For many, Paris is known as the City of Lights or City of Love. For Julia Barba-Baudlot, creator and founder of contemporary accessory brand La Filippine, the latter rang especially true. The Filipina, who was then working for her mother’s costume jewellery company, was on a work trip to the city in 2007 to participate in a trade show. During her visit, she had a chance encounter with a Frenchman who would later become her husband.
“A friend had dragged me to a random birthday party. And, coincidentally, my husband was brought there by his friend,” recalls the Cebuborn fashion entrepreneur. “But it was not to matchmake us, though. Apparently, the birthday girl did not know many people in Paris then, and we were all there to make the day