Uplifting Filipino Arts & Crafts One Village At A Time

From sourcing traditional Filipino weaves and turning them into everyday wear, to developing a local artist community in Palawan, Paloma Urjuijo Zobel is focused on proudly promoting what’s truly Filipino.

- Carmen Silverio Roxas

Paloma Urjuijo Zobel’s brainchild Piopio has paved the way for what this 27-year old is currently keeping herself busy with. “I moved back to Manila to concentrate on an ongoing project in Palawan,” she explains, referring to Ayala’s 300-hectare property development in El Nido called Leo. “My mother and I wanted to build a Filipino artisan village there.” The second child of Bea Zobel de Ayala Jr., Paloma spent most of her years in Europe, first entering boarding school in London at the age of eight, then graduating college from Parsons University. After working in Estee Lauder for two years, she finished a Master’s Degree in Strategic Management in the US.

During a visit to Manila, Paloma joined her mother and sat through an Ayala meeting about the Palawan development. Right then and there, both mother and daughter realized it was the perfect time and opportunity to build the artists village they dreamed of. They called it Kalye Artisano, and the planning began. Their vision was to create a local Filipino artist community within Ayala’s beautiful Palawan development, which would promote local artisans, arts and crafts.

(SUBHEAD) Discovering A Time-Honored Tradition

“When I moved back to the Philippines to work on this project, Leo was still in the core of its planning stage, still undergoing construction. There wasn’t anything to do on a day-to-day basis. So I wanted to find something to occupy my time with. While sourcing for artists and fabrics to include in the artist village we were planning, I traveled around the Philippines, and that’s when I saw the different Philippine fabrics, like the inabel from our northern provinces.”