Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Unemployment club
Sunday Alex and I went to Motorino for dinner. We are both members of the unemployment club, but he is in fact a CARD CARRYING MEMBER, as in, debit card provided by the NYSDL. Thanks for the pizza Governor Patterson!
Monday, April 6, 2009
A Day at Urban Outfitters
Today Samantha and I went to Philadelphia to meet with Urban Outfitters. I recently finished my fashion production class at FIT and was curious to see how a line gets produced on a corporate level. We took the train out in the morning and got picked up by Samantha's mom at the train station, and got driven to the Urban Outfitters headquarters. They have the coolest offices ever. I believe they are in some converted naval buildings and are bright and airy and industrial looking. You can see the naval ships outside of the window. They also have a really nice cafeteria, gym, magazine shop, and coffee shop on site. Seemed like a really cool place to work. Everyone there is young and hip, naturally.
First up with met with Samantha's merchandiser and technical designer to discuss a new design for the current season. This romper has become a best seller and is sold out online and at most stores so they decided to do a new style right away. They are going to make it in a knit so we picked out a fabric and fiddled with the sketch and made some measurements on the dressform.
After that, we went to go get the samples for the holiday 09 delivery. We brought them to a fitting area and me and another girl tried them on (their sample size is my size). Some of the stuff looked great and fit amazing. Some stuff clearly needed some revision and refitting. I was amazed how good some of the samples were considering they were first run samples.
After that we had a meeting with the production team to present the styles. They had a fit model come in and try on all the available styles. It was very interesting to learn how they adjusted styles to fit their price points. Some fabric choices and detailing had to be compromised. For example, they decided to make larger size quilting on the two quilted items because that would bring down the price of the labor. They also had to cut some fabrications because they were not affordable (such as an amazing peplum trench coat in coated canvas, fortunately Samantha got to keep the sample).
The production team liked most of the stuff and decided to go ahead with 10 of the 13-14 styles that were presented. Before we left we got to raid their samples and retrieve some of Samantha's rejected styles from past seasons. They will be great for fabric or style reference.
After a long day, we took the train back home. Very tired.
First up with met with Samantha's merchandiser and technical designer to discuss a new design for the current season. This romper has become a best seller and is sold out online and at most stores so they decided to do a new style right away. They are going to make it in a knit so we picked out a fabric and fiddled with the sketch and made some measurements on the dressform.
After that, we went to go get the samples for the holiday 09 delivery. We brought them to a fitting area and me and another girl tried them on (their sample size is my size). Some of the stuff looked great and fit amazing. Some stuff clearly needed some revision and refitting. I was amazed how good some of the samples were considering they were first run samples.
After that we had a meeting with the production team to present the styles. They had a fit model come in and try on all the available styles. It was very interesting to learn how they adjusted styles to fit their price points. Some fabric choices and detailing had to be compromised. For example, they decided to make larger size quilting on the two quilted items because that would bring down the price of the labor. They also had to cut some fabrications because they were not affordable (such as an amazing peplum trench coat in coated canvas, fortunately Samantha got to keep the sample).
The production team liked most of the stuff and decided to go ahead with 10 of the 13-14 styles that were presented. Before we left we got to raid their samples and retrieve some of Samantha's rejected styles from past seasons. They will be great for fabric or style reference.
After a long day, we took the train back home. Very tired.
Friday, April 3, 2009
The obligatory Topshop post
OK, I admit it, I have been waiting for this freakin' Topshop to open for 8 years. Since 2001 (my first stint living in London) I was thinking to myself, why isn't there a Topshop on Broadway? New Yorkers would dig that. I'm not sure why it took them so long to finally do it, I mean, while you were sleeping Phillip Green H&M kinda took over the world... that could have been you dude!
I know Topshop is kinda over rated, and at this point has become overpriced, but I do sort of credit it for what might be considered my fashion "awakening." Back in the 90's, I lived in Berkeley, California, a town known more for writers, activists, and hippies than for fashion. I wore some vintage clothes, black jeans, and tons of punk band t-shirts, and that's pretty much it. I bought my first years prom dress (a 50's day dress) at a thrift store and the next year my 60's shift was from ebay. Flash forward a couple years and this west coast girl was living in East London, going to clubs like Trash and Candybox (aka Scandi-box) and all of a sudden my 90's west coast wardrobe just didn't cut it anymore. I actually remember sitting with Megan and looking at all the crazy outfits going by at Trash. All of a sudden we looked at each other and said simultaneously, "we need to go SHOPPING."
Ever since then, Topshop was my go-to place in London, the Oxford Street store was only about 10 minutes from the LSE where I did my graduate degree several years later and I was, admittedly, in there probably at least once every two weeks. They really know how to keep you coming in there... they do really have something for everyone and the stock is always changing so if you don't buy the item you're thinking about right away, chances are it won't be there next time you visit. They would have a section in the Oxford Circus location called "last chance to buy," which would contain the last few sizes of certain styles, a real genious strategy really when you think about it because they didn't even have to put them on sale for people (myself included) to decide that its "now or never" and usually choose "now." Cheeky.
