November 30, 2006
philly pride
First of all, I must say, Bob is becoming quite a celebrity on the FP blog. Here we have some Free People girls joining Bob at one of his famous Eagles tailgating parties. Bob hosts one each week, and whenever he can get free tickets, he invites some of the FP girls to join in the festivities. He says that tailgating is an opportunity to really bond with friends.
Here we have the lovely Amanda assisting with the grilling. Bob says he chooses foods that somehow relate to the visiting team. Like when the Eagles played Green Bay they did cheesesteaks since Green Bay are cheeseheads. See, the FP girls are an interesting bunch. It's not all about fashion and crafts...
in response...
This post is in response to a few comments posted about the holiday catalog... We got an overwhelming response to our first holiday catalog. Way better than we had expected. Unfortunately, the second catalog (Holiday in Bali) was planned and shot at the same time as the first, and featured some of the same products. We had no way to edit the second catalog once items unexpectedly sold out.
Please forgive us! We are really excited we received such a great response, and will definitely be able to learn from this for future catalogs. If there is an item you just can't live without, you can contact our call center @ 800-309-1500. They may be able to locate the item in one of our store locations.
November 29, 2006
trip to bali
Our newest holiday catalog is out now! Keep a look out in your mailbox. Or check it out on our website. The inspiration for the latest collection was Bali, especially the textiles. We shot the catalog in Hobe Sound, Florida. Seeing these clothes and the location really makes me dream of taking a trip!
November 28, 2006
little fp girl
A customer sent in a photo of her adorable 4 year old Alexis wearing our birds eye babydoll sweater as a dress! Had to post it cause she's a cutie.
November 27, 2006
doily art & deco
Found these images on what you make it (see below entry) by artist Lisa Solomon. She makes these installations using hand crocheted doilies and detailed drawings. They look so intricate. Pretty amazing.
Lisa's work reminded me of some pieces we used for our Free People store fall display. The display team hand crocheted these enormous doilies from enormous yarn balls (you can see the yarn balls on the floor in the photo). The picture above is in the lobby of the FP home office.
what you make it
Check out this "online art zine of sorts" called What You Make It. This is the second issue and is even better than the first. (The first issue introduced me to wardrobe remix, however) This issue covers some really inspiring artists and crafters and has a cool feature on holiday shopping. It also introduces a book called "By Hand" that looks especially interesting. Before I give it all away, see for yourself!
November 23, 2006
happy thanksgiving!
Chrysanthemum, pipe cleaners, pompom, and google eyes
social shopping
Have you ever found the most perfect pair of boots on a website, and then gone back later to find them and spent, like half an hour trying to find that same website. Or maybe you tend to save your choice shopping sites under the "Favorites" column on your toolbar, and now there's about a million and you have no idea why they're there. There are a few tools out there to get your shopping lists in order, and serve as a kind of "social networking" with myspace-like features.
I have found the most basic of these sites to be wists. Here you can save pictures of the things you covet and tag them with categories that will help you find them easily.
This other site that I like is stylehive created with the purpose of "amplifying the buzz factor" of online shoppping. I like searching by what's "popular" for that day, week, month, to see what products are getting some "buzz". Stylehive also has a good blog for discovering what's new on the web.
And my favorites of this breed of sites is thisnext. This site offers the most ways to personalize your lists and have a real identity. On this site it is easy to discover people with similar interests as you, and then learn about new products/websites that they have discovered. Let me know if anyone has any tips for discovering new trends through these sites!
November 21, 2006
ornaments
Word has it, these ornaments are selling out quick. I wanted to share their story, even though they might not be available much longer...
These funny girls were inspired by a vintage statue found in London of some sort of crazy wood nymph. Our accessories designer picked out some extreme trims while traveling through India and Hong Kong. She brought them back to Philly and a few of the designers worked to design different outfits and personalities for the girls. Once they picked the best ones, the accessories designer named all her babies. Here's what she was thinking with the names...
(from left to right)
holly wood... came from the accessories designer's Halloween costume last year, and the ornament has a wooden head
betty wilson... reminded the designer of a neon colored lady from a fifties sitcom
coco cabana... she would probably serve frozen drinks on a cruise or something
pips o'hare... pippie long stocking pigtails
toni rockafella... check out her bling
pixie bell... a prettty winter fairy
November 20, 2006
bikes
I have been thinking about posting some pictures of the lovely ladies that ride our FP bikes, like the one above of our Design Coordinator Assistant. We have a few of these office vintage bikes the Display Team decorated with pretty flowers. Anyone can use them to run errands around the Navy Yard (our new office in Philly) like pick up the mail or just to get some fresh air during lunchbreak.
And then I was sent this picture and decided it was defintely time to post. This is Bob, our customer service manager. Some of the girls sent me some commentary to post in appreciation of Bob...
