Design really is about telling a story.

It is about how you connect the story or your vision to something tangible and functional- Amina Aranaz- Alunan Two generations of breathing and eating the aesthetic of fashion industry is the lifestyle that was chosen by Amina Aranaz- Alunan. As a great teacher, school administrator, business owner, mother, and wife, she can be truly called a person with a little bit of everything. However, this big bag designer and fashion connoisseur has a story to tell. Amina started to weave her life to the fashion industry way before she was born. As a daughter of a bag manufacturer, it is truly in her blood to continue that sense of connection to bags. Surprisingly, this line of business never bagged her attention at first until her brother started to encourage her to sell their mothers export overruns to their classmates and friends. And that stylish point is the beginning of how she propelled and penetrated the fashion industry. From friends and classmates, they expanded their market share by joining bazaar bandwagon that responded great to their products. She also had her introduction to the real world of fashion industry when she was appointed as a fashion assistant in Chalk Magazine. In addition to her experiences, she also had the opportunity to study in Instituto Marangoni in Milan where she took Masters Program in Fashion Accessory Design which filled and enriched her idea bank and relive the passion in her heart. These exposures are the foreshadowing of the events that lead to todays much sought Aranaz bags. Today, as the co-founder of SoFA or the School of Fashion and the Arts, Alunan is a mentor to the circle of students in SoFA and is also the school director. She is also a wife and a mother to three little children. Currently, Aranaz bag line has two stores in the Power Plant Mall and Greenbelt 5, both in Makati. The way Amina Aranaz- Alunan designed her life is as exuberant and painstaking as how she crafted her bags. These designs are reflected in her personality, exposure, and experiences as a woman- a woman that stands firm in femininity and learning. The level of commitment she has for her advocacy to the local craftsmanship and materials of our country has brought the standard of the Philippines Fashion Industry to the next level. Contributing to the growth of our economy, she is now expanding our horizons to the different sides of the globe. As a management student she taught me how to live by the dreams in my hearts, to stick to the sense of nationality that I have, and to be always open to new learning. As what she said in one of her interviews, the dreams in our hearts was placed by God for a reason and these dreams will defy who we are as a person and they will define what our lives will be. It is undeniable that living by our dreams will lead us to heights that we never expect we will be. Reinventing ourselves can open new doors of opportunity to conceptualize and to think for inspirations that can be transformed to three- dimensional useful items that could be the instrument to our success as individuals. As her life says, find a job you love and youll never work a day in your life. In the end, identifying the job that we love goes beyond our intrinsic values- it is something intangible and substantial in our hearts. Although pursuing our dreams is harder than achieving it, one thing that the life of Miss Aranaz taught us, is to believe in ourselves and desire for more out of who we are. With this, hopefully, everything will fall into places. And that is the sophisticated life of the fashion icon, Amina Aranaz- Alunan, the great woman behind the internationally acclaimed Aranaz bag line.