So we received this anonymous comment on one of the August catalog postings…
“I think you guys should do a write up in the blog on how to tie scarves! There are so many new beautiful scarves in stock now and there put on the models in such a neat way, I would love to know how its done.”
What a great idea! Some girls from our creative team made this little video for you, with one of our web stylists showin how it’s done. Enjoy!
I managed to get a hold of some more pictures of our new showroom to share with you. The visual/display team adorned the walls with tons of artwork, similar to the way they do the fitting rooms in all the Free People stores.
The way they work is they gather inspiration and ideas and make some sketches. The designs are all roughly planned out before they attack a wall. But then the scale is enlarged and each piece is hand drawn or painted, so each one comes out a little bit special. Here are some photos of the finished pieces!
- -Aug 11, 2007, 11:23PM
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i love all of the creativity and goregous patterns you put into your designs, they really make an outfit come to life
- -Aug 10, 2007, 11:10PM
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the visual team is so amazingly fabulous. i love working for the company. :) :)
The Free People display team is in the process of decorating our new New York showroom. The showroom is where we sell to all the other stores that sell Free People. We display all of our upcoming collections there and the girls in the showroom work with the buyers of each store to choose the best styles for their particular customers and locations.
So here’s a few shots of the supplies and process. I’ll try to get some photos for you of the finished showroom too!
- -Jan 25, 2009, 10:57AM
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Hello!! I'm a junior in high school and am 16 years old and in LOVE with Free People. I've been wearing your designs for years and adore everything about them. It would be my greatest dream to work during the summer at one of your store locations. Greenwich or Manhattan is possible. I plan on sending a letter to the managers of the stores. Do you have any other suggestions? -Sam
- -Nov 18, 2008, 4:48PM
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Hi FP! I was just wondering- do free people employees get free/discounted merchandise? By the way, near my home in Eldersburg, MD there is a "main street" opening that I think would be a perfect Free People location!
Just wanted to share a few photos I snapped in the display team’s workshop. Doesn’t that first picture look like the most girly hardware store you’ve ever seen? So out of all this madness comes our beautiful displays. Our fall store displays are being installed now, so I’ll get you some photos and the inside scoop later this week!
- -Mar 25, 2008, 11:38AM
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AMAZING! I am the visual manager at Saks Fifth Avenue...this looks like such creative, artsy fun! I love it..thank you for the inspiration! keep up the good work!
- -Jul 19, 2007, 7:31PM
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girlie indeed makes me want to go out any buy a pink hammer and start banging on something lol. I just love it
We get a million girls asking how we cast our models. Well here it is, from our team that holds the castings…
about every 2 or 3 months, we at free people host a model casting to check out new faces for our upcoming web and catalog shoots. we start by contacting modeling agencies – usually based in new york – and ask them to send girls to our showroom.
then, for anywhere from 4 to 6 hours on a given day, we’ll sit and meet with whoever visits.
the girls (and once in a while, guys) bring their comp cards for us to view…these cards usually show 4 or 5 photos, along with the models’ measurements, contact info for the agency who represents them, etc.
and then we’ll flip through their portfolios…
it gives us a chance to see their versatility, how they’ve been styled in the past, what magazines they’ve appeared in…
and then we’ll snap a few pix of our own, which we usually take back to philadelphia and look at with our bosses before deciding who we want to hire!
we get a lot of emails from folks who want to model for us…
we love your enthusiasm to work with free people! but, please know that we use only models from those agencies who we’ve contacted.
if you’re interested in modeling, feel free to contact a local agency; or, look some up in the bigger cities – new york, los angeles, miami – and they can help you get started!
- -Mar 19, 2013, 11:49PM
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Hello There ! What modeling agencies do you work with in Los Angeles ? Thank You :) Leilani
- -Oct 03, 2012, 2:37PM
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I live in Los Angeles and would like to know the location of the agency you work with. I'm very interested in modeling for Free People. I couldn't find it on the website,could you give more information please. Thank you!
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!!
- -Jul 01, 2007, 2:31AM
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· { thanks for always good links } ·
- -Jun 29, 2007, 1:20PM
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thats funny I always thought Kris Chau was a male!
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!
- -Jan 18, 2010, 7:27AM
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I searched on google "giant yarn " and I found your post. Can you explain me where did you buy it or how did you make ? Thank you !!
- -Sep 01, 2007, 9:43AM
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I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Greenwich store. I live in Westchester NY and I was waiting and waiting for a store to open near me (because prior to this one, Bloomingdales small selection had to suffice, either that or an hour car ride to Roosevelt Fields Mall) and just as it opened, I left for camp. You can only imagine my distress. Anyways, I went to the store a few days ago and I LOVE IT. Free People is by far my favorite brand/clothing and makes up 25% of my closet. So THANK YOU for opening a store in Greenwich. It looks INCREDIBLE and I'm planning on going back VERY soon.
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!
- -Jun 26, 2007, 1:07AM
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Well, I was 26 when I discovered Free People but I'm 30 now! ;) Thanks for being in love with me.
- -Jun 25, 2007, 7:55PM
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SO nice to finally hear the Free People/Urbn/Anthro story! Always did wonder about that. hey fp girl ~ i love your blog, and we're in the midst of launching NotCouture to join the NOTCOT network of sites and would love to chat with you. Drop me an email? [i couldn't find the contact info for you on here] ~ jean
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!
- -Jun 28, 2007, 1:08PM
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www.babyjay.com sells the BEST baby onesies. I use them all the time for baby shower gifts.
- -Jun 27, 2007, 7:07PM
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A friend and I threw a baby shower where we had the same idea! We provided the guests blank onesies (three different sizes for as the baby grows), fabric paint, stamps, and plates for mixing colors. We had the onesies strung up bank as part of the decor, then rehung them as drying art decor. The mom-to-be then picked her favorite and the winner was awarded one of our centerpieces. It was the hit of the shower, and they all came out really cute!
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…
- -Jun 12, 2007, 8:36AM
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ooochee your photographer's a hottie lol
- -Jun 06, 2007, 10:36AM
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i love the afghan! that's such an awesome pattern.
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?
- -Jun 14, 2007, 8:16PM
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They are absolutely hideous and the display looks utterly stupid and frivolous! What a waste of time. Is that what you all do there? You actually paid someone to go to Hong Kong and India and this is all they came back with??!!! I have seen better at local flea markets!
- -Jun 06, 2007, 4:53PM
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beautiful!!! i love the giant pompom trim! i want it right now.
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