We come together to make the brand come to life.

Caring for tribal traditions pays, Marga found out.

When she first ordered a piece of ethnic wear from Elena, a tribal woman in Davao, all Marga Nograles intended was to help her earn some cash. Marga did not realize that such an act of empathy and singular empowerment would lead to the founding of a lifestyle enterprise that specializes in modern Mindanao indigenous fashion.

Kaayo Modern Mindanao, Marga’s brand, brings together the best of southern tribal craftsmanship and ingenuity, while articulating the hopes, dreams and life stories of women.

Marga, wife of Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, shared the story of Kaayo with Daily Tribune associate editor Dinah S. Ventura and Living Spaces editor Jojo Silvestre, co-hosts of Tribune Now’s “Spotlight,” the Daily Tribune lifestyle online show.

Daily Tribune (DT): Tell me about your brand, Kaayo Modern Mindanao.

Marga Nograles (MN): Well, Kaayo in Bisaya means kindness and goodness. So, we built the brand with the hope of inspiring this kindness and goodness. So, what we do is actually a curated collection of different Mindanao stories. We put together the indigenous tribes, Mindanao secrets and then women’s groups. By combining the best of the best of Mindanao, we come up with unique products.

MARGA mixes and matches to create an elegant look.

MN: It started maybe almost two and a half years ago.

DT: And how did you come up with this idea?

MN: Well, it started only because I wanted to give a livelihood to a mother and daughter from Lake Sebu. So, in the beginning she would come to me for help. She was asking me for help in however way I could. Then from there I decided to empower her more. I told her, “Why don’t you make jackets for me? You have beautiful jackets in Lake Sebu so why don’t you come up with jackets?” And that was how it started. She was like, “Hey, my daughter makes beautiful jackets! So, next week, you will have a jacket already. Soon, you will have many jackets.” And I said I would buy all the jackets, just so I could help her.

MN: Yes. I started wearing them, and then, once, I went to Manila (I was living in Davao then), my friend asked me, “Hey, I want a jacket like that.” Then, another friend wanted one, too, and then a few more. So when I went home to Davao, I told Ate Elena “O, Ate Elena, may business na tayo (we have a business already).” So, that’s how it all began.

DT: Do you design the outfits or do you leave it all to Elena?

MN: In the beginning it was really just Ate Elena and her daughter. So I was just buying the jackets that they made in Lake Sebu to give them livelihood. Then, eventually, when we grew a little bit, that’s when I started sourcing more premium fabrics.

KAAYO jackets are a bestseller. iNSTAGRAM.COM/KAAYO.PH

I would ask sewers to come to make sure that the workmanship is done well. Or I would send it to Lake Sebu for them to hand make it because their expertise is really their hand beading. They really know the intricacies of the craft. They know the original. So, I would recommend a design. I would tell them, “Okay, let’s do this and that,” but they would also say, “Ah, siguro Ms. Marga mas magaling kung ganito, ganyan (Maybe, Ms. Marga, it would look better if we did it this way).” So I would say, “O, sige gawan mo ng design (Okay then, create a design),” and then she’ll make a design. It’s really a collaboration. I always say that my brand’s name is Kaayo, not Marga Nograles, because it is not just me. It is really the coming together of many elements, from the indigenous tribes, to the women’s groups to my staff to everything including the cultural influences of all these tribes in Mindanao. We come together to make the brand come to life.

DT: So when you started, was it just you and Ate Elena?

MN: My mom, first of all. I would not have been able to do this without my mom. So, it was really my mom, because it’s my mom who has always been close to Ate Elena and all the other indigenous tribes that we work with. They have been my mom’s friends for maybe 25 years. They’d go to her and she would go to them for volunteer training, she would also help them with design. And she would do a lot of volunteer work for them.

DT: How long have you been interested in fashion and clothes? And is the production something new to you?

MN: Funny nga eh. My grandmother, ever since I was young, would tell me, “You love fashion, you should just be a fashion designer,” she would tell me. So, now, people think of me as a fashion designer. And I would say, “Wait, I’m not a fashion designer, there are so many other talented designers out there. I cannot even draw.” You know, when I do a collection, I’d draw but it’s just for instructions. Like, “‘Okay, make the sleeves here longer, add this here, and so on.” It’s not like a really nice sketch. No, I can’t do that. But I feel like, yes, I’ve always been interested in fashion.

