The Intelligent Closet With Winnie Wong and Dominique Cojuangco-Hearn

This is an excerpt from MEGA April 2026’s Passions and Pursuits

Within the context of Sorto–an app co-founded by Winnie Wong and Dominique Cojuang- co-Hearn– when Wong introduces herself, you can’t help but be intrigued. “I come from a background in education, design, and building systems around creativity and organizing.” She taught design at International School Manila for 11 years, doing photography at the same time, while simultaneously building consumer-facing brands. Her organizing brand, Pouf, began with planners and evolved into physical organizers and products “rooted in real behavior,” as she explains. For her, identity and structure have always co- existed. Decision-making is not random; it is designed. This is the underlying philosophy of Pouf.

Cojuangco-Hearn’s background runs parallel to Wong’s, through the lens of fashion and merchandising. “I studied fashion… and then I worked in e-commerce in San Francisco. I’ve always been interested in how people relate to products and identity,” she says. She founded The Collective to create self-care tools grounded in daily rituals and intention, and describes her work as building brands “designed to genuinely be useful for every day.”

“Sorto,” the app the duo created, “is less about styling. A lot of the styling apps that are currently available online really work with algorithms, and it’s very random and doesn’t have any real like thought behind the mixing and matching of clothing where sort of fills the gap, as we’re not about styling. We’re allowed, we’re giving people the analytics and information to be able to make more informed decisions in their shopping in the future. So it’s really a digital space for your wardrobe and for your things. And it’s very easy to input or upload your clothing because we give people a few different ways of doing so,” explains Wong.

The app, which is currently in beta and slated for public release soon, is their shared answer to a problem many women know too well: standing in front of a full closet and feeling as though they have nothing to wear. As Cojuangco-Hearn describes it, “Sorto is a digital home for your wardrobe that helps you understand what you own and what you actually use and the patterns behind your choices.” The distinction is important. “A lot of pre-existing apps are all about styling,” Wong explains, “but we go back to the roots in terms of really helping people understand what you own, because the best way to make decisions is knowing everything that you have.”

Sorto is an inventory app that allows users to upload items through photos—mirror selfies, outfit shots, or even product images pulled from websites. Once inside the app, your wardrobe becomes data. Patterns emerge. You see what you reach for, what you ignore, what you keep repurchasing in slightly different shades. There are apps that tell you what to wear, and then there are apps that reveal to you, via data processing using identity and design organization, why you keep buying the same black trousers over and over again. Sorto belongs to the latter category.

Wong’s philosophy as an organized person has always centered on visibility. She notes that most people feel overwhelmed, “not because they lack things, but because they really don’t have the visibility as to what they have. Clothes get folded and stacked; new pieces sit at the front; older ones disappear into the back of drawers. Without visibility, there is no clarity. Without clarity, there is no confidence in decision-making.”

Photographed by LYNDON KYLE ASUNCION. Art Direction CLARE MAGNO. Sittings Editor MARA GO. Styling KRISSIE TERUEL. Production THESSMAR LECTURA. Makeup ZIDJIAN FLORO (DOMINIQUE) and ANN PARBA (WINNIE). Hair KURT ANDREI ROSALES (DOMINIQUE) and MATT LEDESMA (WINNIE). Shot on Location at THE COLLECTIVE PH