Work stuff: Buy this bag

Dress: H&M; Shoes: Deb; Bag: Miche (Eve Shell)

K... this is how it is. You have to go buy this bag. And it's not because I work for this company but because the woman this bag is named after is pretty dang cool and is doing something pretty dang cool with her commission off of this bag.

The handbag company that I work for is a little different, we are a home party business- like Stella and Dot.  Oh and have I mentioned that all of our bags are interchangeable?  We have Representatives that host parties and make money off of the bags they sell. A home party business is so different from retail. In some ways bad different but in some ways really good. One of those really good things is that this industry is really built on relationships and that is a really cool thing.

Back in February at one of our conferences I got to meet one of our Representatives, Eve.  Eve wanted a bag named after her- all of our bags are named after someone- and they all for the most part have pretty cool stories behind them.  I told Eve that with her name being Eve we could probably name one of our Holiday bags after her- she didn't really like this idea and I couldn't really blame her.  Her style is definitely not a bag with snowflakes all over it- not that there is anything wrong with that. 

Some time passed and when it came to naming our fall line, the bag pictured above, immediately brought to mind Eve. She has this beautiful thick black curly hair that reminded me of the weaved center pattern.

Fast forward to our conference in July, we debut our fall line. Eve, the awesome Representative that she is is in attendance and she loves her bag! Which makes me sooo happy. It's kind of scary when you name a bag after someone- you worry if they will like it or not. 

Not too long after our July conference I got this email from Eve:

Hello, I hope this email fines you well! I want to say THANK YOU for personally pulling for me to get the beautiful new Demi shell to be named Eve! I feel so honored and excited!  I wanted to do something special with this shell as a way to say “thank you”. So I have decided to take my commission on all Eve Shells and donate to a charity. I have chosen a foundation that helps family’s adopt. Adoption is so near and dear to my heart as I am adopted. I recently have met some incredible women that have shared their stories of adoption which have touch my heart in ways words cannot describe!  Something as simple as a  designer handbag can bring so much more than I could have ever imagined. Meeting incredible women and hearing their stories is such a blessing!

Seriously, how cool is she? This is just one example of why I love not only my job but the company I work for so much. I am constantly surrounded by inspiring and motivating people. We are so much more then a fashion handbag company and I am very proud of that. 

So if you'd like to help Eve out and get yourself the ever so fashionable Eve Shell you can do so here... and if you live in the Indianapolis area and want to host a party make sure to hit Eve up!

Sorry to sling my companies product at you all- but this time it's for a good cause. Hope you don't mind.

Fast Moving Train

on location for our winter catalog shoot

July and August I was on a roll with this whole blogging thing! Then we slipped into September... and not so much.

Can I just say it's been an insane couple of weeks. Being sick, feeling sorta better, getting sick again (it's been a roller coaster) , preparing for our winter photo shoot, going on a little vacation- while sick = no bueno, doing the photo shoot- I alone styled 74 shots! 74 people! Over 3 days- all while pretty much being incredibly sick (sorry all that came in contact with me), house hunting, and a gazillion other obligations on top of it all has me begging for some down time.

Things however, will not be slowing down anytime soon.

If you need me, I will be under my desk in the fetal position.

Work Stuff: Behind the Scenes

I get to be a part of a lot of fun stuff at work. Planning photo shoots is one of them.  It's fun but also an insane amount of pressure- especially when everyone is telling you that the styling/wardrobe is going to make or break the shoot and you are responsible for all of that. Yep- no pressure at all.

Add in the pressure of launching a new line- a higher end line- well let's just say that makes for a lot of sleepless nights.

But when you when you mix an insane amount of pressure with an insane amount of passion. It usually ends up being a good thing.

I have been so excited about this new line, which we call LUXE to be launched. It something that we have been wanting to do forever.  It was so fun to design and really fun to follow it through with the photo shoot.

Line launched on the 1st! So excited to see how it does.

I designed the grey ones btw!

Spectacular!

Spectacular was my works theme for our annual conference in Nashville- our first one out of state. I am kinda of sick in the head because conference time is my favorite time of year at work.  I have successfully been involved in 4 conference thus far- I enjoy the stress, the frenzy, the excitement, the  months of preparation, the long hours, the bossing people around, the chatting to hundreds and hundreds of people until my braces cut up my mouth and my lips are swollen twice their size.  And of course- the attention and the showing off all the hard work and amazing designs my team and I bust out- it is a nice little bonus (see attention whore in "if you really knew me" post)

Here are some pictures from the event and our week in the nasty wet heat of Nashville! I missed my dry desert heat mucho. 

Our DJ/VJ for our Fashion Show

Fashion Show!

We hosted a 5k for our Hope program

I don't recommend running in 90% humidity.

Our sitting area in our Design Room- the place where we showed off our new upcoming designs 

Design Team

had to jump over this display every day. Some days my skirt was a lot shorter then this
which made for interesting maneuvering. 

Design Studio: Purses are blurred due to them not being released yet. 

Miche rented out the entire Wild Horse Saloon for our own private party.

 

Gala Night

and that's a wrap!

