“Head ‘em up and move ‘em out!”

…that’s a stock image, by the way.

So at the beginning of April I made the decision to make that month my last month of running my shop out of the salon. The reason why was pretty simple — when you’re selling young, high end lines, a salon with a clientèle of older, “price conscious” (to put it nicely) women isn’t exactly going to mesh. We were pretty much breaking even monthly (which isn’t hard to do considering the price of my clothes when rent is $350), and I didn’t see any potential in business increasing at that spot. To sum it all up, when they say “location, location, location” they REALLY mean it.

Overall, it was a good learning experience. I’m glad that I at least TRIED it instead of wondering if it would or wouldn’t work. It was a nice place to work too; all the stylists were awesome. And I wouldn’t be completely opposed to setting up shop in another salon, considering the demos were a better fit and the terms were based on consignment or something of the sort. But most likely, I’ll be online permanently until I start up my own boutique.

And this is the point where this blog turns into a bit of a passive-aggressive rant…

Probably the worst part of operating out of a salon with such a broad (and mismatched) demographic is the amount of people who simply don’t understand designer clothing and don’t understand quality. And it was really AMAZING the amount of customers who apparently have never seen or heard of designer clothes before; I mean, regardless of your budget, it’s not that hard to realize there’s a world of fashion outside of the mall where polos aren’t $12.99. And it’s not even because of where I live; my town is fairly small but we have more than a DOZEN high end contemporary boutiques, most of which are more expensive on average than the pieces I carry.

You get the classic customer who walks in, grabs dresses off of the rack without looking at the price tags, tries them on, loves them and then emerges from the dressing room to tell YOU that YOUR clothing is “overpriced” (because, you know, $130 for a designer silk cocktail dress is just unheard of), which of course is just a defensive way to avoid admitting that they can’t afford it. Or, even better, you have teenage boys with no education waltz into your store and tell you that all leather is the same quality and that luxury products aren’t about price theyre about “nice things” (yes, someone actually said this to me). I really do love it when people assume they know more about the garment industry and manufacturing than I do, and here I wasted time and money getting a degree in it. Dang.

So just a bit of advice to people who somehow end up in boutiques that are out of their price range and fail to actually read a price tag before falling in love with a dress — if you can’t afford it, simply smile and politely decline the sale to the sales associate (who very well may be the owner). No need to school him/her on products they’ve been trained to sell and that you’ve known of for about 15 minutes and make yourself look cheap while doing so. But if you don’t, please don’t be upset if we tell you to try Sears (four you if you know where that’s referenced from)

And I certainly can’t say I’m not enjoying the freedom and extra time that being back online are affording me! I have a MILLION new projects on the horizon — I’m doing freelance fashion/celebrity writing for a national magazine (more details later!), I’m planning a brand new blogging platform which I’m really excited about, and also my consulting business, which I’ll be posting about soon. I’m also mulling over the decision of whether my next big project should be a line or a brick and mortar shop. With the economy showing signs of recovery, about a year or two down the road is looking like the perfect time to launch one or the other!

Oh, there’s also those little summer shipments that are due in a couple of months!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had fun yesterday and on NYE — I did, surprisingly; I caught up on all the movies I’ve been wanting to see (Avatar truly is amazing!) and got to go out to eat with family and friends. It’s so strange to be in 2010 with a new decade in front of us. If you’re my age, then you probably changed a LOT in the past 10 years and will do the same in the upcoming 10 years. For me, the next decade is crunch time because there are so many things I want to achieve career wise. And it’s probably quite obvious what my goals are for this year (I don’t do new years resolutions); to make my brick and mortar shop successful and keep up the momentum with my online shop.

The first positive change for the new year is my signs. I posted a couple of weeks ago about the decal I had made, and how it came out too small. Well, I put it up on the wall over my space and here’s how it looks:

Hmmm. It’s a little dinky, no? If it were about double that size it would look AWESOME. Well, actually in person it looks awesome too, but just on a much smaller scale. Dali decals does good work, and in a couple of months I’ll probably order one that’s a bit bigger. But this will have to work for now.

