Urban Outfitters Inc. has a building called 543 in the Navy Yard that is the center of employee life. This building is shared by the three brands and is also open to the public. 543 houses our restaurant/cafeteria, gym, yoga studio, coffee shop, and magazine shop among other things. Since it is a space the employees visit so often, we thought it would be a great place to set up an art gallery to display the artwork or collections of the employees. Our company is filled with creative people and we want to showcase all of their hidden talents...
So to kick it off, Free People employee Kris Chau set up a show of her art work with her best friend Brielle. You might recognize Chau's style from a few illustrations that have been posted on the blog. Check out the video of Kris and Brielle and the gallery opening, and Kris Chau's website!!
Meet Kit Yee. She works for one of the factories we work with in Hong Kong and visited our office last week...
It was an awesome opportunity to get to know each other, and to work
hand-in-hand with our designers and production team.
She saw a lot of Philadelphia during her stay, including a visit to Franklin Fountain on Market St. She loved the egg cream!
Here's a little message Kit Yee sent us...
6/23 3pm: I am on the flight CO099 way back to home
6/24 8pm: 15 hrs later, I am in HK international airport
Can¹t believe 5 days is just like a flash, remember all the nice and cool
people I met in Free People office, the tasty ice cream I have had, the cool
hair cut, and the surprise birthday party for Carrie!! (correct me if I
spell your name wrong. TKS!)
Haha! Seems I just have fun in Philly though I did. I need to mention
something about my hard work here!
This is really my pleasure to have chance work with all FP people in Philly.
Thanks everybody for providing me such memorable experience and especially
Lorie, Doub and my boss Andy and Joey help to arrange this wonderful trip
for me!
Hope to have chance to see you all in HK!
Last week, the Free People display team, the merchandisers, and the retail teams were all busy setting up our new store in Greenwich, Connecticut! You should definitely go visit the store and see how it came out, but here are some "behind the scenes" of the preparation.
The above photos are of the finished art in the fitting rooms. The display team hand paints, draws, stencils something unique in each room. Don't they look amazing???
And here we have the transportation of the giant yarn balls. Looks like a comfy ride...
This is the first Free People store to have this cool new cash-wrap. (Don't mind the mess, remember this was from setting up the store) The little windows are filled with treasures found in Hong Kong. Some have flowers, stationary, and other crazy sparkly Chinese decorations. One of our sweater designers, Amy, lives in Hong Kong and she found all of these incredible bits for us. She said she sourced them in these tiny hole-in-the-wall shops and alley ways. She had lots of fun finding them and it was so different from working on the sweaters. Thanks to Amy, the cash-wrap looks awesome! Go check out the store for yourself!
I'm sure you've noticed all this talk about "homestead" on our website the last week or two. What's homestead? It's the name of our latest trend concept. Since we didn't do a catalog inspired by this trend, I thought I'd give you some of the info we use in the home office to connect to this idea. Check out this poem written by one of our girls on the creative team...
land of buffalo bones and tumbling stones.
old guns and whispering ghosts,
forbidden love and untamed hearts.
old time desperado and willful maiden.
lonesome prairie and wild frontier.
across the wide, open, airy fields,
running,swimming,swiftly
through tall weeds and wild flowers.
plaid skirt, dusty wind blown hair,
dandelion petals in your eyelashes.
my senses obscured by white lace and
a curling trail of gun smoke.
lay your blouse across the chair
let fall the flowers
from your hair
and kiss me
with that country mouth
so plain
Lots of people ask about the history of Free People, how the brand was started, about the relationship with Urban Outfitters, etc. Well, now we have posted our story on our website for all to read. Check it out here!
Our store in Garden City, NY (Roosevelt Field Mall) would like to invite you to celebrate their one year anniversary! The girls are super excited. They're decorating the store, bringing in sweets & treats and even making little gifts for you.
Visit the Garden City location and receive a gift with your purchase on Saturday, June 30th from 12 to 7pm.
