By Leica R. Carpo, Publisher
Sunday Inquirer Magazine
I LOVE to shop and how I converted that to saving the earth is my story.
Like most people, I wantonly use and abuse the environment without considering the impact on future generations. Until I saw “Happy Feet” and realized that the bubble baths I was taking may be causing penguins to swim further out for food and endangering the world’s already fragile life cycle. So I tried to do my bit to lessen my carbon footprints by avoiding plastic anything, never littering and carpooling whenever possible. Those were cool things to do until I was able to find my own unique way to help the environment that involved my love of shopping.
I have always loved vintage fashion and have dreamt about opening my very own little boutique filled with items I loved and hopefully, others would love as well. That this would actually be an earth-friendly venture was the extra incentive I needed to make it happen.
I opened “Modern Mythology” with my partner Celine Gabriel. We decided from the onset that this was not a store for profit but an outlet for our passion and our opportunity to do some good. Not that money did not concern us, but we told ourselves that we would be patient before talking return on investments and dividends.
Our vintage and “indie” store opened on a shoestring budget. We set up shop in Legaspi Village across the park on the second floor of a pretty little nail salon called The Nail Spa. Our mezzanine location had no frontage and was invisible to all but the most persistent and informed of shoppers who have read or heard about us through word of mouth or by pure chance. It was not the most commercially ideal spot for us but it was all we could afford — so we took our chances.
We begged, borrowed and scrounged through flea markets and attics for the store’s whimsical furniture. We could not afford interior designers or subcontractors so we designed our makeshift store utilizing our household drivers who helped create standing mirrors, hanging shelves and draping for our walls, converting our attic space into a cozy boudoir. Our biggest expense was the second-hand air conditioner we bought from the former tenants and the oversized closets we designed and had made by a local furniture maker.
Barely two years old and as predicted, the shop isn’t raking it in but we are in the black and recycling our fab fashion finds for others. Since good taste like good deeds is timeless, we are happy to report that our store has happily found a niche group of regulars who feel likewise. Even better, these days when I give in to blatant consumerism I feel less guilty because I know that once I tire of the “it” bag, someone else will benefit and love it just as much especially at a third of the original price.
Read the Sunday Inquirer Magazine’s Earth Day issue on April 27.
