Hello, Lookbook.

My name is Angelo. Although some of my friends like to amputate the O, and so to them I’m just Angel, period. I was born in 1979, and don’t the Smashing Pumpkins have a trippy song named after that year, which makes it hard for me to lie about my age. I’m a writer, although I haven’t really written about fashion for a long time now (well, except on here when I have to describe my looks, but that don’t count, no). I used to be a magazine and Website editor, too, and was a stylist and graphic designer for a time there. I used to write poetry, and became a published poet at the age of 16—the muse would slip away from my hands four years later, and who knows when it’s coming back.

I’m a sucker for beaches, and I’m lucky to be living in this big little city south of the P.I called Cebu where the beaches (and those of the neighboring islands) are amazing (check out my beach shots!). I haven’t really been around much, but I do love to travel. Currently I am obsessed with all things California, and my favorite city in the whole world is Los Angeles. I grew up to rock music (my Mom and my four brothers are very talented guitarists), and I cried when I saw the Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails live last summer—so now I only have Radiohead, Bjork, Sonic Youth and Metallica to go, and it would be OK for me to die. I am totally in love with Kate Moss, but not as much as I love the female bassists: D'arcy Wretzky, Kim Gordon, Melissa Auf der Maur, Paz Lenchantin, and Ginger Reyes. I like to eat. A lot. Which explains why I’m twice as big as the regular Lookbook.nu guy.

Fashion has always been a big part of me. I remember being a little boy and I would arrange my clothes (even my socks!) according to color—I understood the importance of starting with a palette at a very young age. I remember falling asleep with my Mom’s Vogues under my pillow, hoping they would make my dreams take on the Derek Ungless kind of art direction, the Arthur Elgort kind of lighting, the Tatjana Patitz kind of bearing. It was only natural that I would eventually develop a somewhat quixotic sense of personal style.

People often ask me why I’m not in the business of fashion: “You love it so much—why not make a living out of it?” Well, I did exactly that, but only for a while. That wasn’t my true calling; I was born to do other things. There are other people far more creative, and far more talented—what’s wrong with standing back and watching them play? The view is much better from down here. Fashion is meant to be desired, and I’d like to keep it that way. Besides, writing has always been my first love. But I will never forget that it was fashion that brought me here. As what Elle Macpherson once said, “I wanted so badly to study ballet, but it was really all about wearing the tutu.”