Can I Tell You…about my Summer Campaign

Inside Rafe New York’s Spring 2026 Merienda Shoot with Dawn Zulueta, Ayisha Lagdameo, and more.

written by Lawrence Alba for Vogue Philippines, photography by Paui Guevarra

“To see [Ayisha] now blossom into this beautiful young woman who’s very poised, very pulled together, very polished, it’s quite special.”

Captured in Forbes Park over tea, pancit, and conversation, Rafe New York’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection finds its perfect setting in an unscripted merienda.

Almost a decade since his last trip to the Philippines, New York-based designer Rafe Totengco returned home carrying no grand campaign blueprint, only a far more personal agenda: merienda with old friends and the comfort of a familiar abode. “Honestly, the whole thing started so casually,” he says. “I was in Manila for the first time in eight years, and Dawn suggested we get together for merienda and catch up.”

“It wasn’t a traditional campaign shoot. It was just me and my friends having merienda.”

That Dawn is actress Dawn Zulueta, whom Totengco has known since the late 1980s. “I’ve known Dawn since 1987. Isn’t that crazy?” he says. “I used to dress her when she was just starting in show business. I used to make a lot of her clothes, and we’ve stayed friends ever since.”

Dawn Zulueta is clutching the Isi Wicker Cut Out Handle.

The gathering, held at Zulueta’s mother-in-law’s home in Forbes Park, soon evolved into an impromptu portrait of Filipino femininity across generations. Zulueta invited her daughter, Ayisha Lagdameo, sister-in-law Tina Lagdameo, and friend Joanna Preysler Francisco. “Everyone was game,” Totengco recalls.

Joanna Preysler Francisco is holding the Janet Barley Aymmetric Hobo.

Then came a suggestion that changed the afternoon. “A day later, she was like, ‘You know, I was thinking about it. Would you like to shoot some of your bags while we’re having a merienda?'” Totengco says. “And I’m like, let me think about it. Yes!”

The Alessandra Green Solihiya Clutch.

There was no elaborate set, no stylist, and no production crew. The women styled themselves, carrying pieces from Rafe New York’s upcoming Spring/Summer 2026 collection, including woven hobos, solihiya clutches, minaudières, and intricately embroidered evening bags. As Totengco puts it, “No big production, no overthinking, self-styled—just friends hanging out, catching up, laughing, eating, and posing with the bags in between conversations.”

The Berna clutch in natural raffia with hand-embroidered lemons.

Recognizing that the spontaneity of the afternoon deserved to be captured with equal care, Totengco enlisted photographer Paui Guevarra and videographer Alfonso Fajatin to document the gathering. “I didn’t want it to be super fashion-y,” he says. “I wanted it really just to be a very relaxed atmosphere.”

Tina Lagdameo sporting the Bianca Wicker Bucket Bag.

The resulting images surprised even him. “I saw some stills from the shoot, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, they’re really kind of cute,'” he says. “They remind me of old Vogue photographs from the ’50s ladies having tea. There was something kind of charming about that.”

Joanna Preysler Francisco carrying the Lucia minaudiere.

Inspired by the Daku Balay featured in Houses That Sugar Built, a coffee-table book about the grand sugar-era ancestral homes of Iloilo, Negros Occidental, and Pampanga, the collection drew from the era’s architecture and spirit of ambition. Around them, the women gathered over a spread of adobo flakes sandwiches, cheese pimiento sandwiches, chicken empanadas, pancit canton, biko, fresh mangoes, pomelos, and tea, turning the afternoon into a celebration of timeless friendship.

“It wasn’t a traditional campaign shoot,” Totengco says. “It was just me and my friends having merienda.”