Comments and inspiration pulled from the fashion industry. My blog reviews fashion trends, magazines, designers, stores, runway shows and more.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Wrapping it up

Hi there. If you're just joining us, I've been sharing my stories over the past few blog entries of my first ever buying trip to New York. I went to New York with my friend Juli Blunt, who owns her own store, Fresh Ideas Clothing Company located in Chicago, and we spent the majority of our trip viewiwng the Intermezzo Collections at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center as well as the Show Piers. To wrap up our trip, we spent our third and last day at the New Yorker Hotel viewing a smaller show that had some very promising new designers.

Day Three: Smaller venue, even bigger treasures
On the last day of our trip, I was invited to sit in on a buyers' group meeting at the New Yorker Hotel. I was able to absorb a great deal of quality information about upcoming trends and designers to keep an eye out for. When one designer in particular was mentioned and the entire room of women gasped at the mention of her name, I got out my pen and put a big star next to the designer's name in hopes that we would get to view her collections. Donna Morgan, a designer I had never heard of before but was immediately intruiged.

After the meeting ended, we spent a few hours peaking through the collections featured throughout the hotel. But, the true highlight of my day was finally making it to our apointment at Donna Morgan, our last apointment of the day. Juli and I had our own private viewing of the immediate delivery collections as well as the upcoming fall and holiday collections. If you have read this blog before, you know that I am obsessed (a bit of an exaggerated word there) with dresses for this spring and summer seasons.
After seeing her immediate collection, I fell in love with the colorful and bold graphic prints, as well as the casual yet feminine and sexy structure of each dress. Simply by looking at the dresses on the hanger, you could tell that this designer "got" a woman's body.

If you're as intruiged with Donna Morgan as I first was, dont fret. I'm planning on writing a seperate blog focusing on her as a designer, as well as presenting a few of her and my favorite dresses, so please stay tuned for that.

As soon as our apointment at Donna Morgan ended, I sadly had to jump into a cab and head to the airport to go home. Throughout my time at various airports that day, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about the trip with a giant googely smile on my face. Not only did I have a great time at the shows, but I learned more than I ever expected to simply from observing, participating in the buying process and absorbing as much information as I possibly could. I loved everything I saw and experienced, and I only look forward to starting my career in this industry.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Jumping back into my fashion dreamland

I slept extremely well after spending the day at the Moda Show and dreaming of the clothing collections and bags for the upcoming fall season. We woke up that morning and headed back to Jacob Javitz to finish the accessories show, before heading over to the Show Piers 92 and 94 for the ENK Accessorie Circuit and Intermezzo Collections.

Moda Show Round Two
We spent our morning at Jacob Javitz, perusing through rows of bags and jewelry. We saw a lot of classic leather and reptile prints in colors of olive green, tan, cranberry and of course the classic black and white. Clutches are still around for fall showing a lot of chunky buckles and a softer, more light weight leather in all colors. Magnet clutches have definitely become a favorite of mine. I saw a ton of them sticking around for fall, with what seemed to be a few advances in production for a stronger magnet and more compact organization.

After getting our fill of purses, we shifted our focus to jewelry and what we found was gold, gold and more gold. Hooray! I have to be honest and say that I still haven't gotten enough of the gold trend in jewelry, so I was pleasantly suprised to see that is still going to be around for awhile. After making our way through the rows of incredible jewelry, I came to the conclusion that there is not a clear and defined trend for jewelry for the fall season. Chunky necklaces, rings and bangles are still represented, but what I saw more of - and loved - was a more thin, delicate and feminine take on all pieces including earings, necklaces and bracelets, especially in gold. I also saw a lot of precious stones being incorporated into the desings, which I loved and thought was a refreshing addition to the collections.

People Watching at the Piers
After finishing the Moda Show at Jacob Javitz, we headed over to Pier 92 and 94 for the Intermezzo Collections. Juli and I made stops at Michael Stars, Sweet Pea, 3 Dots, Joes Jeans, Ella Moss, Splendid, and many more, but the real appeal for me were the ladies walking around in fabulous dresses and jumpers from this spring and summer collections. I thought the fashion walking past me was just as inspiring as the collections being presented to us by the designer reps. I almost wanted to line these girls up and coordinate a fashion show - it was one of my favorite parts of the entire show, and I wanted to snag every outfit and purse that passed my way.

I also loved our appointment with our rep at Michael Stars. I have always been familiar with the brand, but after spending some time looking through the fall collection, I quickly learned that I wasn't as familiar with it as I had originally thought. Of course they have their great cotton basics, but I fell in love with their new line of cashmere sweaters. I loved, loved, loved the mod jumper that was shown to us, as well as a casmere dress that comes as a wrap dress and a basic scoop neck dress that could easily be thrown on with a pair of leggings or over jeans with a great belt. In addition to their cashmere line, they are also introducing a line of printed tees which will come in metallic as well as their basic cotton line.

In the end, day two was another success, and even though Juli and I were both exhausted from the day and everything we experienced, I was too excited to go to bed. I kept thinking about all of our appointments we had that day, the fashion I fell in love with just taking some time to stop and look around at the women attending the show, and I started to get a bit sad that the next day I would wake up and it would be our last day of shows, and I would have to leave my new favorite place and head back to Kansas City.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

My Trip to the Big Apple

I just spent an incredible three days in New York City at my first ever ENK International Intermezzo Collections and Accessorie Circuit buying shows, and I am still bubbling over with excitement I don't even know where to begin. Overall, attending the different shows was one of the more memorable experiences I've had in the industry, and I loved every moment (even at the end of the night when my feet couldn't handle one last step before falling into bed).

Because I have so much that I want to tell you about my trip, I'm creating a blog within a blog over the next few days which will feature my experiences and overall observations during the trip, fall trends to look forward to and a few designers that I think everyone will enjoy learning about.

New York is so amazing to me every time I go, but when I was invited to come along on a buying trip with my friend Juli, I jumped at the opportunity. Juli owns a store called Fresh Ideas Clothing Company in my hometown, Northfield, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago. The store covers a lot of ground in appealing to a wide target audience of both younger and older customers who love fashion and, similar to many of us, purchase clothes that make them feel beautiful and unique.

Day One: Travel Delays + Fashion Stimulant Overload = Happy Lauren
Our day got off to a slower start than we had both had hoped, thanks to flight delays, the NYC bike race and parade that were all blocking me from attending the show that I had been anticipating now for weeks. We finally made it to the Jacob Javits Convention Center and dove into the fall collections for women's clothing and accessories. We continually came across sweaters and jackets in adorable babydoll cuts, oversized buttons, rounded collars, and 3/4 length sleeves - a fun trend and feminine shape that is flattering on all body types. We continually ran into this style in fun colors of chocolate, greys, mustard, warm blues, and red. Cropped jackets were also everywhere we turned. This piece will be a great item to wear with all outfits, especially with dresses as we transition into fall. Jackets and sweaters were only the beginning of our adventure, and at the end of the day I had been thrown into the excitement of the buying world. I was helping Juli make decisions on what would make it to her stores, and I even did a bit of modelling.

We came to NYC on a mission to find clothing for the fall season...and boy did we succeed. Stay tuned for details from day two and three of our trip where we came across more accessory trends for fall, as well as a few designers that I immediately fell in love with their lines being shown.