GRACE & LOYALTY

Autumn… This time when we slowly calm down a bit and try to understand what is going on, preparing for the winter dreams. Even not so much looking back, more trying to collect the results and simply looking for a good cup of tea with that perfect cake that in summer maybe was a bit too sweet or too intensive, but now is a kind of need of it.

The running time. And I can’t say that is too much work, as when you do what really makes fun and gives you energy, is very hard to call it work. I guess we run to catch the time being afraid that our wish-list perhaps is too long for that 24hours. A reason why I did trust my photo shootings to Kristina, a good friend, with big dreams and wishes, who found a way to feel and know me enough to can put all the visions in a picture.

Mihaela. The young woman that caught my attention when Kristina asked me what I think about her if I can see her in the new series of philini photo shootings. I agreed intuitively based on her Facebook account, but I met her in life after the photo shooting, only one week later. I was curious. Curious to see how she is in life, not only on the pictures and on what the social platforms can tell about her.  And I guess after a long time I finally let me be surprised.

If I could describe in two words Mihaela, I could say: Grace & Loyalty.

There is a kind of people that no matter of what they do in life, no matter of changes or growth they still remain loyal to some people.

Loyal to something that totally became a part of them.

They move forward achieving goals.

They change.

They meet new people, but at the same time, they have a very clear place inside of themselves where is something that totally owns their loyalty. And nothing gives a woman more grace than clear values & intelligence. Feminine, but very strong. I guess that was what I did percept in Mihaela at first sight.

One more experience, that was built in blind away, just with the wish & intuition of all the involved people.  And created the bag “Mihaela” that is now in the new Philini’s Collection.

I WANT TO KNOW HER SECRET

If I could say something about Ina then it is that I want to know her secret.

It is really nice to meet such women about which you wish to know from where they take so much happiness, emotions, sensibility, and power to be always so full of life.

She is someone whom I got to know better during the photo shooting and after it during her enormous support and always being there with a good word.

A woman without age.

A woman with an impressive ability to transmit her emotional stare to other people, but in the same time you still want to know her secret.

I remember the photo shooting that took place in Moldova, by Roman Rybaleov. It was one of the days that we began our actions at 4.30 a.m. and it was quite early for all us. The day was very long and in afternoon we already were all a bit without forces and Ina like from an extra Quelle was finding some extra good mood, fun, craziness  – infecting us all with it and keeping us focused on our goals. ..

If I could have the gift to see the aura of humans, for sure Ina could have one of the most colorful auras. And so appeared the Philini fabrics bag Ina.

ELEGANT WILDNESS

Whitney… So complicated and so simple.  So elegant and so wild in all the positive meaning. So funny and so sad. So easy going and so reserved… Contrasts that very harmonically fit in one person - Elegant Wildness

I was cleaning around my boutique in Munich when on my horizon appeared Whitney. Just like from nowhere in front of me.

I was soooo blinded by her beauty and natural elegance, that even without a proper Hello, I just stopped her and asked if she is a model. To what she very energic and happy answered: Yes! 

Simple, without any heavy looks or arrogant tone, she embraced with her warmth and kindness. Patience and tolerance. A little bit uncontrollable, making you understand her trust to you with it.

In front of me was staying a person full of love to the people around. Sometimes confused about what is going on around, but anyhow full of love. This kind of love that is hidden in small gestures, positive reactions, treating you like a family member.  Hidden in the ability to continue from that point where it was stopped without any bad thoughts. Making the things look simpler to make you feel comfortable like there is no effort. Sometimes I was asking myself how she can manage it to make it so easy looking when she is such a deep person and some situations are really not so easy.

Our first meeting happened about 7 -8 years ago. Things changed at me, at Whitney, but in between somehow, we are still around each other.  Not bothering, not overwhelming, but somehow always finding a way to show each other that “Hey, I am on your side and am happy for you and I give a bit of myself to you.”. No expectations, just understanding and long conversations with some wine at our meetings or after a long photo shooting.