Work stuff: FEARLESS

This is from our new "Fearless" collection for fall. This shoot was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it very much. Even the 5 am call time- okay maybe not that- but everything else!

Lookbook.

Open publication - Free publishing - More august 2012

Back from Nashville

Skirt: Ebay; Shoes: Charlotte Russe; Belt: Zara; Top: F21; Jewelry: Icing

It's official. No matter how many Honk Tonks my co-workers dragged me out to- there is just no country in this girl. Sorry Nashville.

Country fashion however- I can get into.

The last week has definitely been a world wind of hard work and lots of fun. But more to come on all that later- I have a puppy to go cuddle...

happy to be home.

A crazy week ahead

;

Shoes: Macy's; Pants: F21; Top: F21; Bag: Miche

Right now, as you are reading this, I am  on a plane to Nashville. Where I get to spend a week with about 1,500 Miche enthusiasts! I can't wait for all the hard work, passionate people, and tons of fun!

The amount of work that goes into pulling off one of these events is insane. One of my biggest responsibilities each year at work is to make sure our Fashion Show and our Design Studio are a huge hit. No pressure, right?

This year has been a little more crazy then usual. Where as we usually only do these events once a year, this year we are doing it twice, you can check out the one from February here. This is also the first year that we are taking our event on the road!

So Nashville here I come!

Work Stuff: Coastal Escape

Here is the Stylewatch video that we filmed on my little work trip to Santa Barbara.

Have a great weekend everybody!

California

Is my home away from home. The moment my toes touched the west coast sand at the tender age of 4 I knew that southern Cali was where I was meant to be. It was then, that I decided I would find a way to move there, and move there I did when I was 18.  My time in L.A was short lived as I only spent two years living in the splendid sun while I attended school.

See- at the time I had just met my husband-to-be right before I left the Salt Lake valley and while I was slaving away at school he stayed back- and we tried out the long distance thing- it was successful. 

Life has a funny way of working out and I was brought back to the Salt Lake area where I have stayed, and although it has grown on me, my love for my job is the only thing that has kept me here.  

This past week I was reminded of my deep yearning to be in southern California as I was lucky enough to travel for work to Santa Barbara where we shot our upcoming summer catalog and filmed our next Stylewatch video. This was my first trip going this far north of L.A. and I have simply fallen even more in love.

One day... I will make my way back for good. Coming home to a blizzard only affirms that thought. 

but of course

I would find a way to break my tri-pod.  Oh well, c'est la vie. Good thing I'm a good problem solver; see: duct tape.

I am not much for words today- but hey aren't you here for the pictures anyway? If you are looking for more to read then go check out today's Miche Fashion Friday blog that will be up later this afternoon- where I wrote about getting back to the basics with our wardrobe and the noteworthy fashion icons that inspired them.

Anywho- off to Santa Barbara come Monday morning!

Momentum Day 3

On the last day of conference we donated $750,000 to The Huntsman Cancer Institute, launched our new Hope shells, you can read about our Hope program here- if you are interested in learning more of what that is about.

And we ended the night at our gala dinner where we awarded many people and danced the night away.

Our next conference is only 5 months away and we are heading to Nashville. I am in full planning mode which means I have many more sleepless nights ahead of me as I plan our next huge fashion show and Design Studio. But I am not going to lie I LOVE EVERY MOMENT OF IT!

Day 3 "daytime" outfit
Day 2 Recap
Day 1 Recap

Momentum Day 2

On Day 2 the design team got to have our "Oprah" moment as we like to call it where we got be up on stage and have our bio's read, here is what my boss had to say about me:

"Surrounded by fabric swatches, fashion magazines, and racks of handbags, Ashley, our Design Manager, has an eye for aesthetics- as she should with her Interior Design Degree from the Los Angeles Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.  Ashley's creative instincts and flair for drama not only lends itself to pulling off great bags and great events but also allowed her pull off faking her own wedding"

Totally true by the way.

We also got to answer some most commonly asked questions, such as, "Where do you get your inspiration?" and "How do you know whats going to be in style?".  We also got to have a little fun and talk about what it's like working with our factories in China- hence the lost in translation photo.  The most fun we had though was with our fashion faux pas segment where we showed some horrendous outfits and gave tips on how a handbag may just turn that outfit from a faux pas to a fashion forward statement.

We then of course spent any free time we had when were weren't busy entertaining in our Design Studio or up onstage, to be silly and take advantage of all the fun photo ops around the conference center.

You can check out Day 1 recap here.

 

Momentum Day 1

As mentioned here, here and you can also read about it here on a blog post that will be up later this afternoon (which is another blog that I write for my company under my boss's name).

But if you're not in the mood to click on a bunch of links. . . my company holds a giant conference once a year for all of our Representatives worldwide.  They come to this event to network, get training, get loads of company information, lots of free stuff but most importantly it is a time for the Design team to do a little showing off- which we gladly do.

We kicked off the event with our fashion show- which over the last couple of months made me loose a lot of sleep stressing over but in the end it was all worth it.  We had a live band, dancers, and amazing models. I guarantee there is not a fashion show in the world that has people on their feet shouting and dancing with as much excitement and for as long as our fashion show does.  It was truly an event not to be missed.