When I was putting my other decal in the window a couple of weeks ago I realized how much space we had in the back window for a banner. So I promptly ordered one from HalfPriceBanners.com (I think? It was either them or EmpireBanners.com, not sure) and they sent me back this wonderful 4′x2′ banner:

And it only cost $18 (plus $8 shipping). Let me tell you, that’s an AWESOME deal. All the local places I checked with wanted to charge $50-$100 for something similar. Of course it was a bit of a risk ordering something from the internet when you’re not familiar with what kind of work they do, but I took the risk and it paid off in a BIG way. The banner looks so pretty in person, it looks exactly like my business cards and they even got the gradient background in there perfectly. It’s also made of a durable fabric that can be used inside or out, and they gave me free grommets as well.

Actually, ordering the banner was the easy part — hanging that thing was a pain in the rear end! Mainly because I had to search all over town to find suction hooks to hang it on and it’s fallen down about three times. Each time I’ve had to drag this giant ladder out from the back, climb up it feeling like I’m going to topple over, lift up the blinds and get covered with dirt and dust. And on top of that the suction hooks from target don’t hold very well. But it’s been up for about 3 days, which is a new records. Fingers are crossed that it sticks….literally.

So I ordered a vinyl decal of my logo from DaliDecals.com a couple of weeks ago (which took at least two weeks to arrive, yikes). It will eventually go on the wall over my clothes, after the wreath is taken down. They ended up sending me two since my logo has two colors; one in purple and one in pink. This confused the heck out of me at first, and I was wondering why it didn’t come ready to paste on the wall (it also ended up being a bit smaller than I had hoped). But this worked out to my advantage and I was able to put the other colors to good use…

The salon owners had a whole roll of black sticky paper (I have no I idea what the stuff is called but it works with vinyl and it’s for making signs) in the back that they let me use. They actually make all the signs the same way, by mounting vinyl letters on it. It came out kind of crooked and a few of the letters aren’t spaced as well as I would really want, but from a distance, it’s fine.

So now I finally have a sign thats visible from outside…..even if it’s only about 2 feet wide. Better than nothing, right?

I actually spent a couple of weeks sourcing prices for banners (the big ones, we’re talking 6ft or so); I had planned on putting one in the back, but banner stand we have is an odd size and it would’ve cost about $150 to have one made. Then one of the salon owners mentioned hanging one in the back window….WHY didn’t I think of this sooner? I pass that banner every day and never thought twice about it. I ended up ordering a 4′x2′ custom banner (it matches my business cards perfectly; score!) from EmpireBanners.com for only about $27, and that’s including shipping. Keep your fingers crossed that it comes out looking great!

My boutique has been open inside of Envy Salon for an entire month now, and every week I make sure to change the floor set each week. Even though I’m not getting much new merchandise in stock, I can still rotate everything to keep it fresh. This is fashion, people; attention spans are short.

My first set up started with the Voom Basque Halter as the featured piece. I did this simply because it was quick and easy to throw it over the mannequinn while we were setting everything up initially. And then I decided to keep it for the week.

And I completely forgot to take pictures of the second floorset, but it had the Voom Antionette Dress (which is black, white and red) with the red Voom Vogue Jacket over it. And on the racks I draped the white metallic Love Quotes scarf (yoga) in front, so it was this really pretty white & red color pallette.

I pretty much keep the table set up the same. One of the salon owners has actually been working in retail for 20 years and gave me SO many good tips on doing floorsets. It was his idea to put the Line Pelle Medium Tote inside of the leather box, which I got from target for about $20. It has plaid on the inside, which helps the contents stand out. And on top of that, I have my picture frames which show all the celebs who have worn Love Quotes scarves.

Another thing he showed me is how to paper fold; the piece of paper on the inside of the Gypsy 05 hoodie is what makes it pop up like that. If you look closely, you’ll see that the draw strings form an “O” and an “L” (*hint* those are my store name’s initials!).

Here’s our Christmas set up. The salon owners made the wreath themselves, isn’t it pretty? Love the colors, and it fills in the empty space above my clothes nicely. I also ordered a vinyl decal of my logo from DaliDecals.com. It should be here any day now….

Oh and the feature piece is the brand new Voom by Joy Han Eyelet Dress. Pretty much everyone drools over it, including me. The color is SO perfectly festive, I might leave it up longer than a week.

