Trade shows… a necessary evil

The new Study Fall 10 collection launched today at the Rendez Vous show here in NY.  The lovely Virginia and the very handsome Johnny from International Playground are my new sales reps and will be hawking my wares from now on.  I have to admit I’m really excited to pass the sales portion of this job off to someone else, particularly someone who’s naturally good at it.  I don’t like selling my clothes, and I’m terrible at it.  Most designers usually are, and very few are ever really good at it.  I’m always fascinated by those who are.  So when Virginia & Johnny came along and were excited to show my collection to stores, I was beyond thrilled.

The booth looks great and I feel grateful to be in such good company.  Above are some pics I took at the show this morning when I dropped off the last of the samples.

Press check… and press!

After a frantic rush to get the files ready and to the printer on time for today’s press check, the very lovely Amanda came through with all the corrections and not a hint of a complaint (thank you Amanda!).  My heart bled a little during press check when I saw how much wasted paper is required to print one series of books.  The first few dozens are just test prints that are completely wasted.  I was reassured by the workers at the printing house that all wasted paper is recycled.  But I still felt a pang of guilt.

And then the first of my beautiful Fall 10 lookbooks came down the press line, literally hot off the press!  I was so excited I stuck around after approving the proofs and waited for the rest of the books to be finished.  And then I lugged all 1000 of them back to my studio, ready to be distributed to the masses.

PS: If any of you want one, just email me with your mailing address and I’ll send one to you.  I have 1000 of them after all!

Happy New Year!

Okay so I’m a day late on this one, but happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

I went to visit my sample factory in midtown Manhattan today, I didn’t they’d be open as everyone who works there is Chinese, but they were working frantically getting ready for some fashion week shows tomorrow.

I know a lot of industrialized countries such as China, Mexico, India and Thailand are having a hard time saving face right now with all the bad press they’ve been getting in the eco world for having terrible environmental and human rights impacts.  Up until recently I’ve only ever worked with foreign factories, most of them in China.  And the ones I’ve worked with recently have been very dedicated to maintaining workers rights, if not also trying to improve their environmental impact.  I have to applaud them for spending the extra money and time to be progressive, particularly in a country that is progressing full steam ahead.  I believe that we all have a responsibility to encourage and support the smaller enterprises that are doing their part to make changes, however slow and painstaking they may be.

So I wish you all a happy and prosperous year of the Tiger!

Finals… finally!

Graeme worked like a madman today and got me finals for all the pics about 10 hours after we selected our favourites. Here’s a glimpse of what the layout of the printed book is going to look like.

Can’t wait to see it actually printed!

Contact sheets

This morning Graeme and I went over the contact sheets from the shoot earlier this week. Digital photography has made contact sheets virtually obsolete, so there’s something gratifyingly old school about going over shots days after they were taken laid out this way, as opposed to the immediate satisfaction of transferring them directly from the memory card to the computer.  It’s a frustrating wait, but definitely worth it.

We then matched up each shot with a corresponding dead flower picture.  I’m so excited about this book, I think it’s going to be beautiful if I do say so myself.

Graeme thinks the pictures are weird and I think he’s a little afraid of them.  I don’t know why, but it’s funny to hear him talk about them.

Off to the printers in a couple days with the final layout!