Pinoy shoemaker Jojo Bragais chosen as latest Miss Universe partner | ABS-CBN

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Pinoy shoemaker Jojo Bragais chosen as latest Miss Universe partner

Pinoy shoemaker Jojo Bragais chosen as latest Miss Universe partner

Mario Dumaual,

ABS-CBN News

 | 

Updated Apr 17, 2021 08:16 PM PHT

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Photo from Jojo Bragais' Facebook account

Jojo Bragais, a young Pinoy shoe entrepreneur who famously outfitted the shoes of many local and international beauty queens and celebrities, has been officially announced by the Miss Universe organization as its latest partner for for the 69th edition of the pageant.

In its social media posts on Saturday, the Miss Universe organization referred to Bragais as its official footwear.

"All of our delegates walk with purpose, strength and in their own unique stride. Presenting the official footwear sponsor of the 69th MISS UNIVERSE competition Jojo Bragais, who empowers women to "Walk. Win." the MUO said on their Facebook page.

The announcement ends several weeks of speculations about Bragais’ next big role in pageantry, where he made a name for himself.

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“I am grateful for the Miss Universe organization for the trust they have given Bragais. They made my dream possible by becoming the first Pinoy footwear partner for the pageant," Bragais told ABS-CBN News.

“We’re scheduled to leave late April for Florida for the pageant preliminaries preparations and to interact with the candidates. All the shoes to be used by the candidates should be transported in advance, ideally by May 5."

“Big deal talaga ito,” added Bessie Besana, project director of Bragais, citing the significance of another Pinoy achievement. “All of the shoes are proudly gawang Pinoy, crafted in Binangonan, Rizal by Filipinos.”

Bragais has prepared between 150 to 200 pairs of shoes for the 75 candidates.

“It will have options in color shadings to fit the candidates skin tones,“ added Besana. “It will also show the new face and style of Bragais shoes from its previous chunky platform look. Now it will be square with single straps; the heels will be pin-type, manipis ang takong. Ang pagkamolde ng sapatos, kahit four and half inches, komportable.”

Surprisingly, the Bragais-Miss U footwear line is called “Jehza ” inspired by Binibining Pilipinas Supranational 2018 Jehza Huelar-Simon who was the first to use the Bragais shoe design.

“Sobrang kinilig ako nung nalaman ko magiging bahagi ng Miss Universe ang shoes na ipinangalan sa akin," Simon, who is currently based in Davao, told ABS-CBN News.

“I may not be in the MU pageant physically supporting our representative, Rabiya Mateo, but I am happy to take part in her journey kahit yung shoes ko man lang nakasupport sa kanya, giving her the confidence she needs to win. Also it was never in my wildest dream or imagination that global beauties will wear a Filipino made shoe carrying my name."

Bragais is more famously known as part of the team of Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray but even way back, he had other muses in pageantry, including Binibining Pilipinas Supranational 2014 Yvethe Santiago who first requested him to do her shoes.

Binibining Pilipinas matriarch Stella Marquez Araneta took notice of his shoe design and since 2015 until now, Bragais is the pageant’s shoe provider.

“Sabi niya, ‘Sino’ng gumawa ng shoes mo? Parang maganda.’ Pinatawag nila ako, they said, ‘I like your shoes, but I want this kind of color for the girls… How do you like the idea of being our official shoe provider for the next year?” recalled Bragais in an ABS-CBN News interview.

“Noong una parang hindi ko siya binigyan ng atensyon, kasi akala ko joke-joke lang, akala ko parang bugso lang ng damdamin. Wala naman akong masyadong alam sa pageantry. Eventually noong ginawa ko na siya, ‘yung pagtanggap ng tao, sobrang bilis, sobrang laki.”

TV shows like “It’s Showtime”, national directors of foreign pageants followed suit along with international celebrities such as Tyra Banks, former Spice Girl Mel B, Bebe Rexha, and Dua Lipa wearing his creations.

His showroom in Scout Borromeo in Quezon City is also sought out by local and foreign customers

Insiders told ABS-CBN News it took nearly a month of legal process before Bragais came to terms with Miss Universe management who initiated the partnership.

The pageant had previously tapped Chinese Laundry Heels as its shoe provider. The pageant had also tapped Filipino US immigrant Olivia Quido-Co as its skin care partner since 2019.

As for Bragais, the Miss Universe is an unexpected harvest in his struggle to be become a better person after a dark period of depression years ago.

“If you’re heartbroken and feeling mo wala ka nang chance or nawalan ka ng direksyon sa mundo, or at some point parehas ko na you’re planning to take your own life — it’s not the end for you.Every ending has a new beginning. Sikapin mo lang mabuhay on a daily basis, kasi lahat ng bagay magiging okay," he told ABS-CBN News.

And now Bragais’ wish is no longer written in the stars. “Yung dream ko naman sa Bragais is actually to be a brand Filipinos can be proud of,” he said.

