Building the Boutique

MAGIC in Las Vegas is right around the corner, and I for one am excite d to be attending the convention for the 2nd time and seeing the new styles for Fall ‘12.  For first time MAGIC buyers, the whole experience can be overwhelming and down right confusing.

1. Wear Cute Flats
Yes, we’re in the fashion industry, which means looking good is important (and yes, you probably will be judged on how you dress), but you will also be on your feet for hours (possibly 6 hrs straight or longer!), so it’s just as important to be practical.  Heels at market week are a huge no-no.  I recommend a cute pair of ballerina flats, with added pads to enhance your comfort.  Trust me, there is nothing more unbearable or distracting than wearing uncomfortable shoes at market.

2.  Bring Extra Business Cards
Already have your business cards printed and packed? Good; now pack some more.  Truth is I run out of business cards most of the times I go to market, because just about everyone you look at wants one.

3. Use the Shuttle & Car Services
Magic has buses, limo’s and car’s to shuffle buyers from between Mandalay Bay, the Convention Center, and most of the hotels on the strip, most of which run every 30 minutes (usually with a 2-3 hour break in the middle of the day).  Generally, the shuttles (which are airport buses) will only move you from one of the locations to and from your hotel, but the car service will take you back and forth between the two convention sites. Check online for schedules ahead of time, and find out where the shuttle is at/near your hotel the night before, so you’ll make your appointments on time.  A little bit of planning and this service will save you a good $15 in cab fare each way.

4. Bring or Grab A Tote Bag
MAGIC hands out free tote bags, but sometimes they run out (although you can usually find

5. Pick Up Free Magazines Last
Unless it’s Vogue, or something highly coveted.  There will be tons of Nylon’s left over throughout the day, and carrying around 6 mags will only slow you down.

6. Don’t Buy the Water (or the food)
There are little cafe’s set up inside each convention hall, where a small bottle of water is $5.  Just walking a few yards outside of the convention area you can find a cheaper bottle twice the size for $3 at a concession stand or gift shop.  Or better yet, go to CVS and bring your own.

7. Don’t Make Appointments
Especially if this is your first time going to market, because there really is no way of gauging how much time you’ll spend in each booth.

8. Book Using Costco Vegas.com Cards
Flights and hotels in Vegas for 3-4 nights aren’t cheap, but here’s a trick I discovered to cut costs.  Costco sells $100 Vegas.com gift cards for $80; buy as many as you need and book your hotel and flight via Vegas.com.  They allow you to use up to $20 per transaction, plus most of the hotels give you other perks like free food and spa services when you book online. (Also check RetailMeNot.com for Vegas.com discount codes!)

9. Attend the Seminars
There are all kinds of seminars and classes as magic, covering everything from visual merchandising to social networking (an a whole lot of it).  They’re free  and oh so informative; it’s another perk for buyers, so why not?

10. Browse First, Buy Later
If you’re a first time buyer, don’t expect to make an appointment with your rep your first day there, first thing in the morning.  Trust me; you will get lost, whether it’s finding the convention hall or finding the booth.  Keep in mind that MAGIC is HUGE.  The maps you see online don’t even do it justice.  Taking in just one section is overwhelming , so allow extra time just to find out where you’re going, breathe, and wander a little.  Sometimes the unexpected things you find are some of the greatest!

The new issue of First for Women Magazine is on newsstands now — and the mother daughter duo I styled made the cover!  HUGE congrats to them!  There’s also a bigger photo on page 32, and if you look really closely on the side you can see my name listed in the credits.  So exciting!  More photos from the shoot are coming soon!

Well, these last few days have been a total whirlwind!  I went down to LA on Sunday for the spring market and LA Fashion Week.  In the four years that I’ve been doing this, not once have I ever had a problem getting a hotel in Los Angeles during market, but it seems someone had the bright idea to book a water and energy convention at the same time, so EVERY single hotel in downtown LA was booked solid.  Oy.  For someone like me, who travels by bus and train (and can’t be bothered spending extra on a rental car) it’s problematic.  I ended up having to stay all the way in Pasadena (at the Westin; nice hotel and nice rates via priceline!), which actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds — the amtrak stop in Pasadena was only 3 blocks from my hotel (and several other hotels) and the hotel itself was about the same distance from the LA metro, so I was able to take the gold line directly into downtown for market.  Another plus was that I got to visit old town Pasadena for the first time and did some major shopping at Veronica M down there.  On my last night I actually ended up moving to a hotel in Hollywood, which wasn’t nearly as nice but a lot closer to where I needed to be.