Anyways, I was working for Samantha yesterday and didn't want to go anywhere near the 2.5 hour long wait to get in, but had some free time today and couldn't resist a first visit. I didn't bring my camera but there are plenty of pictures on Racked or The Cut. I waited about 20 minutes in line outside, but was actually grateful for the crowd control, because once you got in, it was pretty mellow in there, everything was well organized and most items were available in all sizes. They had a lot of stuff that had sold out on the Topshop website and most of the stuff that was on the website looked WAY better in person. Sadly, it's kind of a small store (only about 1/4 of the size of Oxford Circus) and for some reason, they are WAY into the 90's trend that is happening right now. Seriously, the 90's? This is retro now? I'm sorry but this was the worst decade for fashion EVER. I wish I had a photo of me in my Bat Mitzvah dress circa 1993 because I swear they were selling the exact same dress.
Fortunately, it was not all bad, and I walked away with some goodies:
How great is that silk top? Reminds me of Lyell. It did come out to be rather expensive, but overall I had a good experience. I even got away with getting a 10% student discount with my FIT non-credit course card. Sweet.
So thanks Phillip, I could do without the 90's revival but I am sure I will be back.
I know Topshop is kinda over rated, and at this point has become overpriced, but I do sort of credit it for what might be considered my fashion "awakening." Back in the 90's, I lived in Berkeley, California, a town known more for writers, activists, and hippies than for fashion. I wore some vintage clothes, black jeans, and tons of punk band t-shirts, and that's pretty much it. I bought my first years prom dress (a 50's day dress) at a thrift store and the next year my 60's shift was from ebay. Flash forward a couple years and this west coast girl was living in East London, going to clubs like Trash and Candybox (aka Scandi-box) and all of a sudden my 90's west coast wardrobe just didn't cut it anymore. I actually remember sitting with Megan and looking at all the crazy outfits going by at Trash. All of a sudden we looked at each other and said simultaneously, "we need to go SHOPPING."
Ever since then, Topshop was my go-to place in London, the Oxford Street store was only about 10 minutes from the LSE where I did my graduate degree several years later and I was, admittedly, in there probably at least once every two weeks. They really know how to keep you coming in there... they do really have something for everyone and the stock is always changing so if you don't buy the item you're thinking about right away, chances are it won't be there next time you visit. They would have a section in the Oxford Circus location called "last chance to buy," which would contain the last few sizes of certain styles, a real genious strategy really when you think about it because they didn't even have to put them on sale for people (myself included) to decide that its "now or never" and usually choose "now." Cheeky.
Anyways, I was working for Samantha yesterday and didn't want to go anywhere near the 2.5 hour long wait to get in, but had some free time today and couldn't resist a first visit. I didn't bring my camera but there are plenty of pictures on Racked or The Cut. I waited about 20 minutes in line outside, but was actually grateful for the crowd control, because once you got in, it was pretty mellow in there, everything was well organized and most items were available in all sizes. They had a lot of stuff that had sold out on the Topshop website and most of the stuff that was on the website looked WAY better in person. Sadly, it's kind of a small store (only about 1/4 of the size of Oxford Circus) and for some reason, they are WAY into the 90's trend that is happening right now. Seriously, the 90's? This is retro now? I'm sorry but this was the worst decade for fashion EVER. I wish I had a photo of me in my Bat Mitzvah dress circa 1993 because I swear they were selling the exact same dress.
Fortunately, it was not all bad, and I walked away with some goodies:
How great is that silk top? Reminds me of Lyell. It did come out to be rather expensive, but overall I had a good experience. I even got away with getting a 10% student discount with my FIT non-credit course card. Sweet.
So thanks Phillip, I could do without the 90's revival but I am sure I will be back.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Nylon 10th Anniversary
Heather took me as her +1 to the Nylon 10th Anniversary party last night. It was pretty fun, from what I can remember.
Somehow we ended up at the same table as Lydia Hearst. Her dress was OUT OF CONTROL AMAZING. Not something I think I would wear but definitely a work of art. She was nice enough to let me take a picture of it.
Somehow we ended up at the same table as Lydia Hearst. Her dress was OUT OF CONTROL AMAZING. Not something I think I would wear but definitely a work of art. She was nice enough to let me take a picture of it.
Oh and there were some other people there like Jenny from Gossip Girl, ahem, I mean Taylor Momson. Didn't catch her drinking, boo.
The major bummer? NO LI-LO!!! She was on the cover this month so I was totally hoping to have a Li-Lo trainwreck to report on but no dice. Oh well. I did somehow end up with a bottle of Stoli Citrus in my bag at the end of the evening, so all in all a good party.
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