Visit the Big Summer Sale!

I just did some SERIOUS mark downs on some of the most summery items at OohLaLuxe.com! Take 25% - 40% off Voom by Joy Han, Vava, Jae Basilio, Plastic Island and Egoist. And here’s the best part; use the GO20 code and save 20% off on top of that.

Here’s a quick look at the items on sale:

Egoist Shorts - $140.00 $84
Plastic Island Vest - $132.00 $79.20

Plastic Island black jacquard skirt - $102.00 $71.40
Plastic Island tucked mini - $108.00 $75.60

Voom luxe baby doll - $196.00 $137.20
Jae Basilio kangaroo tank - $88.00 $57.20

Vava Taylor mini -  now $88.50
Plastic Island shoulder pleat top - $72.00 $54

Be sure to check out the rest!

Whenever I’m conversing with sales reps trying to get linesheets or information about new lines to carry, I always try my hardest not to sound like I’m not completely new to this. I’ve been to fashion school, I know a little bit about this business, and of course, I want it to show, so it’s important for me to use use the right names for things. One question that I frequently get asked through this site is “what do I ask the sales rep for?”. Hopefully this will make it easier to not only know what to ask for but how to ask for it:

Line Sheet - Usually when you contact a designer/sales rep and you’re interested in carrying their line, you’ll ask for a line sheet. I guess you could say it’s sort of like a catalog. It will usually be in a PDF format and it will have all of the styles listed, with colors, and wholesale prices, sometimes the size range, fabric content and retail prices as well. Some linesheets use actual photos and some don’t which brings us to…

Flat Sketches - It sounds like you know the fashion industry a bit better if you say “flat sketch” than “drawings”; and even after hearing this word 1000 times per day while I was at FIDM I still have to remind myself not to say drawings. These are done using Adobe Illustrator and they’re really annoying for me as a buyer because they don’t accurately show you how a garment will look. Which brings us to….

Look book - A look book is usually a small booklet and it has most of the line presented on a model, usually fully styled, similar to a magazine editorial. All of the ones I’ve seen are only photos, no information, no pricing, etc. This is a good thing to ask for if a designer only gives you a line sheet with flt sketches, but sometimes they aren’t available until closer to the date. Usually a rep will have a PDF of the look book, or they can send it to your snail mail. And it’s always nice to pick one up at the showroom even after you’re done with your buying; I have a small collection of them!

Immediates - These are pieces you can order on the spot and have sent to you right away. I’m not sure if they’re regularly stocked on the floor of a showroom, because I’ve only seen them is at trade shows, but usually you can ask a rep if there are immediates available or if a showroom is very much on the ball, they might put you on a mailing list and let you know what is available (which is something all reps should do w/ immediates as well as line sheets, in my opinion).

Minimums - This is something you ALWAYS want to ask about in advance! Especially if you’re starting out and on a tight budget. Some labels might require that you buy $1500-$5000+ per season or delivery. If that’s your entire budget for one delivery, you probably will want to hold off on that brand until you’re more established. And even if a rep says there are no minimums, there usually are some sort of stipulations that they won’t tell you about unless you specifically ask about it. For example, four styles per delivery, four bodies per style. Or maybe just the latter.

Body - Kind of self explanatory but a body = 1 garment.

A breakdown of what a line sheet looks like, basically, and how to read it.  These are imperative if you’re not buying in person, but even if you plan to do so it’s good to at least know if there’s something you’ll be interested in.

Ugh, I swear sometimes trying to communicate with sales reps is like trying to pull teeth! I’m almost convinced they don’t want to sell their lines at times. All of the reps that I’ve purchased from so far are great, but I’m trying to talk with two at the moment to pick up a couple of new lines and they have the hardest time following up. They say they’re in the process of sending something, and it never shows up. They ask me for my information so they can have the correct rep get in contact with me; nope, never hear a thing. I’m seriously considering buying from an east coast rep because playing email tag is just getting ridiculous.

And speaking of getting into contact with sales reps, that brings me to the real purpose of this post. I recently came across a website for fashion industry professionals that allows you to sign up and find the contact information for just about any line. Great, I thought since I was having a hard time find the info for one line in particular. Turns out once I signed up they want to charge me FIFTY DOLLARS for the contact information of three sales reps! Not only is it bad enough that they’re charging at all for information that you can find for free with a little bit of digging, but to overcharge to that degree is just gross. I really, really hate to think that there are up and coming buyers out there who are falling for this and giving them their money!

