MANILA, Philippines?For one so young, singer Isabella Gonzalez is naturally drawn to old stuff.

?I come from a family of collectors,? she explains.

Mom, singer Kuh Ledesma, is famous for collecting antiques, particularly wooden cabinets, and architectural magazines. Dad, Louie Gonzalez, was into army supplies, old Zippo lighters and early Leica cameras.

When she was a kid growing up in the United States, Isabella would tag along with her parents to flea markets near their home in Venice, California. ?I wanted to start my own collection, but didn?t know what to collect,? she recalls.

She was soon picking up mementos here and there, mostly vintage pieces reminiscent of a more genteel era.

Today, her choices in fashion, accessories, movies and music lean toward the classic, too. ?I didn?t seek them out; they found me,? she says of her favorite things.

Hats

She?s a girl who wears many hats, literally. Like her mom, Isabella loves headgear.

Whenever she tours abroad, she shops in hat stores for her ever-growing collection. ?I like hats with personality,? she notes. She got a bowler from St. Louis and a circus hat from Los Angeles.

For her birthday (April 22), she threw a ?mad hatter party.? She relates, ?I ended up providing the hats for my guests.?

Her most prized possession she has dubbed. ?Audrey/Barbra? because, ?It looks like the hat Audrey Hepburn wore in ?Breakfast at Tiffany?s.? But if you fold it up, it also resembles what Barbra Streisand wore in ?On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.??

She once attended an Audrey-themed bridal shower. ?I wore the hat matched with shades identical to those that Audrey wore in ?Breakfast.??

Fedoras

Onstage, Isabella feels most confident wearing a fedora.

She proudly reveals that the fedora hat worn by Kuh, Zsazsa Padilla, Pops Fernandez and Regine Velasquez on the ?Divas4Divas? poster was from her collection.

Hats, Kuh?s baby asserts, ?can transform not just your outfit, but your whole personality. It?s good to wear one when you?re having a bad-hair day. It?s also part of history. In the old days, people wore hats all the time.?

Craft projects

One day, she was feeling adventurous. ?I asked my mom?s costurera how to make hats. I ended up teaching myself by covering a top hat with different swatches of fabric.? The result is one of her favorite pet projects.

Another fave is her personalized, sequined microphone.

?It?s not finished; it?s a work in progress. But I plan to use the mic in my shows.?

It?s a tribute to La Streisand, who uses a signature white mic, she says.
Caps, berets
But there are less formal, less costume-y hats in her closet.

The few baseball caps she possesses are invariably meaningful, the most significant being the University of Southern California cap that belonged to her dad. ?I dream of enrolling in the film program of the USC, like my dad,? she says.

These days, Isabella often wears berets (as on the cover of her new CD, ?Identity?). ?Berets are easy to lug around. You can just throw them in the bag and they won?t get deformed?unlike other kinds that require hat boxes.?

Neckties, bow ties

She has been hoarding silk neckties and bow ties of late.

?I?ve lost count ... They come from different decades.?

A hand-painted 1950s tie, she suspects, was from the time of her dad?s grandfather, former President Elpidio Quirino.

She also bought a few ties from the Store for All Seasons and Aldo.

?I got a clip-on bow tie in the US because I wanted to see how it worked. The Aldo (red checkered) tie is really for girls.?

Again, it?s ?tied? to her fascination for the past.

Accessories

She likewise goes for vintage pieces in accessorizing.

The ?beautiful silver cross? she wears during this shoot is from Latin America, she volunteers. ?It?s special, a gift from my godmother. The cross was previously owned by my late paternal grandmother Vicky Quirino-Gonzalez. She wore it every day. I love it because it makes me feel she?s near me.?

The pearl necklace is a present from stage director Freddie Santos. ?It was my talent fee. I did some art work for my mom?s Valentine show. Instead of cash, he gave me pearls. Which was a lot better.?

