If you have visited etsy lately, you have seen their new blog/newspaper/ezine called The Storque. It's really cool, covering topics about etsy crafters and all that surrounds the crafting lifestyle. I like that blogs are morphing into these more magazine-like entities are creating such a tight knit community (no pun intended).
I just wanted to call out the newest "exclusives" on freepeople.com right now. The exclusives are items only sold through our website and Free People boutiques. You won't find these at any department stores or your independent neighborhood boutiques. I want to start calling out the newest exclusives every week or so... Get the inside scoop!
It was one of our designer's birthday this week! Happy birthday Gianna! One of our other designers, Melissa, made her this beautiful cake...
When is the last time you blew bubbles? I spotted this on pan-dan and had to check it out. Designed by Jason Amendolara, this dish scrubber is also a bubble wand! It is silly but the thought of it just makes me smile. Check out the other designs nominated for the Cooper Hewitt People's Design Award. Nominate and vote on your favorites! Here are some of mine...
Good Magazine
Play for Pump, entertaining children and creating clean drinking water
cowboy boots.
There's just a few more days to sign up for our Dark Fairy theme craft swap! The more swappers, the more fun. So can you help spread the word? Post about it on your blogs and email all your crafty friends!
Here's the link to SIGN UP.
And here is the ORIGINAL POST about the swap. Sign up ends Wednesday, but I can extend it to Friday so we get even more swappers.
Thanks everyone!
The girls at our store in Short Hills NJ wanted to share a project with you. Do you have more Free People cloth shopping bags than you know what to do with? Maybe you should make some headbands!!
First, cut a long strip from your bag, twice as wide as you want your headband.
With a contrasting thread, whip stitch the long edges together, and then turn the tube inside out.
Use some scrap fabrics with a cute print to make patches of color on your headband.
Sew em on there however you'd like.
Cut a triangle in each end to make a cute tail, then whip stitch the edges so the fabric doesn't fray.
Recycled headband!!!
Fellow FP girl reccomended this event and I thought it highly appropriate now that we have a store in Austin!
Check out Stitch 2007 on November 10th, and get tickets because they sell out! Indie craft fair and fashion show goin on, so go and support the community. The money raised benefits the Stitch Grant awarded for Indie and Craft Upstarts. Woohoo.
I wanted to share this video posted on the Stitch blog. It is a clip from Handmade Nation aka the Indie Craft Documentary...
Our next craft swap theme is inspired by this month's catalog, Dark Fairy. Think about woodland creatures, fairy tales, A Midsummer's Night Dream, and gothic stories (or whatever else you can think up...). Feel free to comment with inspiration ideas!
Sign up will be from now until next Wednesday September 26th. We will have a month to make the crafts and can ship to partners the last weeks of October. Let's get our gifts swapped so that everyone receives theirs before Halloween!
Sign up here. PLEASE double check your info and make sure your email address is correct. If your partner emails you, please respond so they know you are still swapping. If something happens and your gift will be late, give your partner a heads up. If you decide not to swap after signing up, PLEASE email me so I can match up your partner with a different swapper.
Check out our last two swaps here and here.
Happy swapping!
A friend of FP, Julia Pott, made this great film about your first crush. It reminds me of our Old Loves concept from last fall. It was all about clothes inspired by old boyfriends. (That was pre-blogging days, but you might remember the catalog or our video)
I received a reader complaint about the abundance of videos on the blog. I hope you're enjoying them. You'd tell me if you weren't, right?
Check out our newest store in Dallas!
The Northpark Mall
8687 North Central Expy #2212
Dallas, TX 75225-4548
(469) 232-9840
Mon-Sat 10am-9pm
Sun 12pm-6pm
Check out this video one of our readers suggested in a comment. The haunting beauty of the video reminded her of our Dark Fairy theme. It's beautiful and just a bit creepy... Thanks for sharing Conni!
Have you seen our FP Dark Fairy video yet?
The catalog is dropped and should be in your mailbox! Here's a little more info about the two trend concepts going on for September...
DARK FAIRY
Nature's beauty, mystery, magic, and mystical elements are the
inspiration behind dark fairy. Deep, dark forests and whimsical fairy
creatures are manifested into a print driven line that explores nature's
dark side while still allowing the light to shine through. Colors are
deeper and darker with bright accents. Embellishments like sparkles and
glitter intensify the dark color palette and add unexpected detail.
SPORT
Inspired by retro athletic apparel and accessories, the sport collection
mixes elements of masculine design with girly accents. Mixing classic
ski and sport fashions with crafty elements create a look that is truly
hand touched by fp. Graphic prints, stripes, and color blocks are seen
throughout the entire collection setting the trend. A mix of black, red,
kelly blue, and green compose the color palette.
It's about time to get a new craft swap going. What do you say about going with the theme of Dark Fairy. We could expand upon the idea to to reach into fairy tales and gothic stories... Any thoughts? I'll update you soon on how to sign up for the swap and more details!
Here's a little intro to our new September catalog dropping on Monday!
The two trend concepts for the collection were Dark Fairy and Sport. I'll tell you a little more about each trend next week. We were really inspired by this photography book called "A Fairy's Child" by Ann Dahlgren and Douglas Foulke. We loved the book so much, we contacted Douglas and asked if he would be interested in shooting our catalog! He agreed and he and his wife shot our catalog at their home in Connecticut. (The photos above are from his portfolio on his website...)
As far as art direction, the creative team was really into old books, bindings, bookplates... One of our creative assistants did the fairy painting above on the pages of an old book, and then painted lines over the text too. Below are just some other old books we looked at for ideas.
I posted the video of our first Urban Outfitters Inc. art installation a little while back (check it out here).
The latest artist exhibiting in Building 543 (the Urban Inc. common building hosting our restaurant, book shop, gym, etc) is also a Free People girl. Luren works on our display team and is an amazing artist in her free time.
This installation was originally titled "One Wall is an Edge." It addresses the idea of creating a nomadic but holistic environment for yourself to move in. The yurt is a nomadic shelter, meant to be put up in a few hours, made hospitable, lived in, and deconstructed to move to a different place. The painted backdrop completes the illusion of creating a new environment for the yurt dweller. This is a fantasy place for being far away while grounded in a common routine. It is an escape to an exoticized space, yet it is made of common materials around us all the time: plastic, PVC, zip ties, canvas and wood. Decontextualized from its usual location on the planes of Central Asia, the yurt and its landscape act as an object of escapism and as a space for contemplation and surprise.
A little about Luren... She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with the department of Textile Design. She has been working within the scale of environment creation through interior design and textile design, as well as installation. Her interests in the decorative arts lie mainly in the intersection of the surreal and the conventional. She is currently living and working in Philadelphia with Free People making artwork for new stores and designing seasonal displays.
Check out the trailer for the latest issue of Fly, the magazine of fashion on film. I love the auditions! I wish I could rent Fly DVDs at my neighborhood video store...
You may have seen this around the blogosphere, but I thought I'd give my recommendation as well. Core 77 did this back to school guide with helpful tips for all of you designers and designer wannabes. From key items to invest in to simple photoshop tricks, with some wit and humor thrown in. There's some good advice that translates for those of us that have graduated to business world too. So check it out, because they used hot pink glue guns in the image.
I came across this beautiful video trailer for the film "1960's Butterfly Girl" by designer/artist Susan Cianciolo. I wish the entire 10 minute film was on youtube, but now at least I know to keep my eye out for a live screening. Looks amazing, right? Have any of you seen this in it's entirety?