"There’s LV, there’s Gucci from other countries. Gusto ko, meron ding Bragais mula Pilipinas na everyone could be proud of, na talagang gawang Pinoy because everything is just made here.”

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In Conversation With Renowned Cultural Theorist and Transfeminine Poet Jaya Jacobo

In Conversation With Renowned Cultural Theorist and Transfeminine Poet Jaya Jacobo

Metro.Style

 | 

Updated Feb 20, 2025 11:02 PM PHT

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Jaya Jacobo


Filipinos’ contribution to various fields on a global platform is stronger now than ever. There are wins to celebrate—be it in entertainment, sports, or culinary, among others. Filipino talent in literature is gaining more attention, too, more so with the Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse or FBM) providing a venue for Filipino writers to showcase their nation’s cultural landscape through their own takes on storytelling.

The Philippines is the Guest of Honor for this year’s fair—FBM’s 77th edition—and its theme, “The Imagination Peoples the Air,” is inspired by José Rizal whose works embody the transformative power of imagination in shaping identity and advocating progress.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s largest trade fair based on the number of publishing companies represented. Writer, poet, renowned cultural theorist, and transfeminine thinker Jaya Jacobo graced the 2024 FBM Guest of Honor Philippines preview press conference held last October, where she had the opportunity to read poetry from Arasahas, a book she published in 2023 that contains 40 poems. 

About that opportunity to stand on the podium, Jaya told Metro.Style, “Frankfurter Buchmesse is such a wonderful platform for my community to show what we can offer. I’m so humbled and honored that I was given an opportunity to speak when the Guest of Honor program was unveiled. It was such an empowering moment… It was heartwarming to be given that space and opportunity to speak freely. And I think I gained so much confidence in Frankfurt, speaking about the art and the poetics that emanate from my community.”

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Jaya Jacobo is currently with the Department of Women and Development  Studies of the College of Social Work and Community Development of UP Diliman. She previously lived in the United Kingdom, where she lectured at Coventry University, focusing on transfeminist pedagogies across literature, art, and performance.

 “A poetics of transformation” is what Jaya offers to the table, using the pedagogy of transformation as the springboard for discussions that go well beyond the trans proposition. Echoing the opinion of her transfeminine colleagues, Jaya shared, “On one hand, we are introducing ourselves as trans artists, but on the other hand, we don’t want to be limited by the label… I am a trans gender writer but I am not just a trans gender writer.” Jaya’s work poeticizes her narrative, both grounded on personal history and the nation’s past and at the same time enriched by an imaginative look into the future. 

At FBM, Jaya read her poem, “Hiyas”/”Gems,” the poem so significant to her that helped kick things into gear for her manuscript. “When you say poetics, it’s about making. It’s about creating. How to conjure something and how to make conjugation possible through materials. And for a writer, poetry is about language. But language, as far as a poet is concerned, does so much more,” she enthused, describing how a word conjures up an image that comes with “a reality out there that has happened already or yet to happen.” 

When she was writing this particular piece, two images came to her: duhat (which her translator, Christian Benitez, translated to “plum”—one of her favorite fruits in Bicol that brings her back to her childhood) and a pearl at the bottom of the ocean. Alone in her condo unit in Quezon City, Philippines during the pandemic lockdown, Jaya embraced this sense of wonder, and with those two images possessing her at the same time, she thought of having them switch places. She wrote, “Ang perlas na dapat / nasa loob / ng kabibe, hayo’t / nakalaylay / sa dulo ng sanga / At ang duhat na sana’y / naghantong doon / hiyas na babantayan ng dakilang / Pugita.”

Poetry inspires freedom in interpretation and expression. “When I was able to complete those lines, the way they revealed themselves to me, in my mind, I thought that something significant in my soul also shook the way earthquakes would shake the world. I felt free,” she explained.  


Jaya receives her copies of the second edition of Arasahas, Mga Tula which was a finalist at the 42nd National Book Awards. | Photo from @savagemindbookshop  

Born and raised in Naga, Philippines, Jaya left for the UK in 2020 to pursue internal Gender Studies at Coventry University. Having lived in what she describes as “a place that breeds literary imagination,” Jaya can’t help but hold a newfound appreciation for Philippine literature. “I’m so proud of our literary tradition because of its tropicality,” she noted, citing how the Philippines is one of the mega-biodiverse countries of the world. “I’ve seen so many beautiful countries. And I can say that despite how we ravaged our nature, the Philippines is still so beautiful… Our ancestors spoke with so much reverence for nature. And then because of our strategic location, we’ve been influenced by the cultures of China and India, and our ancestors were able to transform these encounters into beautiful expressions as well. And Philippine literature has had a relationship with classicism as well as through a post-colonial relation, a decolonial relation with the West. So, napaka-unique ng writing tradition natin. And I’m proud to be part of that tradition.”     

