Chicago.

As mentioned last week, I went to Chicago for 6 days to to attend GREENBUILD for work. I didn't have nearly enough time to do as much as I wanted, but I did manage to go to some places to eat that had been on my list as well as check out some readers recommendations. Thanks for those to e-mailed me and posted tips on my blog!

For food we checked out Hopleaf, Revolution Brewery, Yolk, and Xoco. I work with some extreme beer enthusiasts, so both Hopleaf and Revolution were group pleasers. Revolution had some of the best food I've ever had (hello bacon fat popcorn). Next visit I would like to go to Violet Hour and Blackbird. They sound pretty amazing.

On Tuesday we headed to Sprout Home to get flowers for our booth. Holy foliage! This place was a dream to walk through. So many great ideas, I really could have spent a long time in there. Another place that is on my list for next time too. OK. So now the fun part. Our company works closely with another company called Richlite. Every year Richlite throws a surprise party for the folks that work with them and this year it was a super secret and we all couldn't wait to see what was going to go down.

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About 30 of us were instructed to go into a big fancy party bus where we drove around drinking beer still having NO CLUE where we were going. Already run, right? The bus finally stops and we pull up next to Wrigley Field where apparently that had rented out the WHOLE stadium for just us. We were going to be announced on the speakers, play ball, and drink beer!! Unfortunately, it ended up falling through because some college football team needed it. They still put us on the sign for kicks though.

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So on the bus went. We still had no idea where we were going to end up and then things got even more interesting. They put blind folds on us and pulled the blinds on the bus! We drove around a bit longer then were instructed to get off the bus where we guided blind folded across streets, through some doors, past security (they took our bags) and up up up an elevator. By this time I figured we were going some place high.

Eventually we made it to the top and were told that were going to experience an adrenaline rush and if anyone wanted to opt out now would be the time. Pretty nerve racking!

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Still blindfolded we were lined up shoulder to shoulder and asked not to move until told. On the count of three we were told to take a large step forward and at the same time remove our blind folds. It was such a rush! I took off my blind fold and felt like I was in mid air.

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They rented out the whole 103rd floor of the Sears (now Willis) tower and had us step out onto the clear decks. It was absolutely amazing and I felt like a kid at Christmas. Apparently no one had ever had dinner or rented the place out before. For a few hours we had a dinner party and drinks admiring the view and feeling very special. Man, I work with some cool people.

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Even though I was in Chicago for almost a week it went by so fast. I definitely need to make a trip that doesn't involve work so I have more time to see the sights and hangout with some of you!

Lollygagger

Starting Monday I will begin a new chapter in my life working for a company based out of Duluth called Loll. They design and make modern outdoor furniture using 100% recycled materials. They are not only stylish, but they are sustainable which is the original reason I was drawn to the company. Their market is growing and their furniture is now being sold at Design Within Reach and Room&Board stores (among others).This will be a very big change for me since I have been working primarily from home the last 3 years, but it's something I'm excited to be a part of and change is good for me. Plus, I'll be going to work everyday at a pretty amazing office and manufacturing facility. It was designed by David Salmela (His son, Kai, is a good friend of mine) and has won many design awards and is very eco friendly as well.
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Many things in my life are going to have to be reworked and changed a bit, but I am still going to keep Hello Victory open. Updates will most likely happen on the weekends instead of the week. Thank you all for your nice comments regarding this change in my life!
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Ps. Loll might be in your city! Let me know if you've seen them.

Vegas

I'm off to Vegas until Friday for work. It feels strange that I'll be buying clothes for next spring when fall has yet to arrive. I made the mistake of looking at the weather for the next 10 days there. iiick. Although I didn't pack the exact outfit above, It's pretty darn close. The goal is to wear loose, light, and comfortable clothes as I will be on my feet for 10 + hours/day. I will also be testing out my new Shabd-Baggu backpack. Can't wait.
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See you next week!

back home.

whoa. I am back from New York! There is much to tell. First off, I apologize for the shotty pictures (and the lack of interesting ones). I didn't make many pictures because besides going to the show, we didn't end up doing that much exciting after the first day. I'll get to that in a minute. We arrived Saturday afternoon and spent the day walking around our hotel and ended up seeing the American Beauty exhibit at the FIT museum. It was so amazing seeing all those gowns in person and it got us in the mood for a week of buying. Then we had a wonderful dinner at Resto, a Belgian restaurant that is known for it's mussels and frites. I absolutely LOVE mussels, and this was THE place to go because we each got a pail of them all to ourselves with a side of frites. Yum. After dinner we headed to the Ace Hotel and as soon as I walked into the front doors I knew we had made a good decision. Incredible taxidermy (check), great drinks (check), Opening Ceremony store attached (double check), awesome decor and friendly folks (check).