I’m not going to link to the site, but the site is called Find Fashion Rep. And Find Fashion Rep is a scam.

^^This site is NOT a scam!
Now a great site that is NOT a scam is ThreadMe.com. It’s sort of like Myspace or Linkedin, but connecting boutique owners with lines and showrooms. It’s pretty cool! And I’ve mentioned PLENTY of other places to find the contact information for showrooms (for FREE). The LA Fashion Directory is a great place to start,and there are more places to look in this post. I’ll try and find out more about showrooms on the East Coast. Just don’t pay for ANYTHING!

By far the most confusing thing I’ve run into in the process of running my online boutique has been shipping.   There are just so many options, and so many hidden costs.  This week I found that out the hard way.  Let me start at the beginning…

I had planned on shipping with UPS from the beginning, since they always provide tracking, insurance, the whole nine yards.  It also doesn’t hurt that there is a UPS place about four blocks from where I live, making it extremely convenient for me to drop off these packages daily.  So I went there before the shop was even open and they told me about getting an account with UPS.com, saying I would get discounts on my fees.  Yes, DISCOUNTS.  Of course, I said sign me!  Oh how little I really knew….

So I used this account for all my shipping for the first couple of weeks.  Everything was so easy with it!  I would just fill out the slips at home, take the packages in and it would take them about two seconds to ship it off for me.  Each label had really short and easy to read tracking numbers already printed on the too. Just to be sure of the costs, I asked the girl at the counter how much it would be, and she gave me the price, but said it could be “a little more or a little less” using an account.  Okaaaay. The thing is, on UPS.com you have to get a separate login via snail mail before you can even see how much you’re being billed.  Kind of ridiculous, huh?  So basically, I had no way of tracking exactly how much I was being charged at this point for my packages.

This is where things started to go wrong…

The next week I finally get an invoice from UPS.com.  My mouth literally dropped open when I saw the total. It turns out they’ve been charging me nearly THREE TIMES the amount  it would cost for me to ship without an account for each package!  That’s triple the price, plus they charged me an extra $10 fee for a mistake that was made at the shipping center.    It turns out that it actually costs about $5 to use the shipping labels they gave me down at the UPS place, plus a bunch of ridiculous extra fuel and residential charges, on top of absurdly high prices to begin with.

But was I made aware of any of this at the shipping center, when they were pushing this account on me?  Nope.  When I asked them about it later their excue was “we don’t know nothing about that”.  The grammar in that sentence pretty much says it all.  Maybe it’s just me but it seems rather sensible to keep your employees up to date with what’s going on at the corporate levels.  I mean, God forbid they have the ability to actually ANSWER customer questions and keep their customers fully informed!

Thankfully I was able to get some of the charges removed.  I’m still pretty upset about the whole situation, considering how irresponsible this company is at a corporate and at a franchise level.   I’m no longer using the account.  The only downside now is that it takes a bit longer to ring up each package and the tracking ID’s are considerably longer, but they’re small prices to pay for saving a huge chunk of money. It turns out that even when you do ask as an exhaustive amount of questions, it doesn’t always help.

From now through July 3rd, save 25% on all Plastic Island clothing using code PLASTIC25!

I’ve also started a Summer Sale page and I’ve marked down about a handful of summer pieces 25-30%.  The nice thing is you can still use the Plastic Island or the GO20 coupons on top of that and get a really great deal!

JUST IN

A couple new pieces from Voom by Joy Han clothing:

 Voom by Joy Han Denim Pinstripe Babydoll Dress

 Voom by Joy Han Denim Pinstripe Pants

Both of these items are VERY versatile, and they’re also quite figure flattering.  The dress can be work with a button down underneath for work and then without for cocktail.   And the pants will look great with any kind of a white blouse or sweater.  Both pieces have straight silhoutte’s and the vertical lines make your body look longer and leaner.  If you want your legs to look long, definitely step into those denim pinstripe pants with a pair of heels!

