Love Chic

Seph is a professional model “discovered” by an agent at age 17. He has appeared on magazine editorials, TV commercials and runways, notably Philippine Fashion Week. Even before his exposure to the industry, Seph has had an interest in designing menswear, making and selling patchwork + hardware accessories and “manly dogswear” to his high school classmates. He has always disliked the perception that guys should have nothing to do with “being stylish”—Seph would wear his mom’s jeans long before “skinny jeans” became a term, because everyone else was wearing baggy pants.

A fan also of the fast and the furious, he took up Electrical Engineering at the Mapua Institute of Technology in Manila to pursue his love for cars, computers and gadgetry. On the side, he learned HTML and CSS and digital photography. He sidelined with hosting servers for an international video-conferencing outfit, doing tech support for Verizon DSL, and setting up car audio, electronics and accessories. Until recently, he owned a deep purple AE92 Toyota Corolla named PMS and a fire red Honda Hatchback EG named Lucy, which he entered in car shows and street races. When not busy with projects or geekery, Seph plays hoops, swims, or runs with his mighty choco chihuahua Sparco (named after the car seats, yes).

Seph used to think he had too many hobbies that didn’t go too well together, until he “found Shai again and was able to make sense of it all at last.” His current occupation as a blogger and designer marries his love for tech, interest in mens fashion, and entrepreneurial spirit.

Seph has lived in the northern part of Quezon City, Manila all his life, but spends holidays and long weekends in their family’s hideaway villa in Angeles City, Pampanga. His parents have Chinese and Spanish grandparents, which explains his features. He speaks neither language though.

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Shai is a professional writer, editor, video producer and fashion stylist. Her writing career officially began at age 9 when her first paid published work appeared in a nationwide youth magazine. She has been writing and editing for major publications since.

She wishes she could say that she is also a professional illustrator and graphic designer, and that she has a Fine Arts degree. But despite the clothing sketches, watercolor paintings and handsewn dolls she made that her mom has kept for posterity, Shai never quite found the courage to pursue art, instead taking up AB Communication at the Ateneo de Manila University. It was here that she engulfed as much knowledge as she can of films, music, theater, graphic novels, Philosophy, management and interpersonal relationships, a lack of any of which would probably result in a person wholly different from who she is now. After college Shai worked in Editorial for a teen magazine and then moved on to write and produce for TV, most notably Project Runway Philippines. Through experiences and friends, she learned the business of fashion, photography, design and marketing.

The only thing that seemed missing—a partner she “could share these passions and grow with,” Shai eventually found in Seph. In her spare time, she reads, sings in cover videos, practices piano, reads, cooks, tries to draw and reads.

Shai was born in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija but grew up in Angeles City and San Fernando, Pampanga where her mom’s family is from. Her dad’s family is from Bacolod and Iloilo, so home means all these places are her hometowns. But since college, she calls Quezon City her home on weekdays.

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