We woke up the next morning bright and early and headed to show all day and ended up staying in for pizza (greasy NYC style-awesome) and planned on going to some fun places the next two evenings. Unfortunately that's when my trips turns south. We had dinner the next night at this cute restaurant near our hotel before going out and within 4 hours I had the WORST food poisoning. I ended up staying in our hotel bathroom all night, barely making it to the show the next day, by then I was so exhausted and still feeling gross we didn't make it out again. Boo. It was such a bummer.

Coterie was a success! The show was gigantic, but I thought it was well organized and we managed to pick up a few new lines. Here are some of the fall trends that I saw consistently throughout the show:

-Khaki pants :a lot of the denim lines were really pushing these. Most of them we're a straight to skinny leg.

-Cargo pants :again, a lot of these were on a skinny or even legging body. Not sure how I felt about them...

- Strong shoulders : everywhere! From a basic tank to a sweater, I saw a ton of shoulder pads; ruched shoulders, or slightly pointed ones.The sweater above is from a line called Mcginn which I fell in love with immediately.

-Embellished shoulders: not only padded, but I noticed a lot of detail focused on shoulders from razzle dazzle stones to military type adornments.

-Lace: this was everywhere too. Lots of shirts and blouses had lace detail or a cut-out with small lace patch.

-Slouchy trouser: Usually cropped with loose pockets. I really liked theses!

-Fabric insets on denim: Some of the fashion denim would be distressed and under the distressing would be some sort of printed fabric from stripes to liberty print.

-Dress Shorts: We'll be seeing a lot of tweed and velvet shorts paired with tights this fall for sure!

-Stripes: Still really big!

That's what comes in mind for now. I am kind of brain dead from the lack of sleep and traveling so bear with me. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and week and I can't wait to catch up on your blogs. Have a great day!!

NYC!

I am leaving for NYC this Saturday to attend Coterie. Andi and I will be buying clothes for this coming fall/ early winter. I'm so excited to see what's coming!! I doubt I will have time to blog while I am there, but I will for sure take some pictures of anything exciting. In the meantime, I am trying to figure out what to pack. When I first started attending shows I wanted to dress nice because there are so many fashionable folks there, but after spending 11-15 hours on your feet for 4 days straight I now try to wear what is comfortable and warm (the shows are usually freeeezing too). Above are a few outfits I'll probably pack because they're just so easy.
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We're staying around Time Square so we're close to the show. Does anyone know any great restaurants to check out? Last time I went we had a superb dinner at Freemans. I was thinking it might be fun to go have a drink at the Ace Hotel and then look for a spot to eat. Any suggestions?

chicago

Hello (envision me saying this like Heidi Klum). I'm back from Chicago! Although I was at market 9 hours a day I did manage to fall in love with this city. When I arrived Friday afternoon I had the whole day to myself so I immediately took a cab (which I realized after how easy the train is to use...) to Wicker Park and went to Penelope's. I tried on a million things including this, this, and this. BUT in the end I fell in LOVE with this simple BBW wool ballet dress. I really needed a black dress suitable for fall and winter and just couldn't let it go. I originally saw this over at Megans blog so it had been in the back of my mind lurking toward my frontal lobe the last week or so. It was spendy, but I know I will get a lot of bang for my buck. I also enjoyed a fabulous dinner with my friend Helen at Coast and stayed at the swanky Allegro hotel which I liked a lot. Here's a glimpse of my stay in Chicago:My new favorite purchase. Built By Wendy wool ballerina dress purchased at Penelope's. Hollah.
Our friends Deb and Amy flew in for a few days and crashed in our hotel. On Sunday night we went up to the Signature Lounge for a cocktail. Its on top of the John Hancock building. Apparently you can see 4 states from the top! This was one the highlights of the trip. It was so magical and beautiful. The picture above is of me by the window. All my pictures made us look like ghosts.

I discovered a new tasty treat: oysters! They were so yummy. We also indulged in lobster and Chicago's greasy pizza.

