Filipino fashion designer Amir Sali has made a name for himself for intricately designing brilliant haute couture pieces for a royal princess in the Middle East and some stars in Hollywood, earning his stature in the fashion industry as The Prince of Beads.

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Amir Sali is first and foremost a son of Mindanao, Philippines. Born and raised in the island of Sulu in the southern part of the country, the young Amir was first enchanted by the rich colors of the picturesque underwater of his hometown. As a kid, he spent his free time snorkeling and diving in the seas of Sulu, and early on got fascinated by the varied color combinations of different marine species, seaweeds and pearls. In an exclusive interview with us, the designer shared how his design journey began.

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“We lived by the coastal area so most of the time, I was by the beach or diving underwater. The colors underwater became my first exposure to different palettes. I first got my inspiration from the color combinations of fish, plants and creatures underwater. You could say, the first theme park I played at was literally the underwater,” he shared.

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Discovering his love for colors, little Amir Sali expressed his fascination of the nature through drawing at the age of three.

“I’ve always loved colors.  So even before I learned my ABC’s, I was already drawing, sketching and coloring. I was not of age yet to go to nursery, but I was already drawing. I always thought pens are for sketching first, rather than for writing letters,” Amir shared.

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By first grade, young Amir would fill his notebooks with sketches of colorful bags, shoes and dresses. But his teacher and parents were not that pleased about it. “I would be punished by my teacher, while my parents made it clear that they did not want me to pursue anything that was related to women’s fashion. My father wanted me to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer.”

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Despite his family’s disapproval, Amir still continued drawing and sketching, fully embracing his young art. Observant of the culture and heritage of his hometown, and truly appreciative of its marine richness, Amir would drive inspirations for his art from the waves of the ocean, the shimmer of the sand (which he would later on describe as very similar to beads), stunning ocean creatures, as well as the striking beads and gold adornments of Muslim women’s fashion in their village. By then, he already knew he wanted to pursue a career in art and fashion.

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“Growing up in Sulu, I came from a place that’s already really multi-cultured on its own, because Mindanao was influenced by the Malays, and we have a lot of tribes too in the south. And the backdrop of it all is the pristine nature and the seas. ”

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By the time he was studying in Cebu, the queen city of Visayas, Amir was then exposed to whole new facets of the Filipino culture and arts, what with the colorful costumes of dance festivals like Sinulog, as well as diverse theater productions. He discovered he could create costumes and experiment with fabrics.

“When I was being educated in Cebu, the Visayan culture inspired me a lot too. I discovered that the Philippines has diverse and very rich culture and heritage in its every island.  I am blessed to be born in a country with many explosions of cultures that inspired me. I believe that’s what makes Filipinos so creative, because we are naturally mixed when it come to cultures and influences. We do not put barriers nor walls. We are naturally very welcoming to something new to us that can inspire us,” Sali reflected. By high school, he was already designing dresses for his classmates for prom and parties, or he would source out lovely fabrics for his neighbors who wanted to sew clothes. When he first designed a dress for a friend, Amir first came to a realization that he had found his confidence in actually creating clothes for people.

Still, he acknowledged the fact that he was forbidden to pursue a career in fashion. But he knew he could always incorporate arts and style into his life.

Discovering the World of Fashion

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By college, Amir decided to take up Fine Arts Major in Interior Designing at the University of San Carlos in Cebu. He thought this course was the closest he could get to working with fabrics and fashion designing.

“We had six units of Fashion Design, as well as Fabric Technology. I would get a grade of 1.20 for these major subjects because I was really into arts and fashion design,” he said. On the side, Amir was already enjoying side hustle money from creating clothes for some of his friends and neighbors, without his parents’ knowledge.

Soon, he finished his degree and saw himself working as an interior designer for furniture factories in Cebu. He would accept projects in Mindanao too, which then led him to be interested in Egyptian arts when it comes to furniture design.

He flew to Cairo, Egypt to get his masters in Interior Design Major in Pharaohic Arts. He studied at the American College in Tahrir area in Cairo. That’s when he met a woman who he never thought was a true-blooded princess.

Bijoux, Paris & Middle Eastern Royalty

Amir met the daughter of Saudi Arabia’s crowned King Ab Dullah. Due to his innate brilliance and taste, he was easily commissioned to do the furnishings of the princess’ palace. He would design and make lavish curtains with very intricate embellishments, rooted from the beading culture of Sulu island in the Philippines.

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The princess, curious of how Amir could do such unusual embellishments on curtains, and amazed at his sketches of dresses that he’d draw on his free time, then decided that she would rather have Amir as her couture designer rather than her interior curator.  Surprised by Amir’s lack of formal education from a real fashion school, the princess offered to send her designer to the prestigious fashion academy of Lesage in Paris, France to further advance his knowledge and skills in haute couture.

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Amir found himself acquiring a very prestigious degree in fashion embellishment in Paris. Backed up by over a century of mastery in the arts of embroidery, fashion school Lesage has been the authority when it comes to intricate fashion embellishments, which caters to the world’s biggest fashion houses such as Maison Chanel, Maison Dior, Christian Lacroix, Valentino , Yves  Saint Laurent and Roberto Cavalli, to name a few.

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Although he was already in the romantic and stylish city of Paris seeing the global fashion scene as a whole, his further exposure and mastery of embroidery, bijoux and lace have inspired Amir more to go back to his own design roots when it comes to aesthetic and details.