Besides being the pretzel guy – he takes care of us here…..he’s the “go to” guy (and one of the few men in the office). He was the only one who had jumper cables (and knew how to work them) when Joey thought she might need a jump one day – it turned out she didn’t...He offered to help Elena move into her new home along with a few of his buddies from college. He even offers to bring paper over to our printer by the box loads – since we can only carry two or three packs at a time. All in all, Bob's a great guy!
November 16, 2006
party time
fpgirls's tips for throwing a fantastic holiday party...
Crafty activities are key. Supply your guests with all of the ornament making needs. Sparkly tinsel pipe cleaners are absolutely essential. And google eyes. Oh, and pompoms...
Above are the beaded trees currently decorating the lobby in our office. These were so easy to make. You just get those styrofoam cones from the craft store and cover them in beads attached with straight pins. We used these in our store display last holiday.
And here we have some polar bear ornaments made by Sabine Brandt. She made these for an ornament swap. Notice the use of sparkly tinsel pipe cleaners.
Next tip...Forget about real food. Just serve desserts. They tend to be both prettier and yummier. This recipe for Martha's peppermint icecream sandwiches covers both the pretty dessert requirement as well as the crafty activity. I count crushing up candy canes as a crafty activity.
Final tip... No hostess is complete without an amazing party ensemble. I'm sure these holiday looks at FP will do the trick! Crafts, desserts, and an amazing party outfit. That's all that really matters.
November 15, 2006
we're cookin
Those girls in the lunch club have cooked up some more delicious meatless-wheatless-mushroomless meals and would like to share their recipes! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, see this entry.) Here are the best from the last 2 weeks...Above is the lentil dal. Find recipe here. The FP chef said she had a little trouble with the first step calling for "enough water". She had to keep adding more. Another tip... she also forgot to seed the Serrano chiles and burned everyone's little tongues. EEk
And here we have a veggie shepherds pie. Looks yummy. Find recipe here
getting organized
We have a new addition to the Free People team, our Creative Assistant! One of her first projects was to create a big shared calendar to get everyone's life a little more organized. She used the back side of old wallpaper rolls, old blank sheet music, and other found papers all stapled onto the wall. The grid is made from yarn spools we have decorating the building, and then the letters of the month are cut out with an x-acto blade. We wrote on the calendar with pastels and markers. Now everyone can know what's going on in the different departments. We already feel more like a team!
See? Look how effective...
November 14, 2006
whowhatwear
Whowhatweardaily has called out our jewel toned flats as the perfect satin ballet flats if your name is not Kate, Lindsay or Sarah Jessica. The site is actually kind of cool. You can submit questions to find out what celebrities were wearing what and where. And they have a stylist you can question to find more personal fashion advice. I like their tagline..."We don't care about who you're dating or if you eat. We only care about what you wear." I know I , for one, do care IF people eat, but I'm glad there's a celebrity site that's not discussing it constantly...
November 13, 2006
office doggies
The Free People home office is a dog friendly environment. It is not uncommon to see dog beds in the corners or little food bowls under people's desks. So here are some pictures of the pup's that are the office companions... Above is Fritz. He's on the buying team. Fritz buys our knit tops and all of our accessories.
This is Barley. Barley is the master of the Free People website.
And here is Josie. She works on the photoshoots for the web. Here she relaxes in the studio in some fake snow used in the latest shoot.
November 10, 2006
for you fashion addicts
Mr. John Galliano seems to be the guest editor for the December/January issue of French Vogue. Hopefully this means a healthy dose of avant garde fashion fantasies to get us through the new year. And speaking of getting us through the new year, the issue also comes with a limited edition 2007 calendar (pictured above). I received this news via stylebubble. She also recommends December's British Vogue, it's 90th birthday issue, even for those that aren't usual Vogue readers. She'll tell you why...
November 9, 2006
the bears
When thinking about the whole "vintage wintertime" concept (see "holidays are a comin"), we were really attracted to old stuffed animals. In addition to the enormous stuffed bear we've designed for our store windows, we decided to make some Free People bears to sell. The accessories designers asked a bunch of people in the office to bring in their favorite old stuffed bears. The one above is modeled after a bear that belongs to our store design and diplay manager.
And this one was made to look like the favorite bear of the founder of our company! The accessories girls had the bears made and then had them embellished with all the classic fp goodness... patchwork, embroidery, buttons and beads.
