In every curve and fold lies a story of family, travel, and love. For siblings Rajo, Venisse, and Gela Laurel, asymmetry is not a contradiction but a balance between memory and modernity.
Asymmetry sounds like a contradiction of order, a rebellion against balance. But in the hands of designer Rajo Laurel, it becomes something else entirely: a study in modern romance, where structure gives way to softness and precision makes room for play and travel.
Rajo’s Holiday 2025 collection, created in collaboration with his sisters Venisse Laurel-Hermano and Gela Laurel-Stehmeier, is less about chaos than connection, a reminder that the most beautiful things in life often arise from the imperfect and the personal.
When The RAJO Store reopened last month at Power Plant Mall, it marked more than a return to retail; it was the rebirth of a house and a family story. The space itself feels like a reset: contemporary yet ethereal, architectural yet fluid, a reflection of where the brand now stands after more than three decades of helping shape Filipino fashion.
From gymnastics and cheer squads to painting and piano lessons, the Laurel siblings’ childhood was a crash course in curiosity, courtesy of their mom Bebot Laurel.
“This chapter is deeply personal,” Rajo shares. “Fashion has always been my love language. Through this collaboration with my sisters, I am brought back to the most important place where I find comfort and happiness — I am brought back home.”
The store relaunch coincided with the unveiling of the 55-piece Holiday 2025 collection that showcases the brand’s codes: disciplined tailoring softened by movement, elegance rooted in practicality, and details designed to be lived in rather than merely admired.
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From 12 pieces to 55
Like all good stories, this one began small. “It all started with a plan for just 12 pieces,” Venisse Laurel-Hermano says as we are standing outside the newly renovated and reopened Rajo store in Rockwell’s Power Plant Mall. She gestures to her sister and says, “We travel together a lot, and we wanted something we could bring from day to night—pieces that shift easily and that don’t need plancha.“
“We know his temperament, we know that he would welcome our input.” When they pitched the idea, Rajo immediately saw more. “He had a lightbulb moment,” Gela Laurel-Stehmeier remembers. “He said, ‘You’re not making 12 pieces. You’re making the whole collection.’”
That spark turned into an ambitious 55-look collection. As Rajo put it, “Why waste the opportunity?”
Gela adds, “What began as a capsule for ourselves became something that could speak to many women, especially those who, like us, balance family, work, and creativity.” The expansion was organic, one silhouette inspiring another, one memory giving birth to a new design.
“We were really thinking of travel,” says Venisse. “Light trenches, mix-and-match pieces, clothes that move with you.” Even the fabrics, she adds, are “soft but structured and transform into a totally different look swiftly.”
Sibling synergy
The Laurels have been collaborating all their lives, but this project marks the first time the three siblings designed together. “It’s like a solo singer suddenly becoming a trio,” Rajo muses. “There’s texture, harmony, and new layers of meaning.” He describes their dynamic with fond precision: “I’m the fantasy. Jela is reality. Venisse is execution.”
Venisse, who oversees operations as the brand’s chief operating officer, admits she wasn’t sure how their work styles would merge. “Rajo and I never crossed paths creatively until now,” she says. “But fashion for me has to be practical, versatile, and timeless—and he listens. That’s what makes this work.”
The idea of evolution as an act of remembrance defines the collection’s soul. Every piece feels like a conversation between then and now, between home and elsewhere, between fantasy and what fits in your suitcase.
Gela, the youngest, brings the spark. “I’m the one who asks questions about everything—cuts, colors, fabrics,” she says. “But that’s what’s beautiful about working with family. We can be vulnerable and honest, and we find creative solutions together.”
Rajo adds, “As a designer, I live in fantasy. In my head, all the women are 5’10” and 90 pounds. My sisters reminded me that women are real: with hips, with arm issues, with lives. If they needed these clothes and couldn’t find them, I knew many others felt the same.”
The modern romantic
The Holiday 2025 collection captures that evolution in that it reflects romance grounded in reality. Its aesthetic is quietly architectural: asymmetrical drapes, sculpted sleeves, fabric that remembers its shape but forgives movement.
There’s a light trench made for layering, an A-line knit dress that flatters multiple forms, a crisp cotton shirt lined with organza piping, and wide-leg cropped trousers detailed with sleek side panels.
“It’s about finding sartorial solutions for real people,” Rajo explains. “Grounded and thoughtful. Fashion that serves life.”
Each piece, he says, reflects their shared philosophy of “intentional design” or clothes that adapt to the wearer rather than demand perfection. The asymmetry isn’t for shock value, it’s a metaphor for life itself: dynamic, imperfect, endlessly changing.
The roots of creativity
That ethos extends to the new store design. “We wanted it minimal, very Japanese, clean lines, well-lit, and fluid,” says Gela.
The reference is more than aesthetic because the Laurels’ connection to Japan runs generations deep: their grandfather was the only Filipino to graduate from the Japanese Military Academy in the 1930s, while their father later served as Philippine ambassador to Japan.
“That sense of order and quiet artistry is in our DNA,” says Venisse. “Our upbringing taught us to appreciate design as both discipline and expression.” Rajo nods to that heritage: “The store’s look captures who we are now: fresh but familiar, simple but thoughtful.”
The siblings trace their creativity to their mother Bebot Laurel. “My mom is the original Tiger Mom,” Rajo laughs. “She saw what we were drawn to—painting, ballet, sports—and nurtured it. Because she was a flight attendant, she taught us that the best education is travel.”
From gymnastics and cheer squads to painting and piano lessons, their childhood was a crash course in curiosity. “We always knew each other’s strengths,” Venisse says. “We support, not compete. It’s give and take.” That support now defines that rare blend of affection and artistry that shows up in every hemline and fold.
Memory meets possibility
In a letter he penned for the reopening, Rajo writes: “Through shapes and silhouettes, I get to celebrate the beautiful women who inspire me. My fulfillment is predicated on using my art to unleash her most exquisite self, evoke joy, and play a role in the milestones in her life.”
He continues, “In endeavoring this collection, my sisters and I relived our memories—family, travels, our common love for the arts. It’s in looking to the past and the present that we found the inspiration to propel the Rajo store brand into the future. Evolution, after all, is where memory meets possibility.”
The idea of evolution as an act of remembrance defines the collection’s soul. Every piece feels like a conversation between then and now, between home and elsewhere, between fantasy and what fits in your suitcase.
Rajo Laurel’s Holiday 2025 collection is both culmination and continuation of a family legacy, a design language, and a belief that fashion can still be intimate. Beneath the asymmetry lies a symmetry of another kind: between siblings who grew up together, dreamed together, and now design together.
“Fashion has always been about love,” Rajo says simply. “And this time, it’s also about family.”
The Rajo Holiday 2025 collection is available at the RAJO Store, 2nd Level, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati.
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