SOUTHERN glamour in various colors. pauline songco

DT: How much of your stuff, the clothes that you sell online, is from you? How about the design ideas?

MN: All of the designs are actually mine. So, when we developed the brand, I would still allow Elena to come and bring in her jackets for consignment in my Davao store at one point. But that was separate already from our brand business. So, for our business, when we decided to call it Kaayo, we made a distinction. Like I don’t brand her jackets Kaayo because it’s hers and they make it. So, all the pieces that we have are originally ours already.

MN: Yes (pointing at her skirt), this is the Margie skirt. Margie because of my friend Margie. She was telling me, “You know, I like this skirt that I saw,” and when she showed it to me, I said, “Okay.” That’s where I picked up the inspiration. It was just a photo. So I was like, “Okay, I’ll make it and I’ll call it Margie skirt,’ and she’s like, “Okay.” Then I came up with the skirt and I put the T’boli hand beading and she was like ‘Wow, okay, I want all colors.”

GOING casual with tribal jacket. INSTAGRAM.COM/KAAYO.PH

KAAYO embelishment is unique. INSTAGRAM.COM/KAAYO.PH

WOVEN fabric from tribal Mindanao. INSTAGRAM.COM/KAAYO.PH

DT: Can we shift gears a bit? How did you and your husband, Secretary (Karlo) Nograles meet?

MN: I met Karlo a long, long time ago. I met him in a Davao ball. We were gonna dance the Rigodon, I was past muse and he was representing his uncle who was past president of Hijos de Davao. So, that’s when we met. I’m usually never nervous, but when it’s with him I was like…tongue tied. But funny, he didn’t notice. I couldn’t talk to him but he seemed clueless.

That’s his charm. He’s just talking to me even though it was like I was stuttering, but he was like okay.

DT: We understand you represent a slippers brand. How do you manage your time between fashion and your slippers?

MN: Well, I’m lucky with my Havaianas slippers. We had it for fifteen years, so when we started a long time ago I was so hands-on to the point that I would count every pair that came into Southeast Mindanao. I would count and count and when it was sold I would audit and audit every single day. I would close my eyes and I could memorize the business. But it’s been 15 years so we now have very good people who can take care of it in Davao. So I’m lucky, my people in Davao, in Havaianas, are like my family. So, I cannot live without them, so at least I have that for Havaianas.

MN: Management Communications. I am from Ateneo. Karlo is from Ateneo also.

DT: What was your first job? Or was it a business enterprise?

MN: Well my grandmother insisted that after college I have to go and explore the world, so I worked in New York for a while. That was for about 10 months. At one point, I was working as a local hire for the Department of Tourism. They hired me there, so I was doing special projects and I remember that the Department of Tourism had its Balik Philippines program, so what I did was to organize a Balik Davao campaign.

At the time Tita Margie Moran, she had a book so we invited her to come to New York and I invited a designer, a Mindanao designer, to come and we staged a Mindanao fashion show. And then with some Mindanao artists, and then with my mom.

I have to tell you that my mom has been working for the love of Mindanao for as long as I can remember. So it’s so easy for her to do that. My mom is Baby Maceda Montemayor. She was there, and she came with Tita Margie too and that was the most popular event in the Philippine Center that time; it was jampacked. I remember we were like “How will we all fit?” because they wanted to meet Tita Margie, they wanted to have her sign her book. It turned out I could do it, I was telling myself. Before that , I didn’t know if I could do something like that. But my mom was like behind me all the time, ‘Okay, we could do this and that,’ And we were able to do it.

DT: How have all these pockets of success and your experiences in enterprise contributed to the success of Kaayo.

MN: It’s the same thing with Kaayo. It started as something that was just meant to help a woman and her child make a living. But as time went by, it turned out we could expand our level of assistane. From this mother and daughter pair, we went further and farther. We have reached out to the women of other tribes, and the support from various sectors have been tremendous.

Kaayo is what it is because of the tribal women, our partner social development workers, members of the various tribal communities and, of course, the people who believe in our design, our customers who take pride in wearing Kaayo because it represents the best of tribal Mindanao. When you wear a Kaayo, it’s not just about looking beautiful and fashionable. It is about sharing and believing in the ingenuity of our people, especially our tribal women.