Jaya started early on as a writer. She grew up surrounded by literature. “As a kid, I was a voracious reader, and my parents were teachers in a public school,” she told Metro.Style. She was part of her school’s publication in grade school and high school until she was sent to a summer program in Ateneo De Manila in 1997. It was her 3-month summer experience of full intense literature which truly kick-started her career as a writer. 

That summer experience also brought her fate to Danton Remoto, an award-winning author, poet, novelist, journalist, and essayist. Dante’s passion inspired her to push the envelope as a writer. “I credit him for introducing me to the world of writing and writers. So, it was a summer of sheer joy reading authors from all over the world in English and in translation. And, we weren't just discussing literature, but also writing literature,” Jaya recalled. 


Jaya Jacobo at the 2024 FBM Guest of Honor Philippines preview press conference 


She received a full scholarship to study in New York where she got her master’s in Comparative Literature and Studies and doctorate in Comparative Literature. After finishing her PhD in New York, she also had the opportunity to pursue postdoctoral fieldwork in Brazil.

In New York, she said, “You are confronted with a stark reality of American racial diversity and you get to learn about the history of racism and slavery.” In Brazil, she had eye-opening experiences that exposed her to the realities of queer people of color, as she worked with black trans women in the Favelas, educating her more on the “intersectionalities of gender, race, and class.” She returned to the Philippines during the pandemic and later had the chance to venture abroad in the UK.

All these experiences—from Bicol to Quezon City to New York to Rio to the UK and back—have been distilled in Jaya’s poetry collection. Her work, while it doesn’t directly depict her trans experience, is a reflection of transformation—how Jaya “transforms objects into other objects, herself into other persons, into other women.”

“My concern is on transformation in its cosmic sense,” she expounds. “How does one transform? What does it mean to transform? How does one go about it? And how does one live with it?” 



Circling back to her experience at the Frankfurt Book Fair’s Guest of Honor Philippines preview press conference, Jaya noted, “I’m not a representative of my community. I don’t want to do that. But it was an opportunity for the world to countenance who we are and what we can do.”

By speaking her truth, Jaya unknowingly inspires through her story and musings. By contributing to Philippine literature in a way that is authentic to her journey and at the same time a mirror to multiple facets of truth, she encourages progressive thinking.

Regarding transformation, we asked Jaya about her thoughts on the modern view of beauty in fragmentation, where women are encouraged to embrace brokenness in a society long shaped to believe women need a man to complete them. “It’s enough that you are beautiful and powerful,” Jaya affirmed. “There is power in being wounded… When I was able to embrace my woundedness, to embrace my flaws. And when I stopped trying to be invincible and formidable, that’s when I got to know myself better.”  


At the 76th Frankfurt Buchmesse, Jaya Jacobo talked about her debut poetry collection, ARASAHAS, and the need for trans-creation practices. | Photo from @savagemindbookshop


Jaya further expressed her point, citing the story of famous opera singer Maria Callas (who’s portrayed by Angelina Jolie in a biopic) and how a flaw can be transformed into something beautiful. “Maria Callas did not have the most beautiful voice,” Jaya shared, “But she remains the most brilliant of sopranos because she sang from the depths of her pain.” 

Finding beauty in pain is also something obliquely resonant in modern literature inspired by Philippine history and culture, where a country so wounded gives birth to talents who give a sense of pride with their foray into the global landscape. 

The Guest of Honor Philippines program at the Frankfurt  Book Fair aims to showcase the archipelago’s history, literature, and heritage. As FBM’s president and CEO Juergen Boos said, “Filipino literature remains relatively unknown. As the country steps into its role as guest of honor, we’ll learn much about the importance of storytelling and the current cultural landscape of the nation.” It’s high time Filipino literature is celebrated on such a huge platform.

“It’s like a city of books. In those halls, you see the comings and goings of the industry: writers, translators, publishers just hopping from one meeting to another,” Jaya recalled the vibrancy and dynamism of that exciting experience. “It was just lovely seeing how colleagues in the book industry were rushing from one hall to another. In Frankfurt, our country will be represented by a diversity of experiences from the regions.” 

After all, the Philippines is an archipelago with 7,641 islands and more than 100 million citizens. Many of these stories have found their places on the pages of books, but many more stories are waiting to be told. The Philippines being a guest of honor at FBM is just the beginning of boosting interest in Filipino books internationally.

The Philippines’ participation in the 2025 Leipzig Book Fair and its Guest of Honour role at the 2025 FBM have been made possible through the vision of Senator Loren Legarda. It is a partnership and the joint efforts of the National Book Development Board (NBDB), the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda.

Senator Loren Legarda delivered a speech during the ceremonial handover from Italy to the Philippines at the unveiling of the latter's Guest of Honour role at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair. She talked about the vision for fostering deeper connections between the Philippines and the global literary community. She also thanked FBM and the global publishing community for the platform to share Filipinos' narratives, ending her speech by encouraging everyone to tell stories that matter and "to continue to be advocates, supporters, enthusiastic participants in the vibrant world of literature and its capacity to build bridges across cultures."

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