Results for display

patches from india

Posted by fp julia on in design, DIY, fashion

i love the one-of-a-kind patched bf jeans we just got in, but i love ‘em even more now that i know the story behind them. read on for merrie’s story about the inspiration behind these unique, one-of-a-kind jeans.

“we recently met a young woman from kutch, a desert area in the state of gujarat in india. she had a huge collection of tribal embroideries, which we bought to piece with delicate embroidered net from a market in Delhi and patch onto vintage denim.
we have always loved making clothes out of vintage pieces, cutting them up and adding bits of trims from another era, some tribal embroidery or some old denim. we had already created a small workshop in india where we make most of our store fixtures…embroidered hangers, cane stools, dressing room curtains, beaded chandeliers…etc. adding a few sewing machines to that set-up seemed the next step.
now we are able to find assorted fabrics in the markets, collect trims we love, and put them in the newest silhouettes for the stores within a month or so of the initial inspiration. the assorted fabrics keep that one-of-a-kind feel, while making several of the same silhouette allows us to keep the prices reasonable.
we’ll send a photo of our happy workshop soon. on any given day, there might be: men sitting under the mango trees, hand weaving cane stools for the showroom in new york…tailors sewing prototypes for our next fp one season…wood carvers making doors for our newest fp store…pinwheel makers sitting in the grass making hundreds of paper pinwheels for our next display…anshu the gardener’s son studying his abc’s…it is quite a group effort!”
thanks merrie! can’t wait to see some photos!

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what are you dressing up as for halloween?

Posted by fp julia on in features, lifestyle

time to get creative…send us your costume ideas and photos!

i have a feeling the max costume will be big this year…
(the photo is of a max costume by christian joy, on display and for sale at space 15 twenty).
you can send your ideas and images to me, jkeim@freepeople.com, or upload your photos to our new flickr page!

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free people on flickr/ fp photo hunt

Posted by fp julia on in Uncategorized

we love hearing from our fans and readers, and we’d like to give you all a chance to share your passion and creativity with us. we’ve created a free people flickr page where we will post pictures from around the office as well as images that inspire us, and we want you to share your images with us as well! check out the new page here.
furthermore, in a new feature on the blog called fp photo hunt, we will introduce a new theme or subject and invite you to send us a photo displaying that theme/subject in a fun and creative way. our favorites will be selected at the end of the week and posted on the blog the following monday.
this week…what is the strangest object in your home?

this is by far the weirdest thing in my apartment.

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brother’s intense new sewing machine

Posted by fpgirl on in DIY

Can you believe Brother’s snazzy new sewing machine? The QuattroT 6000D features a HD screen where a bird’s eye, zoomed-in view of the needle and its surroundings are displayed. It also has a LED light for the sewing platform. They haven’t announced the price yet, (I bet it’s crazy!) but you can check out a little more about the machine here on Brother’s website. I never thought I’d see a personal sewing machine with a screen!

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10 quick questions – Hilary

Posted by fpgirl on in home office

What is your job here at FP?
Visual Display Coordinator
What is your current state of mind?
optimistic
Who are your heroes?
frontiersmen, explorers, etc…
If you could choose what to come back to life as, what would you be?
recluse wild cat!
What or who is your greatest love?
Miranda (my cat when I was little)
Name one thing necessary to your happiness.
good books
What do you hate the most?
ego-centric greed and selfishness
What would the name of your band be and what genre? What instrument do you play in this band?
mellow country singer with tight leopard print jeans—> called TALONS
What color are you?
RED
What is your motto?
“One sure sign of a bear… is a group of nervous hogs.”

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beaded trees

Posted by fpgirl on in décor, DIY, features

A lot of you have a little break next week, and maybe you want a fun holiday craft to do? I posted these a couple years ago and everyone loved them, so I thought I’d share again!
Our display team made these beaded trees with those styrofoam cones you can buy at the craft store, a bunch of beads, and straight pins. They are SO easy to make and look so pretty and festive. Dump out that bead box and start pinning!
I can see these looking really pretty in more specific colors too, like if you did one all white and sparkly, or used just a few colors instead of the rainbow.

