It started with nothing to wear.

The idea for Pres Haus came from a very ordinary parenting moment.

The night before multicultural day at my son's school, I realised he had nothing Filipino to wear.

So, like any slightly panicked mum, I ordered heat transfer paper from Amazon, made a design on Canva and put it on an old hoodie. It wasn't a business idea. I just wanted him to have something he felt proud to wear the next day.

But it left me wondering - why didn't we already own something?

I'm Filipino, raised in Australia, and I've always loved where I come from. I want my kids to know that part of themselves too. Our culture already shows up in so many parts of our home and the way we're raising them - but I couldn't find it reflected in the clothes I naturally wanted to buy for them.

There was Filipino apparel out there. It just wasn't us.

I wasn't looking for something that felt like a souvenir or something we'd only reach for on multicultural day. I wanted the kind of pieces I'd choose from the rack because I loved the design - and then love even more because of the story behind them.

That's where Pres Haus began.

Not with a desire to put every symbol of the Philippines onto a T-shirt, but with a curiosity about all the other ways culture lives with us.

In the call of “Laro tayo.”
In merienda after school.
In reaching for an elder's hand to mano po.
In the places, phrases and little rituals that don't always feel significant until you realise you've carried them with you.

Those are the things I want my children to know.

And those are the stories Pres Haus gets to play with.

Some references will be obvious. Others might only make sense if you grew up with them. That's part of the fun.

Because our kids don't experience Filipino culture exactly as we did - and they don't need to.

They get to make it their own.

Pres Haus is my way of giving them something to start with.

Chaz
Founder, Pres Haus