Chic Francisco’s Golden helping hands

Chic Francisco is the woman your home economics teacher could hold up as a prime example of why you should not sleep in sewing class.

Sitting down for an interview and photo shoot with Starweek at her bright and beautifully decorated home, Francisco spoke about her experiences as the founder and owner of the Golden Hands dressmaking school along Taft Avenue and author of several books on the subjects of dressmaking and fashion design.

Francisco says her career in dressmaking and as a teacher of seamstresses and tailors began simply.

"My mother, sisters and I were often looking for a modiste who was good and affordable," she says with a smile. "I told myself that, when I was ready, I would open my own dress shop."

In 1972, she was ready, after taking lessons at "the better school than the better-known school at the time," she jokes.

The dress shop did well, and Golden Hands became a new brainchild "because I realized that, while the school I attended was very good, there were things that were wanting in the lessons and I wanted to improve on that."

"So," she adds, "I decided that, when I was ready, I would open a dressmaking school." She was ready by 1981 and Golden Hands opened its doors to students who wanted to learn the fine craft of the modiste. She closed her dress shop to focus on Golden Hands.

A six-month course at Golden Hands costs P11,000 and the school offers several short courses, with customizable time-frames. As a value-added feature, Francisco also gives talks to the students and freely dispenses advice about entrepreneurship.

Golden Hands students, she says, "are encouraged to learn what we have to offer, from the practical approach to dressmaking to learning how to run their own shops someday. I want our students to be capable of running their own businesses when they finish our courses."

Students may also choose to attend their classes on a flexible schedule, with whole-day, once a week lessons scheduled for those who live outside Metro Manila, "so these students’ time and transportation expenses are maximized," she says. "Mahirap din ang buhay ngayon and we want our students to learn without too many obstacles in their way."

The Golden Hands approach to both dress-making and teaching is "practical" and "simple", she says, adding that many pattern-making lessons in both print and lecture form "are complicated, requiring the students to use calculators. At my school, we take the practical approach, such as, if you need to use one-fourth of a given measurement, you simply fold the tape measure twice."

Such simple and practical approaches, she reveals, have been practiced by seamstresses for years. This approach to teaching pattern-making, cutting and dressmaking "make our lessons easy to learn and easy to remember so that our students can apply the lessons they learn from us in the outside world."

Such simplicity and practicality is also present in Francisco’s books on dressmaking, the "Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Pattern-Making and Sewing of Various Skirt Styles," "Simplified Pattern-Making of Ladies’ Pants," "Simplified Pattern-Making of Basic Men’s Wear" and "Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Fashion Designing."

While they are used as part of the curriculum at Golden Hands, Francisco’s dressmaking books were not specifically written for the school, but rather for those too far away from Metro Manila to go to Golden Hands.

"I wondered how I could reach out to the people who may want to learn dressmaking but could not come to my school, so I wrote the books," she says.

She has three more books, including one on men’s clothing and Filipino versions of her existing body of work, now in the printing press. "Hopefully they will be out soon," she says.

She tells of a fashion designer based in the Middle East who had come home for a vacation who asked her if she had any advanced books on fashion design, sharing that he had learned his craft by reading her books.

"Now, he’s earning better money, living a good life and that is what makes me feel good about having written those books and opened Golden Hands," she says with a happy sigh. "In my own little way, I want to help this country and our people by sharing what I know and love. If what I have to share with people helps them earn better and live better, then I am glad for it, because that is one of the reasons I went into this."

Satisfaction comes in the form of the success stories of students that every teacher hoards and treasures" I have been told by my students that they were immediately hired as pattern-makers, cutters or sewers by fashion designers when they said they studied at Golden Hands," she enthuses. "That felt so good."

She continues: "Many of our students come to Golden Hands to learn dressmaking because they cannot afford to go to college. Others come because they like dressmaking and they often come back for more courses. I’ve had a student who has been coming back consistently for two years."

However, she also says that there are students who have college degrees from top universities. Golden Hands, she adds, "is a school where everyone is equal, where we teach personally, often one-on-one and where our aim is for the lessons to be taught effectively so our students learn them and retain them."

She treasures as "trophies" e-mails and letters she has received from those who have used her books. These come from all over the world, from people who bought their books online, or were given them as gifts, or borrowed copies.

"I am so happy that I am able to reach out to all these people, and that my method of teaching and my books work so well with them," she says with a small laugh. "I guess doing what you love is the best thing you can do."