Lily x Bonita Summer 2018 is Lily's first collaborative collection with Bonita The Label launching on May 27th at 10 AM here in our online shop. Decked out with shells and mother of pearl, this collection is inspired by one of my homeland's most prized possessions and claims to fame: her beaches.
The names of every design of this collection is named after a beach or an island in the Philippines that I've been to or been dying to go to. Meg is short for Marimegmeg, one of my favorite beaches located in El Nido. Lao in Jade is named after Panglao, an island that's close to my heart because it was where one of my best friends held her wedding ceremony and reception. Sico is named after Sicogon, an island in Iloilo I recently visited with my boyfriend, Mico, and his officemates.
I'll be sharing with you my visual diary of a short, but definitely sweet and reclusive trip to Sicogon and how I ended up loving having zero cellular network for 4 days.
Our view at dusk on our first night in Sicogon. It reminded me of the moonrise I saw in Jávea, Spain.
I was itching to have at least one bar of signal even for just a few minutes on our first day on the island. Because if I didn't post it on my Instagram story, did it really happen?
In fact, it did. And it happened in high definition because I was fully attentive to my surroundings and the great company I was with. Second day in, I began to appreciate the digital detox and basked in all of this.
View from our dinner spot during our first night.
The gang snuck out at night to have wine on the beach. Mico's idea.
We set out to go island hopping the next day and visited Islas De Gigantes, which is known for its photos that are usually taken from the top of a hill on the island. It took us 40 minutes to get to the top because of the long line of tourists wanting to take a photo of the famous view. Here's my take of it below along with a pair of Cay in Shell earrings.
Islas De Gigantes is also known to have rocks stacked on top of each other spread out all over the island. Sam in Tiger Eye is our version with shells.
We had an amazing lunch by the beach where we ate the freshest seafood that were caught a few hours earlier: fish, squid and scallops that we bought at PHP 1 per piece! I'm salivating just thinking about that lunch.
Flowers outside our room and Meg in Champagne
Of course, I wouldn't pass up an opportunity for a short photo-op by the beach. Pictured above are Cor in Red Agate, Suri in Tiger Eye, Cara in Onyx and Mari in Onyx.
On our last night we watched the sunset out on a jetty and spotted these kids searching for scallops - probably my favorite memory of the trip.
Me wearing Sico in Rose Quartz feeling recharged after 4 days of having no phone signal. Can you believe Mico took this just with his iPhone? The quality of cameras on phones now is incredible!
Leaving you with this photo I took of Sicogon in a serene slumber. Can't wait to go back.
<3 Stella