Cigarette cases

When she was a kid, she converted old cigarette cases into wallets ?to put my baon in.?

Soon enough, she had amassed all kinds of silver cases. ?They?re cool,? she says. But now she puts old money from different countries, like Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada, in the canisters.

?I got my favorite from an antique shop in Venice,? Isabella says. ?I don?t know how to keep silver things so they?ve gotten dark in time.? She thinks this adds character to her cherished collectibles.

Classic movies

Her maternal grandmother, Carmen Hashim Ledesma, introduced Isabella to classic movies at age 8. ?Our favorite channels were TCM, Turner Classic Movies, and ACM, American Classic Movies,? the dutiful grandchild recounts.

Consequently, most of the titles in her DVD collection are from the Golden Age of Hollywood: ?Sunset Boulevard,? ?Gone With the Wind,? ?Some Like It Hot,? ?The Clock,? ?Paris When It Sizzles,? ?The Singing Nun,? ?Calamity Jane? and, of course ?My Fair Lady.?

She?s enamored with musicals and, among the more recent titles on her DVD shelf are ?All That Jazz? and ?Fame.?

TV shows

Isabella collects classic TV programs on DVD as well.

?In the US, I was hooked on the reruns of ?I Love Lucy,?? she says. ?I got the ?The Lucy Show? series, Lucille Ball?s program after ?I Love Lucy.??

She bought rare DVDs of ?Life With Elizabeth.? She explains, ?It?s one of the early shows of Betty White and it ran in the 1950s.?

Cousin Marco Eduque led her to comic books.

?What do you get when you put movies and comic books together? A love for Superman,? she says.

Also on her DVD rack is the TV series ?Lois and Clark,? because, ?I grew up watching Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher.?

Music

She has a number of jazz concerts on DVD, too: ?We Love Ella,? ?Jazz Shots from the East Coast Vol. 3,? ?Sade Live,? ?Legends of Jazz,? as well as works of Etta James, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra and Harry Connick Jr.

?I love watching jazz DVDs because it makes me feel as if I was there,? she admits.

With a singer as mom, Isabella was naturally guaranteed a well-rounded music education. ?When I was younger, I rummaged through my mom?s music collection and found everything that I wanted.?

She swears by five Ss in music, she says, laughing: ?Seal, Sarah Vaughn, Sarah McLachlan, Streisand and Socorro Ledesma!?

Mom Kuh?s real name is Socorro.

?We can add Sting and Springsteen to that list,? says Isabella.

This diverse musical influences are evident in her newly launched CD. ?Identity? includes seven of her own compositions.

Books

She admits that, surrounded by books, she feels ?comfortable and comforted.?

?Like good friends, good books point to the right path,? she says. ?My favorite book will always be the Bible, but I have other titles in my library: Alex and Brett Harris? ?Do Hard Things,? John Haggai?s ?How to Win Over Worry,? Elisabeth Elliot?s ?Passion and Purity,? among others.?

Apart from Christian and inspirational volumes, she values the books of her childhood: Margery Williams? ?The Velveteen Rabbit? and EB White?s ?Charlotte?s Web.?

She downloads podcasts and videos from www.intouch.org and visits the online bookstore www.omflit.com quite often.

Paintings

For her recent CD launch, she mounted an impromptu exhibit of her paintings.

She has produced an astonishing number of art works in various styles? oil, charcoal, mixed media.

?I painted ?Perdonar Sin Olivar? or ?Forgive Without Forgetting? when I was 15. It was inspired by the writings of Graciano Lopez-Jaena,? says the young artist.

She finds inspiration for her art in diverse places: from her mom (?Hand Me Roses?), the Madonna movie ?Four Rooms? (?The Bellhop?) and the Scriptures (?The Narrow Door?).

Are these pieces of art for sale? Isabella confesses, ?I have a hard time parting with my paintings.?

E-mail: bayanisandiego@hotmail.com