randoms from around the office :)
yoga month – guest post!
in honor of yoga month, please enjoy the first in a series of guest posts from one of our awesome fp girls :)
Hi there! I am former blogger “fp girl” and now I work on the accessories buying team. This spring I got certified to teach yoga, and being that September is Yoga Month, thought I’d share a bit about my yoga journey.
I first started practicing yoga about 5 years ago as a way to stay in shape and decompress after work. I hear a lot of people get frustrated finding a studio they like. I was very lucky to find a studio right away that I connected with. The teachers were knowledgeable, friendly and caring. The space was simple and beautiful. The regular students that went there seemed to really enjoy their practice, and that enthusiasm helped me to instantly feel at home. I continued practicing there in the Jivamukti style for the duration of my time in Philadelphia.
I later moved to New York and have tried several different types of yoga. Some classes feel like a tough strength-building workout you’d get at a gym, some feel slow paced and peaceful, some concentrate on stretching and flexibility, and others require more thought, meditation, and reflection. And sometimes, when I’m lucky, a yoga class perfectly blends exercises of the body and mind that leave me feeling alive, creative, peaceful and full of energy all at the same time.
My favorite thing about yoga is how curious each new learning and experience leaves me. This curiosity sparked my desire to complete a 200-hour Yoga Alliance Certified training in New York. Training taught me a little bit of everything including the history of yoga, Sanskrit, anatomy, meditation and how to practically instruct a class. Over the next few weeks of Yoga Month, stay tuned for more posts from me including inspiring web sites, people, and products. And feel free to ask questions!
Namaste,
Katie
friday fun
anthony shows off his skills. happy friday!
office style
a look we love:
this look is taking over our office! we LOVE maxi dresses or jumpsuits layered with tanks, tees, or sweaters as it gets cooler! and we’re bringing back that 90’s trend of tying the tank in a knot, then just add some beat up boots or shoes and you’ve got this cool look our designers are rocking :)
our graphic designer’s awesome silver jewelry.
earlier this week we had all of our store managers from across the country here at the home office for meetings and to get to know each other and the home office employees. i kept noticing how amazing they all looked! they were in back to back meetings the whole time they were here but i managed to grab this girl during a coffee break. i love her outfit!
i love how she wore the buttonfront lace back tank backwards over the v neck printed tunic!
…and a little sneak peek at something we did for the blog. yes that’s my hair.
models off duty
we work with some amazing models and are always inspired by their cool off-duty style. stay tuned, we’ll be featuring them regularly on the blog :)
jessica mau
daria pleggenkuhle
cici ali and zippora seven
thank you to our associate stylist and creative design assistant for snapping these pics!!
dream catching
sadly, it is time to say farewell to our concept intern, stacey, who is leaving us to go to college. please enjoy one last post from her!
I feel as if everywhere I turn I see dreamcatchers. Suspended from rearview mirrors, splashed across blogs, discreetly tucked into editorial images, they are difficult to ignore…not that I would want to. While a trend beloved by too many tires easily, its ubiquity stripping away the element of novelty too soon, the recent overwhelming amount of dreamcatchers has yet to repel me; it just leaves me wanting to know more. It is easy to lose the story in a profusion of images so I looked for it in the legend. These words from Core Designs convince me that a dreamcatcher definitely warrants a warm place above my pillow—
“The dreamcatcher legend originated from the Ojibway and Lakota Elders. They tell us that dreams do hold great power and drift about at night before coming to the sleeping ones. To keep the dreamer safe, the Old Ones created a special web, The Dreamcatcher, to hang above their sleeping places. The ancient story told by the Native Elders is that the Dreamcatcher’s hoop, with the intricate webbing at it’s center, ensures a sleep undisturbed by bad dreams. The good dreams would take the path of the web with great ease to its center and would float gently down the trail of beads, and like the feather, drift down into the minds of the sleepers below.
The bad dreams would struggle with the web and become entangled as the night would pass, leaving them to perish in the rays of the new day sun in the morning.”
The word “dreams” itself is so airy — wispy and elfin when written and rolls cheerfully off the tongue when spoken. The “d” stretches wildly in a yawn before guiding the remaining letters into a calm lethargy. Just hearing and reading and speaking the word throws my imagination into overdrive. Admiring the word and its shape-shifting quality got me thinking about the other meaning of dreams, the even less tangible one that consumes the mind long after the sun has risen and the darkness melted away. A recent dream of mine came true this summer and comes to a close today and I can’t help but feel a melancholy, like I am groping in vain at a fleeting something that has came and passed and can no longer be recovered. I recognize that interning at Free People this summer has been a gift in many forms. Meeting so many wonderful people and being able to observe them and learn from them has enriched not only my understanding of how a corporate setting works, but educated me in the intricate way that a group of creative and hard-working people come together to create something that makes people feel good about themselves. I am very lucky to have had this experience and would not trade this summer for any other.
Thank you, Free People, for having me. :)
in case you missed any of her lovely posts, click on these links:
through our concept intern’s eyes…
be kind to animals and birds, and read all you can
thank you stacey, keep in touch!
office space
i think this card is so cute:
toby, are your ears cold?
oh hey it’s the new philadelphia belle parked outside our building!
farmers market at the yard!
today we had the extra special treat of a farmers market right outside our office doors! fresh fruit, veggies and other produce from local farms and live music in the background as you shop. this will happen again september 8th and 22nd, how exciting! here are some photos from today- not the sunniest day but still nice :)
this little boxer puppy stole my heart.
new mocs + sunflowers = happiness.
georgia on my mind
isn’t she just the sweetest little thing?
lend me your ears…
…and i’ll play you some songs :)
a playlist made by our interns featuring their favorite tunes of the summer :)
today at the office
our team was outside getting some special shots for our website! here’s a little sneak peak :)
bbq at the navy yard!
we had a bbq here at the navy yard yesterday to celebrate the end of construction around the dry dock next to our building. it looks so beautiful, they did an amazing job – and the party was awesome. a live band playing country-tinged covers of classic songs, mini golf, tons of great food, and beautiful weather :)