Vania Romoff

As the new mother-of-three shifts gears this pandemic, Vania Romoff talks keeping her business afloat and the importance of design.

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“I always knew I wanted to dress women,” Vania Romoff explains. “I come from a family of designers so it was very natural for me to gravitate toward fashion.” Despite being steeped in the craft, breaking into the industry wasn’t painless, though, from an outsider’s perspective, it may seem like the designer’s career skyrocketed from the get-go.

“Nothing for me was overnight,” she says. “People see an established local brand but I started out as a student selling dresses in bazaars and on my Facebook and Multiply pages.” She says she even worked from her nephew’s dormitory with the “one sewing machine that I owned from school.” Now that she finally has her “dream studio” and a “wonderful team,” she says that looking back at her humble beginnings “makes everything I have now more meaningful.”

Still, fashion insiders recognized her talent early on. Immediately after studying at SoFA Design Institute, she made it to esteemed lists of emerging fashion designers and became a regular part of the Philippine Fashion Week roster with her shows well-received season after season. Today, Romoff’s pieces are synonymous with femininity and romance, and an easy favorite of Manila’s A-listers including actresses Anne Curtis and Janine Gutierrez.