Andrea flew in Sunday morning for the show. Later that evening we went out for sangria pitchers.

And of course the majority of my time was spent buying clothes for late spring early summer. We picked up a few more lines including Andrew Marc's new dress line. It just debuted and I fell in love with this nude one. I'm really excited to get this in!The last day we had a few hours to kill before getting on the plane so Andrea and I went wedding dress shopping. She's getting married January 16th and has yet to get a dress! We stopped by Nicole Miller and she tried on the collection. This was my favorite, but she didn't like it as much.

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So that was my trip in a nutshell! I did find a vintage new years eve/holiday dress at Una Mae's. It needs to modified a bit, but I'm pretty excited about it. If I get my act together I will try to take a picture of it for you. Did you have a good weekend? I can't wait to catch up with you all.

away i go.

I'm off to Chicago folks. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and hope to be back early next week. Here are a few links for you to enjoy while I'm away....

Beautiful clothes and furniture (pictured above)

a fashion coloring book!

i want this shirt jacket.

I bought this last week and love it.

i wish i could make cupcakes look this good and pretty.

still need to see this. and buy the soundtrack. karen o!

this beautiful girl reminds me of an old friend i miss.

did you see this Oprah? makes me so thankful.

a new online boutique to check out (via commas and clauses)

and for those of us that watch crappy tv. really Jake?

and a question for you: what are your thoughts about wearing brown boots with black tights or clothes? just curious...

until next week friends!

dear me

I wish I could draw.

Via me melodia & you fail

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Tomorrow I head to the cities and then I'm off to Chicago for Stylemax. I still can't believe I'll be buying clothes for summer when there is snow falling outside my window. This will be my first trip EVER to Chicago. I'll be alone the first night, so I plan on wondering around the city and hopefully make my way to Division Street where I hear there's good shopping and food. I'm also meeting my new friend/rep Helen of Dear Creatures for Dinner. She lives in Chicago so I'm sure she will know a good place to dine. That's another highlight of being a buyer- I'm meeting some very cool people. Have you been to Chicago? Any recommendations?

vegas and fashion forecast

Well, I'm back from two eventful weeks. I thought I would start at the beginning so Vegas it is! It was my first time going to Vegas, and I must say it was much better than I thought it was going to be. I do wish we had more time to peruse clothing lines, but most of our day was filled with meetings with lines we already carry. We did manage to pick up a few new lines which I'm eager to have and will post on that later. Andrea and I tried setting a curfew for ourselves the night we went out, but what was supposed to be midnight turned into five in the morning! Oh yes we did. We managed to stay out till 5 a.m. and rise again at 7 a.m. for meetings!! I think Vegas does that to people....We had so much though! We ended up at a few awesome bars/clubs (and I don't even like clubs!) and danced the night away. We befriended Bobby, who I guess (once googled), is a pro-soccer player/featured in Cosmo mag for bachelor of the year. He bought all our drinks (and my 8 Fiji waters) the whole night! Not bad right? Hehe. {We spent a lot of time at the Venetian. Great shopping, foods, and where Project was}

{Andrea checking out Nanette Lapore} {Me, Andrea, and Bobby (this was probably taken at 3 in the morning....)}

We did a lot of our spring 2010 (can't believe I just typed that year....) buying for the shop, so I was excited to see all the upcoming trends. Here's what I noticed in a lot of what we saw:

Bottoms:

- Pretty much every denim line we visited was showing some sort of denim legging (as well as jegging-new coined word in the fashion world?). These were everywhere in a lot of different colors and washes from distressed to pastels. They seemed to have come a long way too with zippers and usable pockets.

-The boyfriend jean was still huge, but evolving into more of a slouchy straight leg body instead. I happen to LOVE this body and can't wait to get my hands on a pair.

-Shapely fitted knit skirts (a lot of high waisted bodies)

- I saw a lot of cut-off jean shorts, as well as heavily distressed and high waisted denim shorts.

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Patterns and Colors:

- Floral was still everywhere (thankfully!)

-Color block prints were seen a lot. I saw this a lot in the winter too. It kind of reminds me of Bill Cosby (in a good way)

-Geometric! I love that this is becoming bigger and better. The clothing line Industry had some awesome geometric prints that I recommend checking out this spring (affordable too!).

-Whimsy patterns where seen a little bit in each line. We picked up a really cute silk blouse with little hearts on it from BCBG that I thought was adorable.