From the beginning I got to know her, when already she was in my boutique, buying a bag that was nice for her from my first collection, I was trying to imagine what kind of bag could fit her energic, cool and elegant way to be. That bag that could wear her name. Whitney’s Bag.

THE LITTLE FOX IN THE RAIN

It was a Saturday morning. A very raining morning. That kind of morning when you could be all day in bed, being lazy and just enjoying some reading and relaxing. But some, impossible to cancel things made to get up and go to the office. It was not so far away from home, so I decided to walk. No people around, almost no cars. A kind of silence that was making the streets lost.

Was walking already back and found myself lost in my thoughts when on the opposite side of the street appeared a girl. I was watching her trying to guess how old she is: 15, 16, 18? Her red hairs were flying around and the windy rain was disturbing her. A kind of unusual beauty that was hidden under a warm jacket and on the focus of what she has to carry. She had a big carriage with newspapers. It impressed me this. Young, beautiful, in rain, working on Saturdays. It was not a usual picture for the little town where I live. Her wish to do something, no matter of bad weather, weekend and early in morning in this age impressed. We crossed the street in the same time, I almost was on another side when a light impulse told me to go back and find out who is this girl.

I stopped her and asked how long she works so and if she could have some fun to do the internship at me, in same time putting in her hands my business card. I guess all my actions confused her a bit but didn’t scared. As on Monday, I got a call from her and in the next days, she was already trying to learn maximum about bags, leather and very patiently fulfilling some a bit boring tasks on the computer.  Very soon we got to know each other a bit better and finding out her passion to writing, it surprised me how talented she is after reading her first stories.

So young and so good writing, even if am not speaking perfect the German language  (in fact the English one too), I could clear see what for a good feeling she has for this language. And in a kind of way already not she was learning something from me, but me from her. I was learning and still am learning from her how to feel the german language. Just nowadays, after 3 years of supporting each other, am happy to read her stories on her blog, And in between, her effortless way to be inspired me to create a bag. A bag that wears her name: Pamina.

WITHOUT LIMITS

I was on the train to work. I was sitting quietly with music in my ears when Semfira entered at a station. She took a seat in front of me and after a few moments, she just laid her head on the back of her seat and closed her eyes. Somehow I was even happy that she closed her eyes as all the way I was staring at her I think any person could feel uncomfortable. I was trying to absorb her beauty.

A beauty that comes from a very rich inside world, a lot of read books and an enormous power which was hidden under a fine and gentle look. I was trying to understand how such a big inside world can be within such a small body. You could feel it, even with her closed eyes. And at that moment when she opened her eyes, I already had a business card in my hands. It was one station before mine, so all that I could ask her is to look at my Philini website, that I search new faces for my collection, or just to come to me. I remember how I came home in that day and I told my husband that I met a special girl in train and that I really hope that she will come. And some days later she came. A real photo shooting for Philini we still didn’t realize. But for a longer period of time, I got a great assistant in my boutique and for all time a very wise friend, for which I will be always very grateful…

 And after all, the time of knowing each other – I really wanted to reflect the combination of her gentleness, this colorful inside power, and an easy-going way to be on my design. So, her bag was created…

THE DREAM PROMISE

First time when I met Melanie, my first thought that I had was: what for a special beauty…

I met her in the time when she worked as a hairdresser. I think she felt that I came not just for cutting my hairs, but also to make a change in my life. And I really enjoyed that she took enough time to cut my hairs, like giving me time to realize what I want and what I want to put aside…

It was a hairdressing salon near my home. Sometimes when I walked home in the evening, especially in winter, I watched how she worked with her clients. It was easy to recognize her in the lights of the salon. Outside it was dark and the salon looked like a small stage on which something was happening. And Melanie – with her long nice hairs, her big eyes, and her visible responsibility remembered me of a hidden spirit of the Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame Cartoon… I don’t know why, perhaps because of the combination of being alert of what she has to do and her openness to an adventure. But at the same time she still remained to be a secret.

