THE BLUE PRINT

Fresh off his first runway show, NICOLO PEREZ charts a future in fashion guided by high school sketches and childhood dreams.

- TICIA ALMAZAN

NICOLO PEREZ IS ON SEASON TWO OF THE REALITY SERIES SELLING THE OC.

More specifically, he's midway through the pilot when Vogue arrives at his studio, a two-storey house just east of Metro Manila. The designer is seated on a bar stool, arms resting on a cutting table large enough to accommodate his laptop, a cream utility overshirt, a tray of buttons, and a heap of miscellaneous items: measuring tape, thread, pins, rubber bands.

Propped against three large windows are two sewing machines, where his in-house seamstress Rose is typically stationed. From where he sits, she's directly within his line of sight. "I'm a micromanager," he confesses, chuckling as he gestures to his view. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Nicolo has delegated the piecing of a garment together to Rose but insists on finishing each one himself. She might attach a sleeve to a bodice, but every button, tag, and decorative stitch is accomplished by his hands alone.

It's a slow process that prizes refinement above all. Perhaps his eye for clean construction was subconsciously picked up at an early age, when he grew mesmerized by runway shows he voraciously consumed on the FashionTV channel. He recalls being struck by Alexander McQueen, the only designer that comes to mind when asked about his fashion heroes. "Fashion is a dream," he recalls thinking, as he watched the British designer's shows.