I’m so glad to FINALLY get these pieces up! I’ve had them both for quite a while but I had to reshoot them for various reasons.  They’re actually two of my favorite pieces for Spring/Summer.  Take a look:

Jae Basilio Cameron Dress

This dress is just too cute.  It’s very simple, but it works.  It’s a short, shift style dress that just skims the body and hangs perfectly; it’s not body conscious so it’s flattering on just about every figure. The dress is made of a very light weight cashmere fabric; it’s definitely cool enough to wear during the summer.  It’s inspired by this Chanel dress worn by Cameron Diaz (Lindsay Lohan wore it too):

The dress also comes in all black in size large.

Jae Basilio Janelle Dress 

Royal blue is a great color for summer, and it’s going to be HUGE in the fall (trust me, I know!).  On top of that, Grecian style draping is big trend as well, so you can’t really go wrong with the Jae Basilio Janelle Dress.  I’ve seen a lot of dresses with side draping like this, but none in a tube style dress or in such a vibrant color.

Be sure to check both of these items and snag one or both of them for yourself.  Chances are, no one else will have them since Jae Basilio is such a hot up and coming brand!

MORE PRESS

 Check out this interview I did with Tashina or her fab fashion blog LogicalHarmony.net.  Be sure to check out the whole blog too, because it’s a really fun read and she has great taste!  Thanks again, Tashina!

 Okay, I’m sure you’ve all enjoyed checking out the new products on OohLaLuxe.com (right? right!), but don’t think I’m going to forget what we’re all really here for!  Building the boutique is a never ending process.   I actually did my 3rd photoshoot last weekend, and my last for a while here….and for that I’m thankful.  Photoshoots just aren’t fun. Why?  Too much lifting!  I love the styling aspect but I hate having to take up that heavy mannequin and dress it.  It’s good excersize, though.  Thankfully this one was only about an hour with seven looks or so.

New Section - FAQs
You might notice the “FAQs” button at the top of the page.  This is my way of making the site easier to navigate.  So if anyone has questions that have already been answered in older posts, you can look up there and quickly find the particular post without having to wade through months and months of posts.  But its a work in progress!

Speaking of questions, a couple of weeks ago I received an email  from Latasha with a thorough set of questions about launching a boutique.  It’s basically a quick over view of a lot of things I discussed early on, but this is great for anyone who has just found this site, so check it out:

Q&A

How much do you know to order (inventory) for an online boutique, vs a actual boutique where you may have 3 of the same shirts where as online you have way more customer since you are online?
Well first off, I didn’t assume that I was going to have more customers.  When you think about it it’s more likely that you’ll have less customers because there’s no walk in traffic; you have to build your customer base from the ground up and you’re competing against EVERY online boutique, not just the ones in your town or in your area.  There’s really no set amount on how much to order.  I bought 1 or 2 in each size, and the only reason why I bought two in some sizes was because of the minimums on some lines.  I personally think it’s good to start small and not get in over your head, so I wouldn’t recommend taking in more than two pieces per size.

I know you are housing the merchandise yourself, did you ever think about letting a fulfillment house your merchandise? And with you housing the merchandise, how are you going about with shipping, packaging and that sort, are you going thru usps, fedx??

I don’t even know what a fulfillment house is!  People keep mentioning this but I’ve honestly never heard of it before.  I’ll have to look into it, but I highly doubt there’s one in my town anyways.  But I like having my things right here where I can access them in case a customer has a question about fit or if I need to do reshoots or something like that.  Plus, I’m guessing it’s cheaper and I need to save as much as I can!  I’m using UPS and USPS for international orders.

Did you ever email any of the sales reps asking to carry their lines, and if so, how did your go about asking them (what is key info to ask)?
I did, I emailed tons of them.  Just tell them what you can about your business and ask for their line sheets.  Usually they want to know where you’re located and what other brands you’re carrying.  If the line is really high end they might want to know more.  In this case you will probably need (I forget what it’s called exactly…) sort of like a press/media kit?  It would most likely be a PDF with information about your store, floor plans, square footage and a ton of other stuff. Unfortunately I don’t know too much about this since my store isn’t brick and mortar (yet :D)

Did you create any contracts and agreements for the reps or designers?
Not beyond the invoices, which only allows you to cancel an order up to 7 days after it’s place (I think; it might be 10 days, can’t remember exactly).

I know a lot of people say when starting out start out small and what not, but with starting out do you think its best to have a business lawyer and a business consultant, pr/marketing firm?
If you can afford those things I would say go for it.  I would KILL to be able to afford pr/marketing!  If you can only pick one out of those three, I would say go with that one.  And if you can, try and find someone you know to help with these things for free.  My dad runs a business totally unrelated to fashion, but he was still able to help me a lot with the paper work in the beginning (and the fact that he’s in financial services doesn’t hurt!) and I have a friend in PR who helped me with a press release.

