Style File: Edition 2

Meet this week’s style inspiration – the design assistant for New Romantics here at Free People. I was immediately attracted by her laid back and beautiful – yet approachable – look. I checked in on her daily to get to know her better and bring you her week in style file.

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In her romantic, somewhat demure, way of dressing she reflects her personality perfectly. She seems quiet and shy at first, but is then sweet beyond words as soon as you approach her. This is a girl who doesn’t wear outfits that shout “look at me,” but rather, “come closer.” Pay attention and you’ll notice a dainty necklace or a gorgeous etched bracelet.

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As assistant designer for the Free People New Romantics, she will be given a fabric chosen by her boss, the head designer for New Romantics, and then has to come up with styles using what she is given. The process usually starts with a sketch. Her sketches themselves are amazingly inspirational to look at. She will then drape the piece – usually doing about one a day. After she’s done draping, she will pass everything along to tech who takes it from there. This week she was already working on things for next summer.

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And now for a peek into her personal life =)

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Vegan Leather Makes its Free People Debut

I am beyond excited about the fact that Free People is now launching its very own line of vegan leather pieces! As I mentioned in the video, I am a vegetarian and although it doesn’t bother me when other people wear leather products, it’s not something I can bring myself to do. Which is torture, because working here I see so many amazing leather items that I love – but it seemed only natural that we would do this, being a company that loves animals so much! After months of anticipation, vegan leather is here, and I’m happy to say that my search for the perfect vegan leather jacket has ended :)

In addition to the jacket, the other items online now are the vegan leather pants, vegan leather skirt and vegan leather shorts. I love that these items can be styled in a girly way, with pretty blouses and heels, or in a boyish rock n’ roll way:

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And here’s how I styled the pants for the video – I paired them with the concert raglan and sandals for an easy casual look. Clearly the boyish look is more my style :)

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items pictured: vegan leather pant, we the free raglan tee, calypso pendant necklace, kale collegic stack rings, zion ring, molly beaded sandal.

Your response will help determine whether we’ll continue to design into this line, so I would love to hear your thoughts on vegan leather!

Office Style

Today’s been a busy day! The first half of the day I got to travel out to the owner of Urban Inc.’s personal farm. I shot some photos of the stylish interns on the outing.

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Although I enjoyed the trip, it was fun getting back to the office and noticing lots of new Free People buys around. These two ladies are actually wearing two of my favorite items right now – both just happen to have been sitting in my shopping basket for about the past week now.

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The Free People Printed Kimono

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The Mohawk Embroidered Dress

I love the flirty sheerness these two coworkers were rocking today.

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How cool is this shirt? I love the combo of it with the braids.

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I caught this stylish woman sauntering up the stairs in her carefree printed summer dress. Her tattoo juxtaposes against the girly-ness of her outfit for an intriguing look.

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Denim and lace…one of my favorite combos for summer

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Thursday Poll: The July Lookbook with Bambi Northwood-Blyth

Our July Lookbook, “FALLing for Bambi,” is definitely one of my favorites yet – maybe because I think Bambi Northwood-Blyth is insanely adorable, but also because I love these pre-fall, layered looks. This lookbook actually has 15 total outfits but I pulled out some of my favorites – which one do you like best?

look one:

look two:

look three:
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look four:
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look five:
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look six:
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look seven:
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or look eight:
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(view the entire july lookbook)

time to vote!


July Catalog: Behind the Scenes in Austin

The first day of shooting in Austin was a blast – we shot at the Mohawk Room with the Happen-Ins, and models Ashley Smith, Anastasia Khodkina and Jessica Mau took turns pretending to be in the band. Ashley was a natural on the guitar and Anastasia blew us away with her rockstar energy! With Alexandra Valenti making magic behind the lens, it was a day of live music and fun in the company of friends.

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view the july catalog.

DIY shirt turned skirt!

so inspired by this look today! our office coordinator took an old oversized button-down shirt and turned it into a skirt! she just buttoned it up halfway from the bottom, stepped into it and tied the sleeves around her waist – add a cropped tee and boots and you’ve got 90s grunge perfection.

just another reason to nab your boyfriend/dad/brother’s button-downs! vintage printed ones are a plus :)

July Lookbook: Behind The Scenes With Bambi Northwood-Blyth

Our july lookbook features one of our favorite fashion icons, Australian model Bambi Northwood-Blyth! She is such a joy to be around – from her endearing accent to her magnetic charm, we all fell in love with her. For our july lookbook she showcases our pre-fall collection full of layering essentials like leather, denim, crochet, tights, bed jackets and sheer fabrics. Here’s a peek behind the scenes!

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Bambi told us the story behind her cute ankle tattoo: she and her boyfriend were traveling together and got beaded anklets that read “dan and bambi.” She decided to get a tattoo of the anklet so that she would always have it :)

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http://www.freepeople.com/july-lookbook/

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view the full july lookbook.

i’m with the band

i know i’ve talked a lot about these guys over the past few weeks on the blog, what with our catalog release party and the free download, but today i wanted you to get to know the happen-ins from their mouths :) here’s a little slideshow interview with the band mixed in with some behind the scenes photos from our catalog shoot!

check them out in our july catalog, here, and don’t forget to download their song “be yer fool” (for free!) here.

Office Style: Black and White

Some people like to dress in strictly black clothing. I’m personally more of a white apparel girl, and then there are some who like to dress in between. We had a lot of black and white all over the office today. Black seemed to be showing up in bolder edgy pieces while summer white was all ethereal in lacey frocks and tunics. Check out how our Free People girls were styling the two it colors!

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Thursday Poll: Edition 141

On Tuesday you all got an introduction to our new capsule collection: FP Spun. In general, I’m a big fan of Free People’s crochet and knit pieces, so word of this collection got me very excited. The pieces are all crocheted or knit with elegant Italian yarns, shiny silk blends, or nubbed soft linens. Seeing the final results, I’m awed – every piece is a masterpiece. I think I know which my favorite is, but what do you all think?

The Eighty Stages Crochet Dress


The Retro Sweater Short

The Dreams of Crochet Dress

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The Rusty Spurs Pull On Flarerusty spurs pull on flare

The Fishtail Maxi Skirtfishtail maxi skirt

[polldaddy poll=”5214187″]

Style File: Thursday

Today our lovely lady of the week styled an outfit from the sample closet here at Free People. She decided to centralize the outfit around the Avenue West Chemise, her favorite piece of the moment, because she absolutely loves how pretty and versatile it is. She wanted to style it unbuttoned, and worn as a bed jacket today, but she said she would also wear it as a dress or with more layers in the fall if it were a piece in her own closet. “Not only is it versatile, but it’s versatile in two ways: day to night and summer to fall.”

She layered the chemise over her own jeans and a rocker style tank to play down its femininity and give the outfit some edge. The HIGH platform shoes in a nude pink color that she chose had that same balance of pretty vs. edgy. Then she mixed it all up by throwing some earthy flavor into the mix with a fringed suede shoulder bag. It’s unexpectedness kept the outfit interesting, and added a whole new level of detail. The whole look was topped off with simple jewelry, a long jade necklace, to avoid distracting from the elegant fringed chemise and the outfit’s other contrasting elements.