And lastly, the display case where I keep all my Linea Pelle bags and one of the Onna Ehrlich clutches. The bottom, with the Dylan Zip Totes got pretty squished. But I love the middle shelf with the purple/black/gold color scheme. And, once again, a picture frame showing all the celebrities who wear them.

When I first set out to open my boutique, it took two full weeks of brainstorming for me to come up with and decide on the name Ooh La Luxe! To this day, that was the hardest decision I’ve had to make regarding my boutique. Although I do have a close second now. And that’s deciding on shopping bags.

Yes, shopping bags.

It seems almost trivial but when you think about it, a shopping bag not only tells customers (and potential customers) a lot about your store, and it can also be a highly influential marketing tool. Since I’m running a high end boutique I know that every little detail counts, and I want my packaging to be just as “luxe” as the clothes themselves.

So as I set out to choose the right packaging, getting branded bags were the first thing I crossed off my list. Eurototes with my logo printed front and back would be amazing, but spending $500 just on bags when I’m starting out? Not so awesome. But I knew I wanted something pink, eye catching and fun to match my logo. So I started requesting samples from sites like Uline, DiscountShoppingBags.com and PaperMart.com (oh wait….papermart won’t send out samples. I could write an entire blog complaining about this company.)

My first thought was to keep things as inexpensive as possible, which meant basic, colored kraft bags. I mean, hey, at least they were pink? But that didn’t change the fact that they were ugly and brown on the inside, and they were flimsy, and they had these weird raffia like handles that weren’t comfortable to hold on to at all. And on top of all that, Uline thought it would be a smart idea to fold the sample up when they sent it to me, which made the quality of the bag appear even worse. Nothing luxe about this, even when I experimented with zebra print tissue paper (which my dad hated, by the way).

The zebra print ended up looking great with a metallic silver bag, but it wasn’t the look I was going for, not to mention those bags are pretty expensive. And I also tried white glossy craft bags but those were just too plain.

Luckily, I stumbled upon DiscountShoppingBags.com and found these amazing tone on tone patterned shopping bags. So cute! They cost about $30 more than the craft but it’s money well spent. I ended up going with those and the smaller shadow striped kraft bags, which I got from PaperMart.com (against my better judgement). I also purchased hot pink tissue paper from Paper Mart, since they have the cheapest prices online and you can buy bags by the package and not in bulk. But still, it annoys me that they refused to send me samples and told me to buy and return if I wasn’t happy with the product….and pay $14 for shipping. Yeah, right.

So I’m set to open my retail space at the beginning of next month, meaning right now is crunch time for buying supplies. I THINK I have everything I’m going to need, but it seems that you always realize things that are necessary after getting started.

Things I have so far:

Things I may still need:

One interesting thing I noticed is that buying in bulk and buying from traditional retail display shops doesn’t always save you money. I usually get things like Mannequinns from Acme Display or Joslin Display, but when I looked at things like hangers and fixtures they were actually cheaper at regular retail sites. For example, wooden hangers. For example, if you buy 100 wooden hangers from Joslin Display, they’ll run you about $1 each. However 50 from target is 85c each and 24 is about 75c each. Weird, isn’t it? Isn’t buying in bulk supposed to SAVE you money?

I also passed on buying packaging from Uline. They’ve got a broad product selection and good customer service but their prices are so much higher. But I’ll talk about my packaging later. I also got creative with these little plastic display thingies from office depot (I have no idea what they’re called or what they’re really for) to show my clutches and wallets. It’s always good to get creative!

Announcement coming soon.

I’m trying something different, and I’m very happy to say that my clothes will soon be featured in a local store (yay!). I was lucky to come across a local consignment shop that does all the closeouts for the high end boutiques here in town. So I went down there, talked to the owner and got a feel for the merchandise they carry, and in about two weeks I have an appointment to bring in my things and get my account started up. For a while now I’ve been wondering what to do with a few of these pieces that have been left over from last spring, and this sounds absolutely perfect. I mean, these folks know what they’re doing; they have a very thorough system and they also appear to have a customer base that is willing to purchase designer items that aren’t necessarily dirt cheap.

I have two lines in particular that haven’t done quite as well as I had hoped, mainly because they really need to be seen in person. I’m really excited about finally having a bit of floor space locally. I’ll keep everyone updated on the progress.

Oh and happy new years to everyone! Here’s to an even more succesful 2009!