This time at market was fun because I was mainly there for consulting.  I had some time on Monday so I got to (finally!) catch one of the fashion shows, which featured three up and coming designers.  All three brought some amazing pieces.  I also got to take part in some of the freebies this time around — which included a free manicure and professional make up.  But best of all, I got the chance to attend a seminar with guest speaker Danielle Gonzales about visual merchandising.  It was so much fun getting into learning mode; it was like being at FIDM all over again, and I didn’t realize how much I missed that feeling.  I was amazed at how much useful information she packed into an hour — did you know that Hollister made their stores dark and noisy to drive out parents? There are so many smart little tricks to upping conversions that I never would’ve thought of (and sadly, I don’t think most small boutiques consider).  I recommend every buyer take time out of their schedule to attend these seminars during market (and yes, they’re FREE), and I for one can’t wait for MAGIC in February so I can attend more.

On Tuesday the plan was to consult with yet another up-and-coming boutique owner….or not.  In all the time I’ve been doing this I’ve never been stood up by a client, so it was definitely an odd experience waiting at the CMC for hours for them to show up.

Oh well, it’s always a good trip when you get to go to Bottega Louie

With the fall season right around the corner, photographer Vanessa Cabrillas and I have started to map out our ideas for upcoming editorials.  We have about half a dozen storyboards right now, and this is one of my favorites called “No Face”. It’s much more artsy and modern than anything we have in our portfolios thus far, so I’m quite excited about it.  Our plan is to submit this to an online magazine for emerging talent that is very well known in the industry.  Wish us luck!

Okay, this editorial was totally not called Candyland; I don’t want to give too much away since we’re trying to get this spread picked up by a fashion magazine.  For now I can only give you a little taste (no pun intended) of the candy themed shoot I styled a few weeks ago.  We had two awesome models — Zara at Mi (from our Spring Frills shoot) and Nereo, who is unsigned but totally should be signed.

I pulled tons of tights, body suits, gloves and booty shorts from WeLoveColors.com and mixed it in with bandeaus and shapewear from Victorias Secret to keep the lines clean and the focus on the pops of color.  The creative team spent over an hour deciding what looks and colors should coordinate with what outfits — this was probably the most difficult part of the shoot!  I’m so indecisive; not the best trait for a stylist!  But planning things out in advance always makes a shoot go MUCH more quickly (although we were still there for 12 hours, yikes!).  Can’t wait to show you all the full spread!

Well I’m still exhausted.

Last Thursday afternoon I returned home from my (second) trip Las Vegas this year….and my first trip to MAGIC! Keep in mind, this was something I was waiting for since I first started planning my boutique back in 2007, and because of poor timing I was always unable to make the convention (we would always take a family trip to Vegas a week or two before the the show — it was like rubbing salt in a wound!).

I pulled in to town late Monday night and left bright and early on Thursday, so I only had two full days to experience the show. And even in two days, I didn’t get to experience everything, not even the half of it. On Tuesday I met with a client, a really fab girl from Wisconsin who has great taste in clothing and is opening a shop, both online and off, in her hometown. We spent about 6 hours at Project, and still didn’t get to see everything!

And WWDMAGIC was great for the juniors market and more affordable contemporary wear.   This is where my favorite booth from the entire show was located — the Desigual booth.  They not only gave away AMAZING huge tote bags to everyone at the show, and served wine and cheese to guests, but they also had rotating stage where they painted peoples clothing.  I promise it was cooler than it sounds.

