march catalog drops tomorrow!

…and it’s a beauty.  says our creative director: “we wanted to keep it simple on a set rather than on location because we wanted the clothes and the outfits to shine on their own.”

and shine they do- this book makes me so excited for spring flowers and warm sunshine. i could totally see myself wearing any one of these outfits at a concert or music festival!

i’m dying over that outfit on the far right in the middle – the flare jeans, ruffle top and headband – sooo cute. shop the march catalog here!

fp loves…sarah lewis

sarah, a long time member of the free people family, used to work with us here at the home office as an accessories designer, but more recently she has launched her own line of jewelry.  she has a shop in philadelphia called adorn, and her work has won several awards and has been featured in juried shows and exhibitions.  we are so excited to welcome her back as a featured jewelry designer!

a lover of nature, sarah was introduced to metalworking and lapidary (the process of taking raw materials like stones, minerals and gemstones and transforming them into decorative items) while living in arizona.  she loves crystals and minerals and creating simple settings that showcase the natural beauty of the stones, as well as combining materials like glass, silver and stones in unique ways. the result is a small-scale wearable sculpture that is earthy and bohemian, but modern and fashionable.  the use of raw, earthy materials, stones, feathers and dream catchers make her jewelry a perfect fit for the natural, free-spirited girl.  sarah appreciates the preciousness of jewelry, and most of her pieces are one-of-a-kind, making them even more special.

sarah also draws inspiration from everything around her and everything she does, including fashion, travel, music, her family and friends – we are inspired by her and all that she has become!

check out sarah’s jewelry featured throughout the march catalog, and on our website.

turn your dresser into a shelf!

yes it’s another dresser idea but i wanted to share this today too because i think its such a unique, cool idea.

if you happen to have a really old beat up dresser that you don’t use, take out the drawers and paint them a a bright color, line them with some cool wallpaper and turn it into a sweet-looking shelf!

i  think this would look awesome if you used some old vintage wallpaper like these…

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so what do you guys think, would you try one of these ideas on your dresser?

project source; wallpaper images.

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this is such an amazing idea – i saw it on design*sponge a while ago and i’ve always thought about doing it, except i don’t have a dresser like that :)  the flowers remind me so much of our one of a kind vintage flower necklace!

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for their tutorial, they used some vintage brooches found on ebay, removed the backs and glued screws on.  check out the full tutorial here!

such a great way to give your dresser a little free people touch :)

lola by isby

yesterday at the home office we had a visit from isby lubin, a very talented young lady who is designing her own line of tshirts, called LoLA, and she’s only in her sophomore year of high school!

all of isby’s shirts are handmade – she draws the designs, burns them into screens, dyes her own plain white shirts, mixes her own custom inks and prints the shirts herself.   t love the print with the little family and dog!  she says that this first collection was inspired by her family, specifically her brothers and how they helped her and are still helping her become the person she is today.

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i love the colors she chooses! isby just moved from california to nyc where she is pursuing her dream of designing shirts.

awesome work, isby! we love your shirts!!

check out isby’s blog here.

Crazed about denim

 

It’s all folked up in my mind!

 My obsession for denim has increased to a maximum high, I’m lov’in everything from cute cut offs, straight legged ripped jeans and waistcoats. I have in mind ‘Penny Lane’ with an ‘I’m with the band’ attitude!

 The WE THE FREE Genetic patched flare and the distressed KELLY flare by Genetic are a perfect attribute to this mindset I have right now.

All I need for completion is a cute band and a 1070’s VW camper and I’m done!

a day in the life

we thought it would be fun to give you a little glimpse into the world of some of our fp girls, so to start out, we followed one of our designers for a week! we watched as she designed a garment from start to finish, had some of her designs tested out on a fit model and presented concepts and finished items to our design team. i can’t show you too much yet, but here’s a preview of what you’ll see in the video (coming soon)! stay tuned!

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special wednes-diy guest blog post!

not too long ago some friends from work told me about the site nice package, and ever since i’ve been hooked…they use very simple, pretty materials to create packaging ideas that are so unique and creative.  i was on their site recently and saw they had a new product – an inspiration kit called “i left my heart in paris.” i thought it was so cute – and they were nice enough to put together a guest blog post about where they draw their inspiration, just in time for valentine’s day! please welcome the lovely ez and marichelle!

Hi everyone!  We are Ez and Marichelle, the fun-loving duo behind the creative packaging line Nice Package.  We’re so excited that we were invited here today to share a little bit about what went into one of our newest products: I Left My Heart in Paris.

In one of our brainstorming sessions last month we started talking about Inspiration Kits and how great it would be to make up mini collections that include bits and pieces of our favorite things to inspire our customer’s creative projects.  We both adore Paris, Air Mail envelopes, love letters, and vintage inspired ephemera and decided to group all these ideas into our first limited edition kit: I Left My Heart in Paris.

We like to think of our DIY Inspiration Kits as the perfect go-to sources for an instant pick-me-up.  The creative possibilities with our kits are as limitless as your imagination.  We used ours for Valentine cards, gift tags, and scrapbook pages.

Some ideas:
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Come visit us on our site for more great products, and be sure to check out our blog for some fabulous freebies and DIY projects.
xo Ez + Marichelle

eiffel tower image source.

thanks so much ladies!!!

an artist we love…

kris chau is one of our fp girls, and she’s also a really talented artist.  she has a show opening tonight at topstitch boutique in philly (54 n. 3rd) called “puppy face” featuring some of her new works, so i thought i’d ask her a few questions!

where do you draw inspiration for your work?
i draw inspiration from the girls around me, lyrics from hilarious songs, my dog, flowers i see, and artists i admire.

who are some of the artists you admire?
yuko shimizu, zeloot, genevieve castree, tim gough, rob sato, ako castuera.

what is your favorite thing to draw?
well ladies of course. ladies, ruffles, shoes, and puppies.

with a full time job here at fp, when do you find time for your artwork?
sigh, that is a question i get quite a bit and i ask myself the same thing. i give up a lot of social things and maybe grooming to do both. my life at free people gives me many opportunities that i will forever be grateful for, and due to my lack of free time making art has become incredibly important to me. it becomes something very serious in a way, i now create things that i do not compromise, i’ve taken a less illustrative and more arty route these days. my position at free people is also creative, so creatively i feel like every week i run a marathon and i am constantly trying to balance it all.

do you listen to music while you draw? what do you listen to?
i listen to a lot of podcasts (thank you fresh air and ira glass i will send you more money) as well as booty shakin jams to keep my spirits up.

what are some of your other hobbies?
gardening and playing with my sweet sweet puppy.

if you were stranded on an island, what three things would you want with you?
my sweet tim, my sweet puppy, and a lifetime supply of cucumber soda.

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if you’re in philly stop by topstitch boutique tonight between 6 and 10pm!  a bunch of us fp girls will be there :)

also check out more of chau’s amazing work on her website!

wednes-diy

this is an old pair of jeans that i love, but they’ve got three holes in them.  i was okay with that for a while but now –  maybe because it’s so cold out – i decided it was time to patch them up.

here are some images i found around the web and saved as inspiration for my project:

i really liked the idea of using different shades of denim and prints with blue in them…

this patch of fabric is actually the inside of a pocket from an old pair of jeans, but i love the way it looks – and it fit perfectly over the large hole in the knee of my jeans!

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i used scraps of old denim for the other patches:

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and here’s the finished product!

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i think they look much better.  the only thing i’m not sure about is whether i should do something to the bottoms or not – i might attempt something like this (the genetic patched flare):

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…but i can’t decide. what do you guys think?