SOUL teller

Why Jerome Lorico won't be bound to the title of fashion designer and why space, soul, and story matter in his work

- MARIAN SAN PEDRO

Jerome Lorico’s heart belongs to the province, having nurtured his curiosity in design and art through his family’s small handicraft business in Bicol. Still, the has city always fascinated him—the busy streets, the buildings and structures, and the concrete roads. This is why he believes his design direction is influenced by the merging of the urban and the rustic, the synthetic and the organic, and the symmetric and the amorphous.

“I’ve always been interested in polarities and the struggle of opposing elements,” says Lorico. “This is inspiring for me because I believe that through constant fusion of different ideas, something new will definitely emerge. Part of my design manifesto is to keep scratching surfaces of preconceived notions in order to arrive with an original idea.”

This is Lorico’s definition of good design: instinctive, spontaneous, and rooted to a certain concept, story, or purpose. Without these elements, as he sees it, an object would be devoid of soul and language, resulting in a product that has no real presence. Space for him is sacred, so as someone who creates things, he tries his best to avoid making objects that have no contribution to the industry, the world around him, or the people—he’d rather prefer idleness.