How are you promoting your site??
Through advertisement!   This is the only thing I’m trying to keep hush hush, but it’s not that hard to figure out.  Online advertisement, basically.

When paying the sales reps are you doing cod or paying up front, credit??
They take my credit card at the show room and then they charge the card when it ships.  Usually they will call you to confirm the card before the ship date.

At the showroom/tradeshow, when you find the lines you want and the pieces do you have to pay up front?
No, you don’t have to. They give you a choice.  You can also do COD, or credit like I did.  I believe they take checks as well.

When you do decide on the lines you want to carry, how long is it until you receive the merchandise  Or does that depends on you and when you need the merchandise or when the site will be up and running?

Good question!   Right now the lines are showing their Fall 2 and Holiday collections to buyers; buying for Fall 1 (usually August & September) ended in April, so that gives you an idea of how far in advance buying is.  But sometimes, depending on the line, you can order immediates and have them shipped right away.  They’re basically left overs.  Voom, for example, is great with this.

And each season is broken up into two or three delivery dates, usually one per month.  So if I’m the sales rep for OLL and you’re looking to buy for this fall, there will be a different collection for October (shipping 10/15), November (shipping 11/15) and December (shipping 12/15).  That’s just an example, sometimes the ship dates are the 1st or 30th of the month.  More flexible lines will let you push back items from one shipment to a later one in order to meet their minimums. So there are ways to customize your deliveries, to a certain extent.

 So, what’s next? Hopefully buying for Fall and Spring in the coming months! I can’t wait for holiday sales, that should be a fun time.  And more importantly I can’t wait to get into the showrooms again.  Buying is seriously my favorite part of this process.  I’m looking at a handful of up and coming lines, and I’ll probably add one more well known line.

I can’t WAIT for you guys to see what Voom and Plastic Island have for Fall!!

Hopefully you guys love our line Plastic Island, because I just added three hot new Plastic Island items not to mention I’m doing a special promo sale on the line for the next 2 1/2 weeks. First, the new items:

Plastic Island Double Tank

Great casual piece for the summer, at a great price point. It’s a lightweight jersey racer back tank, and it has sort of a kangaroo style draped piece at the front. The top also comes with that green spaghetti strap undershirt. You can also wear them seperately, and the tank looks great with a white blazer for something a bit more dressy.

Plastic Island Silver Bubble Dress

A really cute and comfy cocktail dress here, with silver stripes and subtle silver metallic thread woven into it. If you look closely, you can also see the twisted fabric along the neckline and at hem (check out the bigger photos on the website). And of course, it has that rounded, bubble silhouette that is really popular now. For curvy girls, like me, I recommend wearing it with a belt or cumberbund like on the model.

Plastic Island Shoulder Pleat Top 

 This Plastic Island top has basically the same pattern/fabric content as the Silver Bubble Dress except in gold.  It also has super cute flutter sleeves, done with wide pleating.  Be sure to take a look at the close up photos to really see it in action. And again, this is another great piece for the summer and at a good price!

PLASTIC ISLAND ON SALE!

For now until July 3rd, take 25% off all Plastic Island clothing, including the new styles.  Don’t forget to check out the rest of our selection from Plastic Island, especially the Silver Twist Back Dress, which has become pretty popular!

The Voom by Joy Han Lola Halter dress is nearly sold out, after only a couple of days!  There’s an extra small left in stock, and this dress runs about a size bigger than normal, so the XS should be perfect on a girl who wears a size 4 or smaller.  Get it before it’s gone!

If you want this dress in a different size, please email me.

Stay tuned, I’ve got a TON of new stuff in that should be up later this week, plus another blog about industry stuff due this evening!

The Ooh La Luxe! jewelry section is up and running with five hot pieces from Cohen Camden Jewelry.  For those of you who love indie jewelry lines and handmade jewelry, this line is made by a mother and daughter team from the east coast.  It’s a fairly new label and it can only be found on OohLaLuxe.com.  Check out the styles:

 Absoluxe Chandelier Earrings

 Hard Candy Earrings

 Kimberly Earrings

 Judith Earrings

Earth Earrings 

Prices range from $32 -$65, and