GIFTS Fashion shop is located on Sta. Catalina Street in Dumaguete City
DUMAGUETE CITY – When Gift Sarne-Regalado was still in high school, she was making earrings from colored paper clips.
“I just want to be different. It was my way of expressing my creativity with the limited ‘baon’ [allowance] I had,” says Gift, a graduate of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts from Silliman University here.
Her parents named her Gift as an expression of gratitude for having a daughter. But classmates would call her “kikay” for she fearlessly painted her nails with different colors and voluntarily designed their dance costumes.
It never occurred to her that the same artistry and creativity would enable her to establish her own fashion accessory firm – Gifts Fashion.
Job goals
TIGER’S Eye chips with turquoise drops
As any young professional, Gift was also looking for that job that brings her happiness and contentment. She worked in a five-star hotel in Cagayan De Oro City as an account manager.
“I enjoyed it because I met ‘artistas’ [movie stars] and politicians, but my salary was not even enough for my perfume. So after three years, I resigned and went to Manila for the proverbial greener pasture and better opportunities,” Gift recalls.
In Manila, she worked for a government-owned corporation that made her enjoy the “lights and the sights” of the capital. However, it was not what her inner self longed for.
That nagging feeling convinced her to leave Manila for the quiet city of Dumaguete in the mid-‘90s, a decision she had doubted in the beginning.
Homecoming
“I’m a city girl and I asked myself what am I supposed to do in Dumaguete? And yet I let go,” she shares.
Gift married Joseph and they have two children – Franco, 17 and Juliana, 11.
When she got the opportunity to try her luck in the United States, she embraced it with so much vigor and enthusiasm.
STRANDS of turquoise chips with cross pendant as focal point
Gift took on different jobs, including “subbing” for friends who are nurses and caregivers. “That was the time when I wished I were a nurse. But later, I realized this was not me. That was not what I wanted.”
Gift kept her creative talent and continued to make accessories and design pieces for herself. In one of her window-shopping trips, she found in Bloomingdale’s a store called Michael’s that sells beads.
Lucky table
“I was like a kid in a candy store drooling over all those beads. I just look at them because they’re expensive. And then one day, they offered free jewelry class and I got hooked to it,” she says.
She used part of her earnings on bead-hoarding – her own term for the addiction she developed. Six months after, she returned home with a determined spirit.
In 2004, she made native curtains by stringing wood beads and shells and sold these to friends. She later captured the attention of ANP Showroom in Bacolod City, which prompted her to register her business, Gift’s Fashion, in 2006.
MAJORICA pearl bib necklace
From curtains came bangles and necklaces, mostly pieces in big shapes and loud colors – an extension of her personality, she says.
She made her accessories in her “lucky” kitchen table. Some are produced by her neighbors.
When customers started knocking at their doors to order more pieces, Gift knew it was time to build a showroom.
Market niche
“I didn’t want to open a showroom because I did not want to contend with overhead expenses, such as rent and electricity. I had to,” she says.
For four years, the showroom on Sta. Catalina Street has displayed her products. Some pieces are now found in hotels and resorts, such as the Shangri-La chain.
Gift also sells in the export market, but she finds strength in her local distribution network, a strategy that proved helpful during the 2008 global economic downturn.
MIXED media necklace with cuff bracelet
As a small entrepreneur, Gift says the best challenge in transforming her passion to business was letting go of her designs. Her husband gave her sound advice.
Today, Gift is the image of a woman who diligently works everyday to make her venture grow. Her wish is simple: Make Gifts Fashion sustainable and profitable enough to grow and help more people in the process.
She plans to partner with women weavers in Negros Oriental, who can provide packaging materials made of woven pandan leaves.
Gift says everyone is given the opportunity to enjoy life. But only those who find their passion are gifted with the rare chance. She might have not known then that that zest in living a good life was actually inspired by those colored paper clips.