Leslie meet Ulta. Love at first sight!

So my co worker, makeup artist and good friend Ashley took me (Leslie) makeup shopping at Ulta the other day. I am sort of new to makeup, I never really got into it in high school or college. 

I mean, I use foundation and sunscreen, never leave the house without mascara and dabble in eyeshadow and eye liner. Up until now I have been seriously overwhelmed by all the products out there and didn’t know what half of them were even used for! I thought that I could just get by with my basics from the grocery store….and so I did. Up until our photo shoot. 

Ashley did my makeup and I looked so amazing that I was inspired to dip my toe into the water of massive makeup stores swirling with a multitudes of sticks, creams, balms, brushes and all the rest that comprise the world of makeup.Uhh….. turns out that this girl will never be buying her makeup at the grocery store again! 

Beauty balm, eyebrow gel and color, purple lipstick, lip liner, hair chalk, bronzer, more eye shadow and eyeliner colors, contour sticks and better then sex mascara have changed my life!

If only I could train the puppy ot answer email.......

Is it really July 22 already? Where does time go? Well, my time goes to Over Easy, Blackberry Maverick, The Warehouse, Blackberry Maverick, Blackberry Maverick, myhusbandmydogmyhouselaundarygroceriesbillseatingsleeping, Over Easy, Blackberry Maverick….. and over and over again.

With our capsule collection in the more than capable hands of Esther and Tina, we wait anxiously for the week to end the the fed ex tracking number assuring us that Baker, Flash, Sweet, Tart, and Puff Pastry are safely on their way into our hands!

Our pop up banner just arrived at my parents place in AZ and with the stand on its way, Lex’s bag allocation bumped up to 2 checked bags and a whole lot of furniture up for grabs for us to borrow from my parents living room, we should almost be ready to set up our booth at Shop Garment District on the 8th of August at Hotel Valley Ho in Phoenix. Except for the fact that I have not practiced my interview skills in front of the mirror nearly enough and I haven’t even started to think about what am going to wear!! Can time just stop for a week please? Seriously, time, if your listening: a week would be great.

But enough wishing and back to business. Over the past few weeks things have been happening for us!

We are thrilled to have been featured in the Colorado Springs Gazette with this incredible front and center, full color spread in the business section on July 16th. We plan on taking Phoenix by storm and bringing with us as many collaborators from Colorado as we can! This amazing state has an incredible up and coming fashion scene and we want to help show everyone in Phoenix what Coloradans are made of!!

We also got a shout out from Lexi’s alma matter, FIDM.

We are going to be featured on the Denver fashion blog studio9720 mid august, AND we are super excited to be participating the the Eclectic Wedding Showcase in Denver right after our launch in Phoenix. We are going to be the featured fashion for the Apocalyptic Steampunk vignette, offering killer alternative dresses for your bridal party:)

We are so excited to be pairing with Tom Horn Collection out of Denver to accessorize our models for Shop Garment District! There beautiful bags and clutches will perfectly accentuate our dresses and separates. Check them out Here.

Phew, I think thats all for now! Stay tuned as we move forward with the rest of the collection and head out to the 120 degree Phoenix for Shop Garment District on the 8th of August!

xx,

Les

PHXFW Emerging Designers of 2014 Announcement weekend: Now the work begins!

Hey everyone! After an exhilarating long weekend in Phoenix where we met with our fellow emerging designers as well as the PHXFW team, we are back in our workshops hard at work on the 5 pieces we will be featuring in our capsule collection on August 8th!

Day 1 was a rough start, after a night in the airport spread out over 3 desks worth of floor space we made it into Phoenix just in time for the Luncheon with students at the Art Institute of Phoenix where we met excited educators and students participating in their new Fashion Design program. After that, it was a quick couple hours to unpack and then out we went to our Emerging Designer Announcement at Toni and Guy.  Unsure what this was going to entail, we showed up in our designs with hair, makeup and heels to make us feel confident and seasoned……though our stomachs were churning with anxiety.

With no preparation we were put on camera and asked about our partnership and our brand name. Then it was off to see our model, dresses in a frock that was in no way representational of what we are all about or what will be in our Spring 2015 collection. This was a last minute decision, deemed a failure by us and probably others as well. With the realization that we entered this all wrong, we then got grilled about our inspiration, tagline and brand message in front of an audience of 200+ fashionistas and press from the Phoenix area. Needless to say, we were less eloquent then we wanted to be…..
Phew, now it was time to mingle. We met some amazing photographers and bloggers as well as other members of the PHXFW team. Overwhelmed and exhausted we went to bed, trying to re energize for the 8 hours of class that ensued the following day.

Notebooks and Laptops spread out, energy drinks in hand, we started off our second day in Phoenix. With enlightening presentations from PHXFW team members, a Q and A with local retailers, and an intense evaluation of where we stand and where we want to be 6pm came and we felt like we had just got started. Amazed at the level of talent surrounding us, we knew we had work to do.
Home we went, with our first homework assignment bouncing around in our brains for a night of discussion about our brand, our woman, our inspiration and what we wanted to get out of PHXFW.

Finally to bed again only to rise for a full day of work. Out came the sketches and supplies, notebooks, homework assignments, phones, laptops, and piles of research. Low and behold, we managed a small space on the corner of the 3 coffee tables that had been pushed together for our cups of coffee, handed to us mid conversation by my cousin Chris.

12 hours, a pack of cigarettes, 2 pots of coffee and 4 energy drinks later  (there may have been a plate of cheezy eggs in there somewhere too?) out we came with a clear picture of who Blackberry Maverick is, what we are designing, who we are designing for and the first round of sketches and fabric selections for our new collection!

Blackberry Maverick was reborn as the brand we intended it to be in the first place: A merging of the Classic Betty and the Unpredictable Fox. With a collection of 14 dresses and separates that truly, “Take the retro woman to the edge”.  Home we went the following morning with to do lists more than a page long to get ready for our capsule collection show on august 8th. Now the real work starts, with offices overflowing into living rooms, phones, emails and social media blowing up, we are off and running!!

Check back with us as we share snippets of the process over the next month. Blackberry Maverick’s capsule collection launch, here we come!!

xx,

Leslie