Lenovo brings style and substance to tech needs of Bonne Bouche’s creative team

Sophisticated, versatile and fashionable—these are the attributes shared by the fashion collections of the high-end Bonne Bouche boutique, and the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Ultrabook and ThinkPad Tablet.

Bonne Bouche, which means “delicious morsel” in French, is located at the Filipino Designers’ Zone in Greenbelt 5, Makati and offers elegant head-to-toe fashion experience for all women. The two owners—fashion designer Michi Calica-Sotto, and accessories and fine jewelry designer Elena Bautista—are serial entrepreneurs who are always on the move. 

Aside from collaborating with other designers for Bonne Bouche, Calica and Bautista, both mothers, are also growing their respective businesses while attending to their families. The number of commitments they have require them to multitask and be able to work on their businesses anywhere. For them, the IdeaPad U310 and ThinkPad Tablet are heaven-sent tools that let them keep their creative juices flowing even when they’re on the go.

Vicky Agorrilla, Country General Manager of Lenovo Philippines, says: “Professionals who wear many hats such as artists who are business owners too are exactly the people Lenovo has in mind when designing mobile Do machines. Optimized to fit their lifestyle, each user has very diverse and evolving needs, even as mobility becomes more and more a key trend in doing business. Our Ultrabooks and tablets keep pushing the envelope to adapt to the way people do, innovate, succeed, and enjoy their work and personal lives.”

Michi Calica-Sotto, who’s been designing bridal gowns for 20 years, makes elegant but very wearable dresses for Bonne Bouche, maintains Toccata, an online wedding store on Etsy.com, and designs wedding jewellery and wedding flowers. She constantly travels the world for design inspirations, holds business development meetings with branding specialists, sources materials, goes to photoshoots and even meets the press. “Gadgets have made my everyday life smoother, communication- and commercial-wise,” says Calica-Sotto. The ThinkPad Tablet, Lenovo’s first real business tablet, is perfect for someone with a work hard, play hard lifestyle like Calica’s.

Designed to suit the mobility needs of business owners, the ThinkPad Tablet keeps professionals connected, productive and entertained, as well as addresses the entrepreneurs’ security, durability and manageability concerns. The carry-anywhere Android 3.1-powered device comes with NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor to offer extreme multitasking, faster web browsing and low power consumption. It has a battery life of up to 10 hours on a single charge, and offers access to more than 250,000 apps through the Android Market—this means more time for fun and productivity. It also has micro-USB and full-size USB ports, full-size SD card reader, and mini-HDMI port, all for easy hook-up and connectivity with external devices such as PCs, monitors, printers, cameras and more.

Calica relates that the ThinkPad Tablet is “best for traveling light.” One time, she took this 32GB tablet to a business trip to Baguio. She exclaims, “For once, I was able to leave my laptop behind!” With the optional digitizer pen, this tablet makes jotting down notes a breeze for her, and her notes even automatically convert to digital text—very useful when she gets those sudden inspired ideas. For the design sketches and conceptual videos she has to show to clients or business partners, she can flawlessly display her hi-definition presentations on an external screen through the mini-HDMI port. And when her work is done, she can wind down with the console-quality gaming the ThinkPad Tablet provides.  

Its 10.1-inch scratch-resistant screen comes with an IPS display for a 178-degree viewing angle and provides gorgeous visuals—features that are well appreciated by creative people. Users of the ThinkPad Tablet can choose to use the optional digitizer pen, or plug in the optional Keyboard Folio. 

Elena Bautista designs jewellery with precious stones that are classic, easy-to-wear and versatile. Her work days are filled with meeting clients for Bonne Bouche as well as managing her own jewellery shop, Goldworks, where she visits factories, designs new collections, monitors her online store, coordinates with suppliers, attends business meetings, and more. “I have to be efficient and connected while on the go because I try to maximize my time. Even on the road, I try to access my e-mail and online stores all the time; communicating with everyone, as well as touching base with people who are important to us,” shares Bautista, who carries her laptop wherever she goes. 

“I have a big bag that weighs a ton. You can just imagine the weight I carry with me every day with the kind of work I do. As soon as I got my IdeaPad U310, I was very impressed about how light it is, and about how good it looks!” she shares. Being in the fashion industry, Bautista needs her gadgets to match her style statement, and adds, “it fits the total chic look we always strive for!” 

Only as thick as the average fashion magazine at 18mm, and weighing just a bit more than a ladies’ empty leather handbag at 1.7kg, the IdeaPad U310 is ideal for lugging around at fashion pictorials. It features ultra-fast boot-up and quick resume from sleep thanks to Lenovo’s Enhanced Experience 3 for Windows 7. It is powered by 3rd generation Intel Core processors, and comes in a variety of stylish colors such as Aqua Blue, Cherry Blossom and Graphite Grey—perfect for stylistas. Keeping up with the digital lifestyle of most users, the U310 updates e-mail, IM chats and social media messages even when in sleep mode, and comes with 4GB DDR3 memory, 32GB SSD cache and 500GB HDD.

Because of its sturdy build, pretty design and overall sophisticated impact, the U310 prompts Bautista to say, “It looks really expensive, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it’s actually very affordable.”

When it comes to her work, Bautista discloses: “I see to it that the pieces I make can be worn for a long time.” In parallel, she maxes out the use of her gadgets. “As long as they are still working properly and effectively, I hang on to them till I wear them out. I believe this IdeaPad U310 fits my lifestyle well, not only because it is very light and easy to use, but because it’s ultra hip, too! I think I’m going to have so much fun with this laptop for many seasons to come.”