our holiday displays are now up in our stores and they are so, so beautiful… like stepping into a magical forest dusted with snow, where trees drip with crystals and shiny trinkets catch the moonlight and twinkle like stars…
from our display team:
this year’s holiday display was inspired by vintage snowy showgirl dresses mixed in with antique silver and icy blue trinkets. we have intricately cut snowflake curtains paired with sheer glittery booti print panels – inspired by actual indian booti prints. we wanted to balance the delicate dresses and panels with organic branches and rugged cardboard gift boxes. then to add sparkle and pops of color, we added the neon melon crystal chains to hang in groups from the ceiling.
their inspiration:
and now here are the installed displays at our ardmore and king of prussia, pa stores! i actually drove by our ardmore store saturday night and it looked amazing with the twinkling lights in the dark.
*UPDATE: we have a winner! this giveaway is now closed.*
time for a giveaway! why? because it’s my birthday! :)
actually, our holiday displays have gone up in our stores and the fall displays have come down so we want to give away one of these pretty fabric covered urns! the vases were cast in india and covered with fabric from antique indian quilts and turbans, and decorated with beaded tassels. we have some in our lobby and they look awesome – this would be a great decorative piece for your home!
all you have to do is leave a comment below and we will select the winner at random on friday morning! be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you if you win. good luck!
*p.s. those of you who missed it, check out our DIY to make something similar to these!
a couple of months ago we had a big meeting at the home office with all of our store managers from across the country. as part of the meeting we had a free people holiday fashion show featuring some of the looks from our november catalog on models and on some of the girls who work here in the office. it was so fun seeing everything go down a runway – and now that the catalog’s out i can show you some pictures that one of the managers snapped during the show!
they all looked amazing – but wee people stole the show :)
our holiday displays are going up in all of our stores next week and i can’t wait to show you photos, they’re breathtaking!
you may have noticed these lanterns hanging in our new university village store…they were made by one of our fp girls who works for our west coast display team, and she was kind enough to write up a little tutorial for the blog!
what you need: wire framed lantern, fabric scraps, trims, needle, straight pins, and thread.
lantern: the lantern we use is custom made in india. it is a simple wire frame with a mylar cylinder in the middle for good light diffusion (these lanterns are more about style than a good light source :)). with this raw form, fabric is attached.
i suggest going to a thrift store and looking for lamp shades with a wire frame and taking off the pre-existing fabric – the lamp shades you will find in a thrift store will be a more common kind of shade but the following sewing/ fabric assembling treatment will make it look much more enchanting and wild!
fabric selection: having great fabrics is the key to a great lantern! i had a lot of amazing fabrics and trims to choose from. i choose to mix sheer, vinyl, cotton, and decorative trims. you can find these trims and fabrics from any fabric district or thrift store, but the fancier more elaborate trims we got from India.
i suggest going to a large fabric wholesaler and digging through their bins of scraps. if you happen to be in los angeles, there is only ONE place to find trims: shana-tex!!! they have sooooooo many trims stacked in high piles which you have to dig through…but so worth it because you can get huge spools of lace, sequins, and bright colored trims for pennies.
if you aren’t in los angeles, look up your neighborhood fabric wholesaler or thrift store for great rare finds. i have used thrift store table clothes, eyelet linens, etc.
sewing/ aesthetic: i just pick out the scraps of fabric and trims that i like and begin placing them on the lantern. i prefer to start in the middle at the widest part and work out from there.
fold the fabric over a part of the wire form and do a whip stitch to hold fabric to frame and itself. from the FIRST piece of fabric, i placed another piece of trim or fabric. to keep it in place I used the straight pins and then sewed the piece of fabric. repeat this process and soon it grows into a solid lantern.
sometimes i worked in different areas of the lan-tern, but always made sure that the composition felt right and was well balanced. the look i was going for was a loose, organic assemblage of fabrics and trims….so, i just mixed sewing and tying ends in knots. the pictures tell this story. you will see sewn edges and knotted pieces. i even left holes in places to maintain the “loose” aesthetic :)
electrical hook-up: this is the easy part! i just bought a cord socket combo from home depot and threaded it through a hole (part of wire frame) and screwed in a light bulb.
my boss has a sweater with patches on the elbows and i always thought it was the cutest thing. then i saw this photo a couple of weeks ago and a light bulb went on. this is an easy project!
what you need:
a sweatshirt or sweater that you don’t mind experimenting with…
fabric, needle & thread, scissors, safety pins, and something about the size that you want the patches to be. our visual display team let me use this scrap of pretty fabric, and i happened to have this free people sticker at my desk that was just the right size for the patches!
first i used a sharpie to trace around the edges of the sticker on the fabric, and then cut out the patches being careful to cut right inside the marker line.
next i pinned the patches onto the elbows of the sweater and tried it on to make sure they were placed where i wanted them to be. keep the safety pins in as you start sewing so the patches don’t move.
i sewed them on by hand yesterday at work and it only took about an hour – i think sewing while listening to music has got to be one of the most relaxing things ever :)
and voila… cute elbow patches that breathe new life into a plain old sweater!
today our team held a baby shower for our visual display and store design manager – one of the very talented creative ladies behind our incredible stores! as you can imagine, our visual team went all out for her baby shower. they even decorated a golf cart that they drove straight up to her desk to pick her up and drive her over to the outdoor location where the shower was set up! here are some photos from the celebration.
remember last week i mentioned all of our store managers were here at the home office? well our visual manager for the west coast, who always sends me amazing photos of our stores and displays, snapped a bunch of photos of their outfits! our store girls have amazing style, they always represent free people beautifully :)
our newest store opened on friday in scottsdale arizona and our visual manager for the west coast sent along some great photos of the setup! she also got some amazing detail shots of the displays so stay tuned for those :)
UPDATE 9/7 – congrats to our winner, claudia from new york! thanks everyone for entering!
it feels like it’s time for another giveaway, what do you think? our display team has given us this beautiful umbrella made in india, and now it can be yours! maybe not the type of umbrella you want to use in the rain but great for really hot sunny days or just as a decorative item for your home!
for a chance to win this lovely umbrella, please click here and fill out the quick form to enter. we will select a winner at random this friday. good luck!
back in the section of our new building where our visual display team sits, there is a door that is usually partially open, but i’ve never gone in. that is, until the other day… when i slipped in and realized it was their new workspace. this is where you’re likely to find upcoming store displays that they are working on as well as furniture, fabric and boxes of trinkets that i could dig through for ours. what i would give to be able to decorate my apartment using this stuff…
