I Wear Where I Come From

I don’t just get dressed.

I remember.

Where I come from.
What shaped me.
The hands, the places, the stories woven into the things I choose to wear.

When I was younger, I used to follow trends.

Well, a bit.

I wasn’t too big on branded things, though.

I wore what I’m comfortable in and what I could afford.

And long-time followers know that I used to sell clothes.

So that was convenient.

I wore the pieces from my collections.

Now that I’m older and seeing the effects of fast fashion,

I’m taking a step back and thinking about my style choices.

I bought this beautiful inabel skirt for my debut at the Philippine Book Festival 2026.

I wanted to represent my grandfather’s culture and heritage.

I wanted him to be part of that day.

I had become a voracious reader because of him and that love for reading has turned into a love for writing.

It was because of him that I became an author.

Wearing my inabel skirt on opening day was my way of honoring him.

And thanking him for the door he has opened to a world I didn’t know I could be a part of.

(And what do you know! The Ilocano teachers sat in front of my booth by pure coincidence! One teacher went to my booth to look at my books and she said they’re from Ilocos and I said I’m wearing inabel. And then she said, “I’m wearing inabel, too!”) 😊

Today, style, for me, doesn’t stop at looking good.

It’s about recognition.

Of self.
Of history.
Of the life I’m building now, stitched together with the life I’ve lived before.

So when I wear pieces like this—
I’m not just putting on an outfit.

I’m carrying something with me.

I’m choosing beauty with roots.

And that starts with my style.

My story continues.

—-

With elegance and quiet fire,
Lady E

Founder, Glow by Lady E
An editorial space for stories, art, and intentional living

Comments

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There’s something particularly satisfying about finishing a product you’ve already written about. Not testing it. Not forming first impressions. Not wondering whether I’ll still like it three weeks from now. Finished. My Molang Honey sheet masks and this body scrub both made it all the way to the end. (Finally for the Molang sheet masks, right?) I’ve reviewed both before, so I won’t review them all over again here. But perhaps using something until there is nothing left to use is its own kind of review. Beauty products come through my bathroom rather frequently. Some are lovely for a week. Some get pushed to the back of a shelf. Some simply stop working for me. And then there are the ones that quietly disappear because I kept reaching for them. Maybe an empty container is the shortest review of all. I liked it enough to finish it. If you want to read my thought about these products, just type them on my search bar. —- With elegance and quiet fire, Lady E Founder, Glow by Lady E...

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Come sit with me for a while. I have my journal open, and tonight I’ve been thinking about something I suspect I do more often than I realize. I turn healing into another thing I need to accomplish. I want to know when I’ll be over something. When I’ll stop thinking about it. When something that hurt will finally stop hurting. When I’ll feel like myself again. And somewhere along the way, healing quietly becomes another deadline. Another invisible date on a calendar. Another thing I can somehow be late for. But maybe healing doesn’t work particularly well under project management. Maybe there are things I will understand quickly and things I’ll have to revisit again and again. Maybe I’ll feel completely fine one day and unexpectedly tender the next. That doesn’t mean I’ve gone backwards. It means I’m still moving through it. I remember one day, many years ago, when I had fibromyalgia. I lived in constant pain. I just couldn’t get a good day. And then one day, in the office...

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