MANILA, Philippines—Studying a two-year fashion design course at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles and graduating cum laude might very well have put Sassa Jimenez on the path to ready-to-wear stardom, but the 21-year-old lady is taking baby steps.

“I have so many plans, but re-thinking them,” says this busy designer, who is carefully crafting her 70-piece collection. “I definitely want to have my own store.”

Her innovative application of clothing techniques, including hand sewing seven yards of fabric into a skirt, origami-folding and draping, and incorporating pockets, yields surprises. “Pockets are hidden,” she says about her obsession. “If I could put pockets in everything, I would!”

Her designs are seemingly playful, “My designs are inspired usually by how I’m feeling at that moment.”

But each style she creates blends effortlessly in anyone’s closet, using palettes of palest pink and cream and edgier black and grey. “I create clothes that people would want to feel like themselves in and [clothes] that they don’t feel too plain wearing. Because that is a problem, people wear too much of the same thing … too much of the same color. I would like to put a twist to it and something different, so that they can feel proud to wear it.”