MC3 Fashion Boutique

Mija & I are also business partners. We manage a small fashion store in Vigan that we named MC3 Fashion Boutique, but as per DTI registration it is Ur MC3 General Merchandizing. It was Mija's mother, Tita Vicky, who actually coined the name "MC3" referring to our identical initials M & C (Ma Victoria Cu, Mija Cu, Marty Cachapero).

Putting up this business venture was the common idea of Mija and Tita Vicky when they realized clothes they purchased in Hong Kong were piling up in their house. After few more purchases in Hong Kong and Guangzhou to augment our stocks, we finally decided to set the boutique up. We converted the former conference room portion of My Vigan Home Hotel (owned by Mija's family) as the site of our boutique. It is still vivid in my mind the time we were still planning and preparing for its opening with all the late night hassle and tussle, the setting up of the cabinets, packing & pricing of items, listing of inventories and hiring of staff. But all our efforts were not put to waste as we were able to wrap things up before our opening date, something we did not think was possible that time since we just had a couple of weeks to prepare.

We coincided the opening date with the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 2005. Just recently, we celebrated our 5th year anniversary.

My Vigan Home Hotel - On the right side is our MC3 Fashion Boutique

Clothes, toys, accessories, and bags still inside the boxes and plastic bags

Packing and pricing of items

Setting up the cabinets and displaying our items

Our cashier table

Taantararaan! After 2 weeks of preparation, we were ready to roll