Dittos are our newest denim brand we are carrying in the stores on on the web.(check em out here) Dittos was a hot brand in the 70's that has recently been revived for the benefit of our generation. The fit has that 70's classic feel to it. They're a little bit high waisted. The denim is thin, super light and flowy and the leg is really long. The back has a double yoke (with a really cute shape) and no pocket. And these puppies don't stretch much and you should wear them 70's style, super tight. Like, maybe you should get out your pliers and lay down to button them...
Here, the sales girls at our Paramus, NJ store try on the white dittos (the security tag is hot, right?) and get silly, Backstreet Boys style.
Did you miss the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend? Or maybe you're thinking about checking out the Chicago scene? Poppy Talk did this cool guide to the fair that can catch you up on what you missed... Above image from rock paper scissors
Check out this post over on love forever. She has picked up the latest issue of Selvedge and posted these beautiful photos from a spread on the women's clothing of Salvador, Bahia in Brazil. Definitely makes me want to see the rest of the images. (photographs by Fedor Van der Valk)
"Open a copy of Selvedge and you sense there is a philosophy that Selvedge readers subscribe to. A belief system based on a cerebral and sensual addiction to textiles in all forms. Readers share a belief in the importance of their material surroundings and a passion for the beautiful and beautifully made.
Our aim is simple: to provide a textile publication which fits seamlessly into their creative lifestyle. Directed towards an international, discerning audience, Selvedge covers fine textiles in every context: fine art, interiors, fashion, travel and shopping."
Etsy has teamed up with Instructables for this Sew Useful contest. So you know that Etsy is all about supplying a marketplace for the independent artist and crafter, and Instructables is a community created to share the how-to's for useful projects. I love how Instructables encourages the sharing of finds and ideas. I mean, that's what blogging is all about, right? Anyway, combining these two ideas, you get the ultimate way to support the handmade community. And there's prizes...
I was flipping through the third issue of Craft: magazine (the one put out by the makers of Make:) and this picture was just so striking. This is just one little corner of a garden created by Diane Salavracos in Belgium. She buys odd colored spray paint from graffiti shops and then paints dried flowers, broken branches, Halloween pumkins, pine cones, etc. to create a year round colorful wonderland. Not as environmentally positive as a growing green garden, but it looks really cool.
Check out this huge list of blogs on the subject of creativity. They're broken down by categories like industrial design, fashion, technology, etc. There are a million blogs on here I've never seen, so I'm very excited to do some exploring. Have fun! Leave a comment and let us know if you find one that's amazing!
We had a baby shower last week for our Planner (she figures out how much we need to buy of each style, what stores to send which styles, she manages all the numbers). All of her coworkers from the buying and web teams made her these adorable onesies! They have heat transfer graphics and are hand dyed. So cute, right!
So our travel themed craft swap is coming to a close. These photos are just a few of the amazing crafts the particpants have exchanged. Check out our flickr group to see the rest, and leave these guys some comments! The creativity of all you swappers is seriously incredible. Hope you all had fun!!!!
Anyone ride a scooter? One of our own FP girls is responsible for planning a rally in Philly at the end of the month. Join in on the rides, BBQs, scavenger hunt and Philly fun. Check out the site for the schedule and details!
My attention has recently been captured by jotterblog, a paper/stationary/craft blog written by one of our avid fp blog fans. As I am new to their site, I went back and checked out the archives, and found a post on these awesome paper dresses.
I'm also loving their love of chickens. Guess what. Chicken Butt. Check out the chicken entries here and here.
Our web team was working on a photoshoot with new product for our website, so I made a visit and took some random photos. Here we see hair & makeup...
I'm sure you've noticed our latest backgrounds that look like photographs, and sometimes they look so real you'd think they shot on location. Well here's a photo of just the backdrop. Our creative assistant discovered how to make these in Illustrator. She tiles out a photo and then prints each piece on a regular color printer. Then you put all the sheets together like a puzzle. Looks awesome right? Check out them out on our website.
Another background, a personal afghan belonging to one of the girls on our display team.
And just a silly candid of our photographer (part of the Cracker Farm team) and the two FP girls that make all the webshoots happen...
Our accessories designer has just returned from a month of travelling in India and Hong Kong. She brought back all of these amazing trims and ribbons to use for inspiration. They all looked so great together, so her team made this cool display and hung them on the wall in their office. Don't you just love the huge pompoms?
