To Bea Soriano-Dee's 272,000 Instagram followers who patiently await her intermittent posts and to the hundreds of thousands more who follow Sunnies Studios and all of its affiliates, Bea is still very much the “It” girl she was labeled a decade ago.
Despite her proclivity for a more private existence, one that is made happy by the hard, serious work she looks forward to everyday, Bea still manages to work the part, but decidedly in her own way and on her own terms.
Bea is one of the co-founders of Sunnies Studio, a brand that she owns and runs with husband Eric Dee Jr. and best friends, Georgina Wilson and Martine Cajucom-Ho.
Her 2015 wedding to Eric Jr., the tall and handsome son of successful food entrepreneurs Eric and Beng Dee, showcased just how adeptly the gracious Bea manages her signature understatement with the high-gloss of the world she inhabits.
An intimate affair, by Filipino standards at least, her ‘country’ wedding at Antonio’s was reflective of who she is—warm and simple, beautiful and polished, and, as necessary, always camera-ready.
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Top with sleeve pleated detail and skirt with side pleated detail, WEAVE. Gold bangle, LES NÉRÉIDES. PHOTO: JOSEPH PASCUAL
The youngest daughter of Jefferson Soriano, the mayor of Tuguegarao, and his wife Eleanor, Bea is an elegant vision of effortless chic who turns heads instantly. While outsiders may credit this to her tall, willowy frame or her long black hair and intense doe-like eyes,those who know her well understand that it is not only Bea’s physical beauty that captivates but is the ease of her presence that draws people in.
Bea began modeling professionally at the age of 18, while a pre-Med student at the Ateneo de Manila University. In her senior year, after founding Charlie Apparel, her first fashion brand, she realized that more than becoming a doctor, and much more than modeling, it was her entrepreneurial endeavor that made her happiest. “I modeled for three years and it never made me as happy or as fulfilled the way owning and managing my own brand did,” she says.
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With Eric as her boyfriend and business partner, the two built Charlie Apparel five branches strong. The brand was a commercial success for several years, but the couple’s business acumen made them very much aware that with more fast-fashion players entering the local retail market, they needed an exit strategy from the apparel business.
They knew that their sunglasses were making up approximately 70 percent of their current sales and decided to maximize the obvious opportunity that was presenting itself.
Bea recalls, “We said to ourselves, let’s give them what they want and sell only sunglasses in a bigger way. I remember approaching a lot of my friends with the idea and either they were too busy or didn’t get the concept. George was actually the last friend I spoke to and she was on board immediately.”
The three soon became four, when Georgina’s cousin Martine Cajucom decided to move from Los Angeles to Manila. Before she came home, the three partners had already been soliciting her help in the branding of their sunglasses and her professional experience proved seminal in the creation of the Sunnies signature aesthetic.
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A success from the get-go, Sunnies by Charlie was born in 2013. Offering stylish sunglasses at accessible price points, the brand was an instant hit on social media, particularly on Instagram. The aesthetic-driven platform proved to be ripe for the visual-forward Sunnies that seduced customers with its Instagram-worthy content.
At a time when people were just beginning to understand and appreciate the Instagram app, only a few knew how to optimize it. With their individual popularity growing on Instagram (the four partners have a combined 3.5 million followers), Sunnies by Charlie ran with the idea of utilizing the platform as a driver of sales. They've never looked back. A year later, realizing the power of the Sunnies name, they dropped the “by Charlie” and rebranded as Sunnies Studios. From sunglasses, Sunnies moved swiftly into the optical arena offering simple and affordable prescriptive eyewear under the Sunnies Specs Optical brand.
The team opened its second international location for Sunnies Studios in Vietnam in late September (Sunnies has silently been available in Guam for some time) and is working on bringing the brand to 14 more countries soon through an international partner.
“It’s really a milestone for our company,” she continues. “It has been our goal to expand the brand globally since day one and that’s how we intend to grow the Sunnies Studios and Sunnies Specs business in the immediate future.”
In 2016, the team opened the first of four Sunnies Cafés. “The café brought life to the brand,” shares Bea. “Having a café solidified Sunnies as a true lifestyle brand and we couldn’t have braved it so early if Eric’s family wasn’t in the food business.
In August, the highly anticipated cosmetic brand, Sunnies Face, was launched with Fluffmatte, a range of nine shades of matte lipsticks. Working with the largest cosmetics maker in the world—the same one that creates products for the industry’s most celebrated names—Sunnies has access to some of the best quality formulas in the business.
Since they were introduced, the lipsticks have received nothing but rave reviews from beauty editors, influencers, and end users. And while Bea credits the brand’s success to the right mix of branding, packaging, and marketing executed by her partners George, Martine, and Jess Wilson, the Sunnies Face brand manager and the newest addition to their team, she beams with pride when complimented on the quality of the line, since product development falls under her purview.
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“At Sunnies, we are extremely product-centric, and we really do our best to give what we can at an accessible price. We know that behind marketing and branding, if we don’t have a high-quality product, then we won’t succeed," she says.
The lipsticks have been so well-received, in fact, that weeks after the brand’s launch, they were completely sold out at both Sunnies Face freestanding stores, in Glorietta and U.P. Town Center, and on Lazada, its official online retail partner.
“People say it was a marketing ploy—that we claimed to be sold out, or how we reduced our store hours and limited the number of pieces we sold to each customer, until we had to close down our stores for a week, then they saw that it wasn’t just hype or marketing,” she explains. “The dilemma was real and, of course, we would have wanted to sell more product if we had it.”
A recent delivery of the limited-edition frosted Christmas packaging has kept customer’s interest piqued while they eagerly wait for the next installment of product that will complete the Sunnies Face story.
And with the brand’s recent features in beauty bibles Bustle and Allure, it seems Sunnies Face is headed the right direction.
With the business they built and the life they lead, one has to ask how working in close proximity with her spouse and her best friends has affected their personal relationships. Bea says she is fortunate there is nothing but love and laughs between the four partners.
“At work, Eric and I have separate responsibilities but it's nice to know that we are both working toward one vision. Although we may be in the same office, and even if he’s right beside me, I feel like every day I miss him. It’s definitely not for everybody but we are so in sync, and we have never fought about business—about married life, yes, but not about business.”
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Indeed, by all accounts, Bea is living the life that many young girls dream of—a husband she adores, two beautiful children at home, a booming business with much potential for growth, and the opportunity to work and share her success with the people that she loves.
Photographs by Joseph Pascual Produced and styled by Paolo Chua, assisted by April Lozada Makeup by Patrick Alcober for Make Up For Ever and Apple Faraon Hair by Ron Vegaros Additional art direction by Sandy Aranas, assisted by Grace Sacares Shot on location at Artelano 11 Special thanks to Eric Paras
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