Monday, June 8, 2015

Chicken & Costumes

Another morning of waking up early then heading downstairs for some waffles and eggs.  After breakfast the group headed to our first meeting of the day.  First up was Nobland.

Nobland is a New York based company that develops fabrics and garments for other companies.  Some of Nobland's clients include: Alex Wang, Target, Kohl's, and many more.  Nobland is a product development company that not only manufactures garments for those brands, but they also make their own prints.  Many times Nobland will manufacture a print specifically for a certain brand and it's not until the small, high-end brand sees it that they may tweak the print and produce something for the mass production companies.  The next stop after Nobland was...Pink Chicken.

Pink Chicken!

Y'all, I finally made it to Pink Chicken!

For those that don't know, Pink Chicken is a childrenswear company in New York that came about when Stacey Fraser first started selling her handmade items in her hometown of Amagansett, NY.  Their main retail source is online, but Pink Chicken does have 4 brick-and-mortar stores: 2 in New York, 1 in Los Angeles, 1 in Charleston.

I first learned of Pink Chicken when I started researching various childrenswear companies, since I want to pursue a career in childrenswear.  I also discovered they have internships!  I learned all this information long before I knew we were going to Pink Chicken on our tour, but after visiting the company I feel like I could see myself there.  I honestly don't know if personally I could live in New York, but working with great people like Paige and Christina at Pink Chicken and learning the ins-and-outs to the children's industry would be awesome.

The style of Pink Chicken clothing is always going to be breezy and bohemian.  Pieces that are very easy for mom and baby and kids.  Paige and Christina said they can pull inspiration from anywhere, but they mainly love to look to vintage fabrics and wallpapers.  They love to reinvent vintage prints and sometimes even invent a few of their own prints.

The environment in Pink Chicken was so calm and inspiring.  Even though there were only about 5 full-time employees and 1 intern in the room, you could tell that everyone loved their jobs.

Paige and Christina talked about how they have pieces from each collection, going all the way back to the very beginning, and another unique thing is the wall of pictures is made up of pictures they used from their booth at various market shows.

After Pink Chicken, we headed to Jeffrey.  First off, let me say that Jeffrey is located DIRECTLY across the street from Diane von Furstenberg's flagship store!  Yes, I freaked out a little bit A LOT, when I saw those lips on that building!! Fan girl moment!  

So on to Jeffrey!  Jeffrey is not your typical high-end flagship store.  Jeffrey was started by a former shoe seller who realized that with his connections he would be able to open a store carrying all the high-end brands for his customer.  You can find Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Comme des Garçonne, Louboutin, and many more.

I also loved seeing the unique designs that were in there.  I especially love this "cape" below that looks like a bunch of vinyl steering wheels.


Our final meeting of the day was at a costume shop called Izquierdo Studio.  There are very few employees at this costume shop, but the work they produce is amazing.  They've done pieces for various Broadway shows and ballet companies.

These next two pictures feature prototypes they've done of a couple of Heidi Klum costumes.


Izquierdo Studio is also famous for their wing work.  They produce just about all of the wings for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and they have even produced wings for various pageant contestants.

This case featured dolls with small scale versions of VS costumes.  That way they can get the logistics of the costumes figured out before they produce the actual thing.

Learning the ins-and-outs about Izquierdo Studio was very interesting.  They truly look to provide high quality work and it's like a little family there.

That night, we went to dinner at Benares, an Indian restaurant.  This was my first time ever eating Indian so I was excited, and the food did not disappoint!  I will definitely be eating Indian again.  The picture below is of the beautiful light fixture in the restaurant.

Two days of meetings down, one more to go.  It's definitely been a great experience getting to go to all these companies and see behind-the-scenes and make connections.  Talk to ya tomorrow!

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