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how-to tutu

Posted by fpgirl on in DIY, home office

A few people asked how they can buy the FP tutus from the photo I posted. We do not have them for sale, but Luren from the display team has some tips.
To make these tutus, Luren used camisoles from past FP collections and petticoats she found on the internet. But you can make your own!
It’s easy to make a tutu: just find a color range of tulle and netting at your local fabric store and a thick band of elastic. If you have a sewing machine you can sew tiers of tulle onto the elastic band in a pleat-y way, folding an inch of the tulle under itself and sewing that inch, then folding more tulle under and sewing that inch so you’re making pleat after pleat after pleat right on the elastic band.
You can make several tiers of pleated tulle on a thick elastic band. Then you can add little bands of pleated tulle onto the bottom of the layers of tulle for extra bulk. We layered bright colors under pastel colors so that when you saw the tutus from below you got a special surprise pop of color.
Then we sewed them to Free People camisoles. The effect of this can be achieved with your homemade tutu or any tutu you can find at a thrift store or a dance shop. Most dance shops carry the donut style tutu (really big and thick around the waist) and the more relaxed skirt-y tutu. You can just pin the tutu to the bottom of the camisole all around and then use a needle and thread to whip stitch them together.
Good luck!
Luren (see this entry to learn more about Luren)

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employee profile

Posted by fpgirl on in home office

*First name: Luren
*How long have you worked at Free People? Close to 2 years
*Tell me about your job: I draw on the walls at the new Free People stores during the openings, mostly in the fitting rooms. I design the seasonal visual display that goes to all the stores with my team, which means looking everywhere for inspiration, shopping in thrift stores, trying things out here in our studio, and seeing through production of anything that we make overseas. And I work on the designs for the packaging (the fabric shopping bags you get when you buy clothes at a Free People store).
*What do you like best about working at FP? I get a lot of creative freedom and responsibility, which is exciting because we get to be the face of the retail side of the brand–the part that people see when they’re wandering down the street or shopping in the mall. We get to make really inspirational, special setups in the store that get people using their imaginations and staying in the stores to look at everything we did to make it special, and that gets them to look at the amazing clothes!
Favorite FP items. Why? We The Free! The Relaxed Pullover Hoodie and the We the Free Short Sleeve Rugby Stripe. Anything from WE THE FREE. Looking forward to all the new products that are about to drop.
Tell me about your dog. I LOVE ALL DOGS. But I can’t have my own because I travel all the time for work and to explore the world. So I get to love all the dogs around the Navy Yard, without getting to spoil just one with all my attention. But IDA lives in my house, so she’s my most favorite!
What do you do when not at work? I design textiles, run a gallery and a gallery store which sells artist-made products with some friends, tie-dye old clothes in my yard, cook, grow vegetables in my garden, draw, travel, and I just wrote a book about screenprinting at home called Print Liberation .
What do you like best about Philly? I love Philadelphia. It’s a really easy place to do your own thing. You’re not in the world spotlight like you are in cities like NYC and LA so the pressure is off and people get to dig their heels in the ground and do what they feel passionate about. Which means people are more real and more straightforward. It’s cheap, so your life isn’t on the line if you screw up. People are hardworking and inspired.
Anything else? Picture credit: Mike Wilkes
Note: in pictures I’m in India working on display production, and wearing a free people burnout shirt

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diy sequined canvas

Posted by fpgirl on in DIY, features, inspiration

We first posted photos of the sequined canvases when our NYC store opened. Now they are part of all of the FP stores’ spring display. A reader commented asking how to make these, and one of our talented display girls had some great advice I wanted to share with everyone.
For our proto, our designer actually hand sewed each sequin on by hand, and then left a space for the screen printed flower applique. She does not recommend doing that yourself! Luren suggests going to a fabric store and buying a small amount of sequined fabric, maybe the stretchy variety. This could be a little expensive, so another great alternative would be to find some sequined wonder of a dress at a thrift store for a couple of dollars. That way you would be recycling material and not spending much $$. The fabric can them be fixed onto a frame of canvas stretchers and decorated as you like.
Hope that helps! If you end up making the project, you should send me the photos and I’ll post them on the blog! Just leave your email address in a comment and I will get in touch. Happy crafting!

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crochet trees!

Posted by fpgirl on in features

We got some comments asking for more details of our giant crochet tree display. Here you go! This is the prototype tree our display team made in their workspace at the home office.
The visual team crochetters worked from the top down, starting with a styrofoam ball, crochetting around it and then down, connecting to big rings as we went. Then we crochetted garland to drape on the tree, and crochetted around little styrofoam balls to be “ornaments.” Then we had to chop the rings in quarters, folded the tree up, and sent it to india to be reproduced. As you can see from the pictures of the final one in the stores, they’re all a little different. But it looks great and is a wonderful handmade treasure.

 

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