It was nice to watch her beauty. I remember this small promise inside as if it were yesterday: “If I will ever make a photo shooting, I will invite her to be my model”. But in that time Philini even did not exist. It was just a growing up the imagination of my dream. And later, I already moved to another city and for a while I disappeared doing my best to build up Philini. By a big coincidence, I again found a contact to Melanie. And we met again, however, this time not in the hairdressing salon anymore, but already for the next photo shooting of Philini.

It was a photo shooting that helped us to better know each other and to slowly build up a special connection. With time her character, her perfectionist way to be inspired me to design a bag, which wears her name…

THERE WHERE IS TRUST

There are people that teach you to trust.

They just come to you and open their soul to you and trust you on their own.

They don't expect anything bad from you and they just want to know you. And from them you learn again to trust, you begin to believe again that everything is possible... This is about Domi...

My first contact with Domi was a virtual one, in Facebook. It began with my comment on her picture. I never saw her before in life. Word by word I was really fascinated to see how two persons that never saw each other before can so much understand and feel the same things. I remember our first long conversations. Some of them made us stay quiet late in front of the computer and sometimes I even asked myself whether I realize that I talk with a person I never saw in life. It took about one and a half years before we saw each other in life. And our first meeting was one day before the photo shooting of the "Story of the impossible..." for Philini. She accepted to be a part of the vision and took part in the photo shooting. I remember her question one day before her flight: "Nataly, what I am doing???". So what was she doing...She came by plane from Slovakia to Germany. To a person that she never saw in her life and came not just to see this person, but also to take part in our photo shooting that has nothing to do with her profession. Crazy, but cool.

I remember that day when she arrived. I was waiting for her at the airport watching her how she came with her suitcase and it was a very unreal feeling. You know so much about a person, but you cannot believe that you see this person in life. This unreal feeling disappeared quite fast by the women's common topic: "Shoes"!!! The first thing we were done was buying some shoes for her for the photo shooting. As we were very short of time we went to the first shoe store directly in the airport Munich. And there, our adventure and the time of reality began. On the second day, we drove to Nuremberg to pick up Melanie for the photo shooting and then we drove all together to Dresden, to a small and private airport used for oldie-airplanes. Here, Tom Kohler and his team arrived from Karlsruhe later and the photo shooting took place. Three nice, tired, and unreal days. Domi went back to Slovakia. But the story didn't finish. We still keep sharing our life and experience.

The last time when we saw each other was February 2014. We met each other in Vienna and spent some nice days together. Already like two old friends. We have grown up, we have changed. But we still trust. And we still believe...

Sometimes the stories that seem to be impossible become possible. People make them possible...

Inspired by her inner power, intelligence, and cool way to be, but in the same time with an inside wild elegance making her very special, it appeared her bag...

ABOUT ME

Born on 10th April 1978.

I live in Germany, but was born in Moldova, a country full of creative people who do handcraft work all of their lives.

My need to create began at the age of 13 years, during the time when I was destroying my mother’s old clothes in hopes of making something new and interesting from them. As I tried to sleep at night, my dreams would be haunted by visions of what I could wear if I only I had the money to buy all that I wanted.  At that point, I hadn’t realized that I could follow these dreams, and could find a way to help women express their inside beauty through their look, clothes, and accessories.

My first steps were taken during my studies at college, but it wasn’t long before I began to feel impatient and anxious to begin the practical realization of my dream. In fact, I was never one to sit patiently on a chair and easily accept a theory, and even though I loved to read and study, I was impatient to make my own mistakes – to discover and experience.

At the age of 20, I opened my first fashion house, which was a giant step and a base for everything that I do now. After many ups and downs, I came to understand that creativity is just a small part of making a dream come true.

After moving to Germany, I underwent the biggest changes in my life, and my dreams came even closer to reality. This time of my life was a combination of adventure and hard times. I was raising my son and at the same time jumping into a totally new world of things I’d never seen before in my life. Learning a new culture, a new language, and meeting new people made me grow up, and all these experiences helped strengthen my wish to realize my dream and so appeared Philini