons School of Design in New York.

"I like to dress up myself and I also enjoy designing clothes for other people," she shares. Carla says that she originally began with designing suits for work, but because her clients have changed, so have their preferences for clothes.

Today, she says that although she might have a few clients who are in their late 40s and early 50s, most of them fall in the age range of 18 to 35. "The young people are more fashion conscious. They want to look good and dress even better," Carla adds.

Five years ago, Carla continues, her clients were older than her. But no longer. She attributes this good development to the fact that there are so many fashion magazines out there and following the trends are what the youth of today are after.

In the fashion business, it is to Carla’s advantage that she has always liked to dress up herself. ‘’Looking good is very important to me,’’ she adds. "I believe that it would be improper of me not to look good all the time. After all, I am the biggest advertiser of my clothes. It would be really bad if people who came to see my clothes and were introduced to me saw that I was unkempt."

But, she is quick to add that looking good does not mean becoming a fashion victim. Far from it, she intones. "Being a fashion victim is a no-brainer," she shares.

What is a fashion victim? Her definition: "Anyone who just buys clothes from one place and puts it together or someone who dresses right out of a fashion magazine." Also, "a fashion victim is someone who you see walking in the mall who looks like she would be better seen walking down a ramp," Carla adds.

"One of the most important things about dressing well is being able to make one’s own statement," Carla says. Yet she is quick to admit that there are many of these kinds of people out there. For them, she has this piece of advice: create your own look. It is so much more fun being able to look like yourself, rather than someone else.

How does she deal with fashion victims? "The best way to deal with these people is to tell them that maybe the style they are wearing does not fit them," Carla shares. And she adds that it’s always good to get the opinion of younger people about a piece of clothing you decide to wear. "Young people today are so honest. They will tell you if what you are wearing suits you or not," Carla adds.

In the end though, Carla also says there is nothing that can be done with people caught in a fashion time warp. "If I meet people like this there is not much I can do because that is their identity," she says.

To make sure she’s in tune with fashion trends and what is coming up, Carla takes several trips a year to fashion capitals like New York, Paris and Hong Kong. "But I don’t just lift the trends I see. I study them and then I modify them for the Philippine market or at least for my customers’ taste," shares Carla.

But why the shift from suits to evening wear? "Well, I have noticed that there are a lot more young people who want to be able to get something they can wear to an occasion at a moment’s notice," says Carla. Looking for something nice to wear is not easy, she shares. "Most people end up having to go to a designer and there are customers who don’t want to be bothered by having to do this."

This is the call that Carla, through Baghera, tries to answer. "I have to be able to create clothes that people can just come in and purchase and be ready to wear for that party tonight,’’ Carla explains.

We ask Carla if she ever dresses down. "I do when I am at home or if I have to go to the factory," Carla replies. "There are times when I just wear jogging pants, trainers and a tank top or t-shirt. But it is still important for me that I am coordinated. I still feel the need to look good," Carla says.

Going to Divisoria to look for fabric is truly dress-down time for her. She has a pair of jeans and two t-shirts which she considers her "Divisoria uniform".

"I have studied my market and I know that my clients buy clothes based on the image I am selling," shares Carla. For her, proof positive of the rightness of this philosophy is the fact that most of her clients have remained with her for some years now.

"I make sure I listen to what a client wants and then I put my own ideas in and we are able to come up with clothes which make both of us happy," Carla declares. Yet, she is quick to point out that it’s easier to design for people who know what they want. "If a person is unsure of a style they could change their idea about a piece of clothing on a daily basis," an amused Carla says.

After a decade in the industry, Carla is far from resting on her success. "I would like to establish myself like one of the designers who have been in the industry for a long time now," she says. "I will stay in the business for the rest of my life. I can’t see myself doing anything else."