Long time, no posts! Sorry about the silent period, I’ve been a bit distracted. I also had a handful of comments in the queu that I had no idea about and I will definitely follow up with each of you! Also, check out our black friday/cyber monday ad, posted above. Nifty, eh?

Yet Another Shipping Nightmare
Well I had another shipping NIGHTMARE the other day. I finally got the picture that I can pay for my postage online instead of standing in ridiculous lines at the post office on a daily basis (why didnt I think of this sooner?). There’s also a UPS store a couple of blocks from my house so I figured it would also make sense to drop off my packages there instead of driving several miles to the post office or a drop box.

And yes, this is the same UPS store involved in Shipping Nightmare #1.

This is also the same UPS store that never gave me a quote on business cards after contacting them numerous times.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice….you get the picture.

Yeah, I get it, what was I THINKING actually dropping off a package with these people. Well I did on a Friday and they said the package would ship out on Monday. So I check the tracking code Tuesday morning, and surprise surprise, the package hasn’t been received by the post office. So I march myself over there to try and find out what’s going on. It turns out that the manager was supposed to take the mail to the post office but ended up going out of town because of an “emergency” and took the mail with him, apparently. And this is the same guy who pushed their business card service on me but then failed to follow up once I actually wanted them made. *sigh* I can’t help but feel sorry for the poor sales girl who works for him because every time I go in there it’s like he’s working for her.

In the end the packages got mailed and all as well. I’ve also found another shipping station just a couple of blocks further away.

In the Press
Check out these two new interviews I did recently:

Interview with Stylistic @ Clutch Magazine
Interview with Style Bazaar Blog

Holiday season is off to a great start; much better than I expected. I’m so glad I decided to do presales , it not only brought in sales quickly but it helped me make a lot of buying decisions for Spring 2009. With the success I’ve had with Love Quotes and Lauren Conrad in just a short time (and with no paid advertisement), it really showed me how much easier it is to sell well known brands and especially celebrity endorsed brands. That was probably the biggest reason why I decided to take on some of the labels I purchased for Spring, but the downside is I feel like I’m losing the initial vision I had for the boutique. I was always a bit more interested in unique, unknown labels. It’s such a double edged sword!

Delivery Delays
So, my Love Quotes holiday delivery still isn’t in (although it probably will be tonight, if not tomorrow). The delivery window was October 1st – 15th but the company moved their warehouse and didn’t have certain colors in, so deliveries were delayed for every boutique. It’s been pretty stressful for me sense I have about a dozen preorders just waiting to be sent out, so once these are in I’ll be so relieved!

I have a couple of colors that are already sold out. Some of the newer ones like Bordeaux and Deep Teal have been fast sellers. The only one that has sold much slower than I expected is Cobalt. Probably the fact that it’s an older color has something to do with it, but this was supposed to be one of the hottest colors of the season!

Sometimes it’s better to trust your instincts…
Like I mentioned before, the Lauren Conrad line is doing really well for me. And it’s funny because the fastest selling piece by far, the Ashlee Dress, is one I initially passed on. Why? Well, the sales rep told me neither she or any of the other buyers cared for the dress and that she hadn’t sold it to ANYONE in my territory. So of course, this worried me and I decided to go with this purple draped asymmetrical dress instead. After thinking about it for a while I changed my mind and decided to go out on a limb. I was felling so daring that I ordered it in red instead of the safe color, black. The decision definitely paid off, which shows sometimes it’s better to take a risk! And I still appreciate the sales rep warning me, she definitely meant well. I kind of wish I had chosen riskier colors for some of the other garments I purchased, but oh well, too late now.

Fit Troubles
Here’s another problem I’m experiencing for the first time. I’ve never seen so many all over the place sizes. On one hand I have Bryce & Bouji which runs two or three sizes large (seriously, the size XS in a few of the pieces can fit like a 6 or even an 8 ) and then in a couple of the Lauren Conrad styles there was barely a difference between in size between XS, S and M (very odd) so I ended up sending a couple of the sizes back. So that just goes to show why it’s so important to try on EVERY item that you get and give fit instructions based on that. It’s not a bad idea to measure out the other sizes as well.

Tomorrow I have an interview on a college radio station. Wish me luck that I don’t stutter.