“My time at Lesage made me feel all the more connected to my Muslim culture in the Philippines. And that I am indeed a son of Mindanao, with its rich beadwork culture and well-adorned people. I’ve always loved clothes with embellishments. I love clothes with textures. Actually, I don’t like plain clothes. For me, wearing plain clothes is not fashion at all,” he said.

“At Lesage, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much I’ve always been connected to threads and needles. That I’ve been so connected to embroidery. I thought, I would want to have a different style, but the best source of your own brilliance would be your very own culture. So I focused on my strong Filipino roots. It is the one thing that has really pushed me- my being Filipino. That’s how I learned that  some people are meant to be born to do a specific thing. I truly felt I was born to draw, to design, to embellish, and to do exquisite beadworks.”

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“Most of the fashion designers in the Philippines are experts in master cutting, or in fashion design, or experts in fabric technology. It is very seldom here to hear about a fashion designer who majored in beadwork, bijoux or accessories. And I take pride in making embellishments my main expertise because it is inspired by my roots and passion as a designer who grew up around Muslim culture.”

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Amir recalled how grateful he was for the opportunity given to him by his royal client. “The princess financed my schooling in Paris for the sole purpose of exclusively designing haute couture pieces for her,” he said.

By the time he got his degree from Lesage, Amir came back to Saudi Arabia, wherein he launched his premiere collection at a grand fashion presentation at the Al Twaic Palace at the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dubbed as Dar Noor, or The Light, Amir’s first runway collection was made up of 100 creations, all in white palette with heavenly and angelic appeal, and with lots of draping and Grecian effect. More than 3, 000 audience watched the fashion show.

In his almost two decades of haute couture career for royalty in Saudi Arabia, Amir Sali had dressed up the born-princess of Saudi in lavish gowns, with top-of-the-line threadwork and embroideries. He also had presented 14 grand runway shows in the Middle East.

“I’ve always focused on haute couture during my time in Saudi Arabia. I was not into prêt-a-porter. I staged grand fashion shows at the kingdom of the capital city, wherein it was highly restricted to do fashion shows. It was only the crowned princess’ permission and support that made it possible for me to stage all those 14 fashion shows,” Amir said.  “As gratitude towards the princess who discovered me and financed my fashion schooling, my original 5-year-contract was extended to 18 years.”

The extensive mastery of embellishment, beading, threadwork and bijoux has given birth to Amir Sali, the Prince of Beads.

Embracing His Filipino Identity

Although he was having a very successful fashion design career in the Middle East, the Prince of Beads decided to come back home to the Philippines.

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“I was born a Filipino so I believe that I should be in the Philippines. I want to be identified as a Filipino designer because I want to serve my country. I want to be known on the other side of the world as a Filipino fashion designer,” he said.

The Prince of Beads returned to the Philippines in 2009. He was very happy to rediscover the Filipina women who were at the time were all the more in love with glamming up and getting dressed up like a princess. Soon, he’s grown his high-life clientele composed of tycoons’ wives, Hollywood stars like Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez and of course, local celebrities.

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“I am the kind of fashion designer who has truly mastered the art of embellishment. My process is about making your own textures. I am unlike other designers, who usually make use of what’s readily available already in terms of materials. My expertise in embellishment allows me to start the creation process from the vision first, followed by sourcing out the materials I need in my own fabric with threadwork, and in that sense, I can never be copied, and each creation cannot easily be exposed. It cannot be made through mass production, because every creation is truly a masterpiece. And that makes my every creation a truly haute couture piece.”

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One of his proudest milestones as he returned home is being able to impart his international level of expertise in haute couture and embellishments to Filipino artists.

“Initially for me, the fulfillment of my career was already met when I designed for the royalty in the Middle East. It would always be one of the biggest milestones in my career that the world’s royalty with the most discriminating tastes loved my work for years. I consider the royalty as the best clients in the world because they give justice to your work, and they are not at all scared to spend just to look at their best.  It is truly a personal fulfillment.”

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“But it is another achievement for me to embrace my identity as a Filipino designer who has planted roots of style and art from the beadwork and gold adornment culture and natural resources of Sulu,” he said. “And to share what I know to my team in the Philippines is truly rewarding as well.”

When asked what made him a truly unique designer, Amir had these things to say. “I’m not really into making myself the best among the rest. The most important thing for me is when I do things, I am truly happy doing it. That’s why for me, it is very important that you’re really connected to your creator. I am a designer, and I want to be regarded as a very spiritual designer. I am so connected to God and I believe that God gives the wisdom, the knowledge and the right direction. I always acknowledge God in everything that I do. No matter what religious background you believe in, there’s a Supreme Being that created all of us that made us appreciate the beauty of art, ” he said.

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“The art of clothes is life itself. Your clothes speak of many ideas– that’s why there is life in fashion. That’s why when you wear clothes, you are wearing a living art. Art is something eternal. Something that will never die. Art does not come from human beings– it comes from God. That’s why it is forever. Some people say that a certain art may not be trendy anymore, but it will always surface again one day. Because art never dies. It is timeless and boundless. For me, the creative process is a spiritual experience in itself because I get to connect to the artistry of God, and that’s why I would always give him back the glory through my art. God is the ultimate source of art as he invented colors and structures, and he is the supreme artist and designer of all,” he concluded.

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Indeed, Amir Sali has mastered breathing life to his own art through his acknowledgement that God is the greatest artist of all. That on its own makes this style visionary a true royalty in his field, truly deserving of his title as the local fashion industry’s Prince of Beads.

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