Confessions from a Blazer Addict

Hello, my name is motsi.I am a junior designer of outerwear and a confessed blazer addict.

Not so long ago, I started working in one of, if not the biggest media network company in the Philippines. And to confirm your impressions, YES,your first step into its arena is a bit too intimidating. It is the spotlessly clean and polished floor, the revolving doors that I only saw in Superman movies,the actors and actresses ordering food beside you at lunch. But more than that, it is the mounting pressure to always look GOOD because you really wouldn't want to look like rag beside the Louis Vuitton carrying girl in your elevator ride. No, you wouldn't want to be an outcast in this throng of fashionably able working community.

Almost a year later, what does this environment make of me? I look at myself in the bathroom mirror just as I was about to leave for work. Black studded gladiators, check. Tight, grey skinny jeans, check. Loose white shirt carelessly tucked in my denim, check. Ahhh, and yes!A black,military jacket embellished with golden buttons and ruched nicely at the sleeves.It's luscious golden lining adds a gorgeous contrast to it's blackness.I took it off and caressed its woven label that read, UPPER EAST SIDE.I couldn't help but beam with pride at the name of my very own line and brand of jackets and blazers.

Last Saturday, the first pictorial for the brand was finally accomplished.At the last snap of the camera, I picked up the phone and dialled across the globe to Manhattan, New York. " Ben,we made it!" I gushed with a palpable smile on my face.
Ben is the senior designer of the brand, who is based in New York. He is a good friend, and my mentor. We met through the web, bound by a common interest in fashion,more specifically,in outerwear.This is how we started...

Let me tell you that this media company has one of the most powerful air conditions ever. Never mind that it's 35 degrees outside. When you are inside, it's freezing, sometimes almost to death! I started investing on jackets and blazers to remedy my frostbite. From department store bought to high-end designer labels via
net-a-porter, I got them covered.Soon I had to have a separate closet made just for my blazers.It was becoming more than a need to keep warm.I was obsessed! Blazers of all colors and designs.From black to pink, cropped to trenches. I HAD IT. Apparently, even the vast array of clothing brands couldn't keep up with my almost maniacal search for the best blazers there is. I got bored with the current supply,
it just wasn't serving my obsession anymore.

One afternoon, I stumbled upon a forum of blazer lovers just like me.I couldn't believe my luck! I thought I was alone. But there they were. People who shared my sentiments, people who thought that there is a shortage of stylish and unique blazers. I had been sketching up designs that I wanted to have. I called them my " Dream Frocks" and I truly wanted to materialize them and wear them one day.I posted my sketches in the forum. One day, I got a call from New York.It was a designer from NYC who saw my sketches. He said, " My name is Ben Ryan and I have a brilliant proposal."

For the past few months, my life has been a whirlwind fairytale. One day I was merely avoiding the cold, a few month later, I am starting a jacket and blazer specialty brand with a designer from New York!Ben finished a degree from Parsons. But he truly believed that it is raw talent, and a passion and vision for fashion that matters more than formal education in the most prestigious fashion schools. He would always say! Fashion design is like singing. No matter how hard you try or how many hours in voice lessons you spend,if you ain't got it, you won't be heard.EVER. And he "heard" me. For which particular items in the sheer amateurishness of a portfolio i had, I wouldn't know. But I'm sure glad he did.

So here we are. Ben and I. Him with his fresh take of an Upper East Sider's fashion sense. Classy, chic,but daring and bold. None of the boring New Yorker's fashion of dull colors! And me with this oozing desire for outerwear, and the limitless design possibilities that I want to share with the world. Together we bring you
Upper East Side. The home of the world's most extraordinary jackets and blazers.We promise, you'll never see outerwear the same way again..