MY QUICK TIPS FOR MAGIC

1. Try to stay the whole three days – it’s cheaper not to go down on Sunday, but boy do you miss out on a lot if you’re not in town the first day!  There’s just way too much to see.
2. Do your research ahead of time — log onto MagicOnline.com, find out EVERYTHING that’s going down, and map a plan of action.  Because MAGIC isn’t limited to exhibitors, there are also classes, speakers and parties.
3. Wear comfortable shoes! — it amazed me (but didn’t surprise me) how many women went to this show in huge wedges, trying to look cute.  Well no one looks cute when they’re limping!
4. Scope the place out the day before – especially Mandalay Bay; it’s not easy to find their conference rooms, we had to walk about a mile through the hotel just to do so.  It’s always a good idea to go a day before the show starts and get an idea of where everything is, that way you won’t be late for any appointments.
5. Never buy water inside the convention area — this should have been my number one tip!  Project was selling tiny bottles of water for $3; no thank you!  If you walk outside to the hotel gift shop you can get a large bottle for the same price.  Better yet, visit one of the CVS’s or Walgreens on the strip and stock up at an even cheaper price.
6. Get a tote bag early – and leave your purses at home.  On Tuesday they ran out by about noon.  But luckily we were able to find bags at some of the designer booths.  You’ll definitely need it for all the line sheets you’ll be carrying around.
7. Stock up on magazines on your way out – at MAGIC they give away tons of fashion magazines (Vogue, Nylon, etc) but if you can, don’t grab them until you’re leaving because they really weigh you down.
8. Take advantage of the free transportation — but grab a map first because it’s confusing!  MAGIC offers free car  and shuttle service between Mandalay Bay, the Convention Center, and the hotels on the strip, which saves a LOT of money in gas or cab service.  (Just don’t believe the “limo” hype; those are only for so called VIP’s)

Tip number nine: go to Jean Phillippe Patisseree in the Aria hotel (or Bellagio) and get one of these yummy raspberry macarons! Terrible service, but delicious desserts!

For the month of July I’ve been very proud to be the ModelWireNetwork.com stylist of the month! The honor included a mention on the main page, a bio, and a Q&A on their blog. I was completely caught off guard when I found out I had been chosen in late July; it’s the first time I’ve been recognized for my styling, and it feels great! I love MW & MWN anyways; it’s basically a classier version of Model Mayhem (cleaner interface, less bugs, higher end models).

Another satisfying part of being a stylist is watching the careers of the models you worked with early on grow. Two models I tested last year have signed contracts recently, including Kira Overin (above) who is a new face at Wunder Management — they even put one of the photos I styled on their portfolio page, which is always cool to see! Another model I’ve worked with several times, Christina, has a contract with an agency as well. I recently worked with Bryan Toh and David Karnofsky on this hipster style shoot for her portfolio:

Much belated post here!  As I mentioned in my last post, when my photographer friend Nes and I were in LA for market we also stopped by Chic Little Devil, which is a style house, a PR firm, and a stylists dream.  The style house houses thousands of amazing designer pieces available for rent — they’re stocked with an INSANE amount of McQueen, as well as a variety of high end and mid priced labels in between.

This place is amazing because, as anyone who’s ever been a start up stylist knows, it’s nearly impossible to get clothes for shoots — especially designer clothes.  CLD lets you rent anything you want at a percentage of the retail cost.

These “Monster” boots by McQueen were absolutely INSANE in person!

We also made a trip one floor down to the CLD pr firm — they represent amazing designers like Ines De Santo, Dolly Couture, Anne Barge, Spanx and so many more.  On top of that, all the girls are super friendly and accommodating — something you don’t always run into with LA PR firms.  Isn’t their lobby amazing?  Love the decor!  Check them out online.

“Are sales reps able to provide sizing information for the line, how do I know how the sizes run for a line?”

Great question that I’m surprised I don’t get asked more often; there’s so much more than a yes or no answer here. For a lot of lines it’s simple — go into the store and try them on. But what about brand new lines, or lines that aren’t available nationwide? That’s where it gets tricky, and I can say that I’ve run into this a couple of times, and one time it ended up being a pretty costly mistake.

The first instance was with a line by a famous young designer — this was only her 2nd collection, so I made sure to ask the sales rep about the fit (actually, I only asked because I wanted to order an extra piece for mysself). I was told that all the pieces ran big, and that the largest size would be about a 10 or 12 (usually a large is an 8). I get the order, and what do you know, the small won’t even fit the mannequinn. By a lot. And we’re talking a size 2 mannequinn, and the waist of this skirt is about 24″ (which is usually on par with a 00). I thought it was just a defective skirt, but after talking to the rep a lot of buyers were having the same issues, why? Because the designer wanted the clothes to fit like a “second skin” (when they actually it more like second internal organs). I ended up keeping one small and exchanging some of the others for a size up; I also posted the measurements on the sales page. And ultimately that small did sell to a very tiny customer, with no complaints.

