So my first trip to New York was absolutely amazing! As most of you know, I was invited to showcase my hair accessory line at the famous Henri Bendel on 5th Ave in NY. I spent a month working and creating new designs exclusively for the store. It was a crazy and stressful time, but also a lot of fun once I saw all of the finished "Bendel Bands".
I arrived in NY on weds, with my good friend Mia, and we spent the day exploring and shopping. We decided to go over to Bendel's and check it out and much to my surprise they have a whole room of hair accessories. Literally, a huge room full of headbands!!!! I then proceeded to freak out a little bit, because why would anyone buy my headbands when there is this massive room full of them? Well all of my fears disappeared on thurs, the first day of our trunk show....I sold half of my Bendel Bands the first day!!! It was such a great feeling to hear all of the positive feedback and Mia and I had an amazing group of sales girls helping us! It was also nice to see the bands on someone other than myself....if you know me well you know I have no problem staring at myself in the mirror all day, but it was so fun to see how the bands looked on other gorgeous girls;) Friday, day two of trunk show, was soooooo slow. According to the "hair guru" who was working, a lot of people are in the Hamptons in the summer on the weekends so it's not as busy....well la tee da!! I did get to speak with the buyer of Bendel's though and she had nothing but great things to say so that was good!
Saturday Mia and I spent the day being nerdy tourists in NY. I took my first subway ride, which was gross...complete with pee on the floor of the elevator...YUCK!!! We walked the Brooklyn Bridge (and I hate bridges), checked out Times Square, and most importantly went to Mood!!!! For those of you that don't know, Mood is the amazing fabric store that the contestants from Project Runway go to for their fabric on the show. That place was fantastic! I could have been in there for days and still not have seen everything. I ended up getting some amazing textured leathers, some cool antique buttons and some really pretty silk chiffon....oh and a Mood tee...because I'm a nerd:) It was a great way to end my NY adventure.
Overall, I think the whole weekend was a huge success. I met so many great people, got some great insight into the types of styles that sell on the east coast as opposed to the midwest, got some super cool fabric that I wouldn't be able to find in Chicago, ate some amazing food, and spread all kinds of mila rose prettiness throughout NY! It was fabulous and hopefully I'll be doing it again soon! xoxo~melis