November 8, 2006
philly pretzels
Every now and then, we receive an email from our customer service manager letting us know there are fresh steaming hot soft pretzels in our kitchen waiting to be eaten. He is nice enough to pick them up in the morning from Federal Pretzel, a small pretzel bakery in South Philly (on the corner of 7th and Federal). The bakery pulls them right out of the oven and into this lovely cardboard box. Bob (our customer service manager) recommends you add mustard to really get the full taste. Thanks Bob!
silver & gold
Remember that song in girlscouts? Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the...Anyway, blogging has connected us with some new friends, as well as a few we were already quite fond of. Just wanted to thank all of them for the support. Happy exploring...
anahata
An artist's blog...she says, "Change is only one brush stroke, one word, one painted chair, one cut up magazine away."
oh joy
To find some girlie designer goodness...and she's from Philly.
fly
An inspired lover of fashion and art...and she does really cool illustrations.
notcot
"A visual filtration of ideas + aesthetics + amusement." Yes.
design*sponge
Features home and product design, and she has some real good taste.
seamsters
A good friend of the free people crew. I think the word "seamsters" says enough.
November 7, 2006
in case you didn't know...
Etsy is a really cool website. It's like ebay in that the site can host your business and provide the necessary structure for selling your goods. The difference is Etsy is completely dedicated to promoting hand made craftacular wares. One way I like to find out about great artiists and crafters is to check the featured seller. The site profiles the artist/designer/crafter with a bio and funny interview questions. The current featured seller is cricketpress, a husband and wife screenprinting duo. (Their cards pictured above) Etsy is the perfect place to do some holiday shopping and support small businesses. (Oh, and you can shop the site by color...neat.)
November 3, 2006
holidays are a comin
Our display team just finished installing the holiday display at the Free People store in Paramus, NJ and it looks awesome. The rest of our stores will be decorated over the next week, so if you live near one you should definitely pay a visit to see what they've done. (find store locations here)
The inspiration was vintage wintertime and they were looking at lots of vintage Christmas images, toys from the 1950's and even found this crazy chair made of stuffed animals. So they got really into the stuffed animals and decided on this huge 150 pound teddy bear for the front window. The bear's patchwork was done by hand by our display team here in Philly.
Each store will have an "advent" calendar, also hand painted by our display team. Each day the store employees will open a window or door to reveal a hidden picture. There was supposed to be chocolate behind each door, but there were some technical difficulties. The team left the store staff a package of chocolates that they can eat each day instead.
Some painted skis and ice skates...
and the wall of cookies, also made by the display team.
November 2, 2006
lunch club
Some of the girls that work on our website have a serious passion for cooking. They started talking about all the recipes they were trying for entertaining friends and family, and decided to try cooking for each other. They take turns bringing lunch to the office every day and have a few rules in order to accomadate everyone in the group. Each meal must be meat free, wheat free and mushroom free! Today they made the lovely meal pictured, curried butternut squash soup with potato & onion cakes. I'm kind of jealous I'm not in the club. That potato onion cake looks real yummy. Check out the recipes here and here.
behind the holiday catalog
Our holiday catalog was shot in Alaska amidst glaciers, reindeer, and sleigh dogs. The above photo was shot at the Matanuska glacier.
The girls had to park the van and hike about a mile to the Matanuska glacier because it was impossible to drive through the icy ground. They had to carry EVERYTHING with them that mile including all the outfits, photo equipment, and hair & makeup supplies.
Part of the shoot was done on a glacier called Punch Bowl. They were staying in a town about 1 hour southeast of Anchorage and had to take a helicopter up to the glacier location. Suprisingly, this was not the first helicopter ride for either of the girls from the Free People team. Our art director had been on one for a prior job, and her partner in crime had been on one at a car show at the age of four...
For more "behind the scenes" click here to see a video from the holiday shoot.
November 1, 2006
the pink horse
Since I was talking about interview projects (see below entry) I thought I should really show you this picture. One of our buyers was interested in moving into a design position, and wanted to show that her creativity went beyond numbers and dreaming up new accessories to sell. So she made one of her own paintings come to life using strips of fabrics and paper mache. The inspiration was based on a spring trend concept we're working on called Landed Gentry (more on this later).
This is how she described her project..."Handmade, tangible structure and materials for the intangible concept. Pink horses, flying pigs, buyers going into design…" She's awesome.
The lady on horseback has been decorating our hallway, and the artist calls the piece " rosy equine hall ornament". I just think it's so great to see the different ways people can artistically express their enthusiasm and understanding of what it takes to create here at Free People.
personalized travel
In order to get a creative job at Free People, you are asked to do a project that expresses your creativity and understanding of the Free People aesthetic. It's a really great way to show what you are capable of beyond a typical portfolio. So anyway, one of our accessories designers had hand made these super crafty luggage tags for her Free People interview. She tapped into how important travel is to the Free People girl, how inspiring it can be. Obvoiusly she was right on, got the job, and months later is seeing her creations sold in the Holiday Catalog! Check out the hand embellished tags for sale on freepeople.com