The second time it happened was also with a brand new line, except one that was much less known, and probably didn’t have the same amount of financial backing for fit testing, etc. Every piece had to be clamped and cinched like crazy on the mannequinn; a size small was about the equivalent of a 6/8, which is problematic when your average customer wears a 2/4. According to the designer, the sizes ran large because they were jersey and meant to look slouchy, and also said, “It would be hard for me to match the sizing with dress sizes as we never work with dress sizing.” Yeah, ok. There are pretty universal standards in the industry — I don’t think a size medium is whatever you want it to be based on the weather that day. And I know the actual pieces were cut much bigger than the samples — the sales rep was about my size and tried on one of the dresses in front of us, and it hugged her body properly, yet when I tried on the smaller size it just shimmied right off my hips. I was able to make a few exchanges with this line, however the line tanked and basically all the pieces we mailed out to customers had to be refunded, even with fit directions on the site.

Oh, and I totally lied…this happened to me not twice, but three times. The last time was with an extremely well respected footwear company. The reps told us that an 8/9 would fit a size 10, and that the size 10’s were “huge” and no one wore them and no buyers EVER purchased them. Lo and behold, for some reason, my size 10 foot couldn’t come close to squeezing in a 9, and a few of my friends with smaller feet had issues with the siaing as well. On top of that, each style was sized differently — there were 6/7’s in one style, 7/8’s in another, and some that weren’t even half sizes. Weird. What annoyed me the most was that the reps didn’t even attempt to correct the matter and rudely suggested that I only wanted to keep the pairs or myself. Absolutely not. I only wanted one.

So how do you remedy this? To be honest, I’ve yet to come up with a surefire way of avoiding it. But here are a few ways to start:

1. Try on the clothes in the showroom. If you’re not a sample size, take a friend who is or even ask a rep to model it for you. But keep in mind that samples aren’t always cut the same.

2. Fit your clothes immediately once you get them. Either on yourself or an a mannequinn. If it deviates more than one size up or down, you’re going to have a BIG problem. And if there’s a fit problem, contact your rep immediately because you generally only have 7 days for returns or exchanges.

3. Don’t buy from brand new designers. Or at least buy with caution. And I hate to have to say this, becuase I absolutely love emerging designers and want nothing more than to support them, but it is a fact that fit problems are the #1 issue new labels face. I would ask a designer if they’ve had their line fit model tested, and if they say no, run for the hills!

Keep in mind, I am talking from the perspective of an online store here. If customers can come into your store and try the pieces on you have a whole lot more leeway. But proper fit never goes out of style — it’s something any long lasting brand needs to establish from the get go.

A couple of weeks ago I styled what is probably my favorite shoot to date. I worked with photographer Bryan Toh and photog/videographer David for the first time. I was initially contacted by Bryan who sent me a few photos as inspiration for this test, with the idea being high fashion clothing with a girlish/childish background. I absolutely LOVED the idea, especially the backdrop and the idea of working with props, but I knew I didn’t want to copy any of the inspiration material — that’s not my style. So I went a different way with the wardrobe, and my vision was simple: if Tim Burton had a doll house (lets pretend boys actually play with dolls), what would his dolls look like? Probably a little bit whimsical, and a little bit gothic, like a tainted fairy tale, which is a theme I’d love to explore even more in the future. The girls on set said the wardrobe looked like a “twisted Alice in Wonderland” so I guess in a way that means I got it right!

I chose to work with a pallette of peach, light pink, black and white. I absolutely adore the way all of the looks came out (except for the 6th look, which luckily we ended up cutting due to time restraints), but I especially love the one above. I paired a pink a-line skirt with lingerie shapewear for that sleek, seamless look. And as a corsage I used a tulle flower made by the hair stylist for a previous shoot. I was kind of bummed that the top fishnet garters didn’t really show in most of the pictures though.

I also played a lot with lace and rosette textures, and puff sleeves for a touch of drama. The big poofy headband was such a great find; I actually snagged it at Claire’s, of all places!

I also got to work with my go to hair and make up girls, Carleen Forsythe-Murphy and Victoria Yap, who made the girls look amazing. Carleen bought inexpensive hair pieces to style into buns for the last two looks — it ended up looking like a million bucks!

What ultimately brought the whole shoot together was, of course, the photography. I knew Bryan was a good photographer based on his portfolio but I had no idea just how amazing he is until I saw this finished product. His eye for composition is just insane! He and his cinematographer/assistant David did such a fantastic job finding this location, styling all of the props, and taking care of everyone on set. It was ridiculously cold that day but it was totally worth it for the end result!