Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

New York-based fashion accessories designer Rafael Felix (Rafe) Totengco’s foray into the fashion world began way early in his life. How early? How about fifth grade?

"It kind of happened accidentally," Rafe tells Balikbayan Magazine. Then we began a trip down memory lane and we ended up on the corner of fifth grade and awkward, in the city of smiles, Bacolod.

In the Philippines, when you go to mass every Sunday, you’re supposed to wear your Sunday’s best. When Rafe was young, he didn’t really care about clothing and he would just wear whatever he had. His sisters would be embarrassed and would tease him that he looks like the gardener’s son.

Rafe’s mother, in one of her trips to Manila, bought fabrics in Divisoria, gave it to him in a box and told him to go to the tailor and have stuff made. Off he went to the tailor but he didn’t realize back then that he could actually tell the tailor what to create for him.

He bought some fashion magazines and started looking at the illustrations. At that time, he says there was a magazine called Manila Women’s Wear and there was an incredible illustrator named Danilo Franco. He began tracing over Franco’s sketches because back then, he didn’t really know how to draw people. "I was in fifth grade and all I drew were horses, Voltes V, sharks. Then I thought, ‘What if take this pocket and put it here and this and that color would match," he recalls with a smile.

Rafe returned to the tailor with all his sketches and after a week, he had a whole new wardrobe. "I was like, ‘Hmmmm. Who cares about horses?’ It was a Eureka moment and that triggered my interest. At that point, I was buying Manila Women’s Wear every time it came out. I was obsessed with all those illustrations," he admits.

While his classmates in his fifth grade class played with toy robots and spiders, Rafe’s interest in fashion escalated. This was also the time when he began buying Vogue. Can you imagine, fifth grade in Bacolod, buying Vogue. There was only one department store there which carried Vogue and it was so expensive. Of course it was wrapped in plastic and you can’t just open it and look. You have to buy it!" he adds. The now celebrated designer never looked back.

Rafe ran Schizo, a clothing business in Manila until he was 21. In 1989, he moved to New York to pursue a career in fashion design. He enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and gained experience working as a design assistant.

In 1994, a Soho boutique asked him to produce a collection of belts and watch- bands. When they sold out instantly, the boutique requested for Rafe to design a grouping of handbags to sell alongside the small leather goods. One year later, the first collection of Rafe handbags debuted.

Over the years, Rafe Totengco has become one of the most acclaimed among the new generation of American designers, garnering awards and nominations from the Accessories Council, The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Fashion Group International and other award-giving bodies in the fashion industry.