-Tie-dye and watercolor was shown in a lot of shirts and dresses. If done right, this can look really pretty in a silk.

-Pastels were everywhere. Pale greys, pinks, minty greens, soft browns, peach, and cream were not only in dresses and tops, but huge in denim as well.

-Chartreuse was definitely the "pop" of color a lot of lines used.

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Tops and Misc.:

-Cropped jackets both in a slouchy easy body as well as a structured one.

-The maxi dress will be back again.

-Slouchy T-shirts and tanks will make a return. I saw a lot of these in every color and pattern imaginable.

-Bib overalls! I saw these in a lot of denim and small lines. Some were actually quite cute!

-Denim jackets

- Jumpers are still evolving and will be around for a while.

Of course there is a TON more to mention, but these we're consistently in every line. Hmm, that's all I got for now! I hope that post wasn't too long for your attention span. What trends are you looking forward too?

ps. its weird to be talking about spring when winter hasn't even arrived!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack

From Vegas......
To Hawaii.....

Its good to be home! After traveling for 2 weeks, 6 plane rides, and 3 time changes, I must say it feels rather nice to sleep in my own bed. Vegas was a blast, but Kauai was something amazing. Ben and I spent a lot of time in the sun, swimming, eating fresh foods, and just enjoyed being together without work calling. Stay tuned for more pictures....
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Thanks so much to Leslie for guest blogging! I never enjoyed reading my own blog so much :) It was fun reading all your comments while I was away. I look forward to catching up on yours!

au revoir

I'm off to Vegas for four days and then to Hawaii until the 11th (life is so hard...). I can't wait to see all the new fashions for spring! Don't forget to check back because dearest Leslie will be guest blogging for me and she has lots of interesting things to say and show.

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Until we meet again.....Au revoir!

newyorkcity your so pretty...

I'm baaaack. My trip to NYC flew by and I can hardly believe I am back sitting in front of my computer again. The trip was FILLED with mostly work. Fun work, but lots of meetings. Unfortunately, it rained the WHOLE time we were there so we didn't have a chance to walk around that much and discover cool things, but we didn't really have time anyway. I also didn't take many pictures because even though I was feeling like a giddy girl in a candy store, I tried playing it cool and tried not whipping out my camera every minute. I didn't see any other buyers taking pictures either, so the ones I did take were when I thought no one was looking (total dork-I know) and they turned out blurry. Sorry!
It was definitely a dream come true. We spent everyday going to the show, meeting with designers, buying lines, and gawking at all the new styles and pretty people. I think I said the word "so cute" about a hundred times a day. My favorite part was going to the design showrooms not at the show. They were always beautiful and if we we're lucky the designer would be there! Above is a picture of Andrea at the Citizens showroom. They had a cute little pup wandering about.

Blurry. Blurry mess. Sorry. This showroom was really chic and carried about 10 lines that are absolutely gorgeous. I really liked Geren Ford fall collection that was here.

Since I was lucky enough to see a lot of upcoming styles and trends I thought I would share with you some that I noticed in pretty much every line:

Bottoms

1.) Distressed boyfriend rolled crop (this was EVERYWHERE)

2.) Harem trouser

3.) Straight leg Jean

4.) Boyfriend jean rolled

5.) 4 pocket Knit leggings (black)

6.) Paper bag pencil skirts

7.)Loose high waisted skirts

Tops

1.) Anything boyfriend

2.) Slouchy easy blouses

3.) Long knit vests

4.)Blazers (blazer vests too)

5.) Burnouts

Colors/Patterns

1.) Grey (still! and loving it)

2.)Neon (esp. yellow)

3.)Watercolor/tie-dye

4.)Royal blues

5.) Lots of embellishment for Holiday

6.) Plaid

On our last night I had a chance to meet up with my friend Kai who lives there. He is a talented designer who works for the Pentagram. He brought us to a fabulous restaurant in Soho called Freemans. Its at the end of this little alley, barely visible from the street. It was SO beautiful. The decor is dark with grey washed walls, mounted taxidermy, and the food is divine. GREAT people watching too.
And that's pretty much my trip! I stayed the night in Minneapolis with Leslie and my dad drove me to Duluth today. He's actually taking a nap right now before he drives back down. He's so adorable, I just love my Dad. I hope you all had a great week! Duluth greeted me with 72 degree weather so its nice to be home :)