Channeling Chanel...

Today is so yucky and grey. Time for some retail therapy! ;)

I'm going to the mall with Ben today to get him some cute summer stuff. Yesterday was his birthday! Yippee!

Anyway- This is what I'm wearing. I found these Chanel shoes at a sample sale (YAY) and Stella thought they looked delicious I guess. I tried to explain to her that if she was going to start chewing shoes, we would have a big problem. 

(jeans- JBrand, cardigan- Urban Outfitters, tank- BP, rose ring- F21, shoes and necklace- Chanel)

Silly puppy. Shoes are for mommy.

Ok, Ok... One More

One more group! This one is actually my favorite, but I decided to take it in a slightly edgier direction, so really... it won't look anything like this so I can show you guys. 

This is my Vintage Lingerie inspired group. Think petticoats, bloomers and garter straps! :)

So right now I'm busting my ass trying to finish the REAL sketches for the Spring 2010 collection. I have to finish by Friday so I'm a little more than a little stressed. I'll make it happen though. And I'll keep you all updated. ;)

My Betsey Johnson Presentation...

Well, part of it anyway. I can't show you the stuff we are using from it cause, well obvs I can't show you stuff that will be made THIS early on. ;)

This was a group I did that Betsey said she liked, but that was too "fashioney" for Betsey and not girly enough? Which is fine... cause now I can show you it. ;)

So there you have it. :) The rest of the presentation was 4 other groups with a theme, inspiration tears, and sketches. It was a lot of work and I felt like I was in school again, but I was really happy with the final result and Betsey liked it so- YAY!

TONIGHT!!!

Watch Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC tonight!! No Doubt is performing and Gwen is going to be wearing a pair of those Harajuku Lovers creeper boots I designed!! :)

Yippee!

Blind Date in New York

So, since I got the Betsey job (!!!) that means I'll now be a bicoastal kinda gal! I figured it was time to make new friends in New York since my friend and fellow shoe designer Ana was in China and she was the only NY friend I had.

My friend Juls has a friend here and she stepped in to play matchmaker. Total blind date style!

Off I went to meet my new friend Jen for some vegan soul food at Red Bamboo... seriously. It was DELISH!! Jen and I became instant friends and even made a shopping detour where I got some pretty great stuff. This necklace thingy is my favorite find! I wore it with my new tiger sweatshirt (another great find) yesterday to run around the city with Betsey's design director.

You guys know I LOVE my Lanvin flats. Great for walking all day!


On our "date" Jen was wearing this necklace that I am now obsessed with and need to obtain. It's called the bicoastal necklace... perfect, no?
Anyway, it's back to California today but I'll be back in a couple weeks where I will make it my mission to have an outing with Miss Wendy B herself. ;)

Today...

I nailed it. Commence fist pumping.

QUICK!!! Break...

Just wanted to take the quickest of breaks to show you something amazing!

(NO, not my kitchen cabinets... the shoe!)

hehehehe.

Ok, flying to NY tomorrow- meeting on Monday! Got to get this done today.

Excuses, Excuses

SO... I just have to let you all know that I am swamped with work and have to fly to New York to give a presentation to the Betsey team on Monday, and until that's done, I barely have time to sleep, let alone write a decent post. 

The good news is that once I'm done I can post my presentation on here. :) Hopefully it turns out as good as I hope it will.

So bear with me please! And maybe wish me luck!

;)

Picnic Chic!

Alright! Check out my Harajuku Lovers gingham picnic wedges in Elle!

What a beautiful cover too. I love it.

(you can click to make them larger)

Happy Mother's Day!

I had brunch with my cutie pie of a mom and my 2 little sisters :)

We came home and played around with Photobooth.

I fell off the chair in the last one. hahaha

Happy Mother's day to all you moms out there! :)

XOXO

Now I'm back home being a "mom" to my 2 beebees. <3

Spilling Secrets...

Ok, ok- drumroll please! 

The new line I will be designing, and the reason I went to New York for a meeting yesterday is... BETSEY JOHNSON!!! Well, pending a design presentation, but hopefully that's just a formality.

This is what I wore to the meeting after much debate. I had dinner with 5 of my girl friends Wednesday night and  forced them to watch me try on numerous outfits after. This was our winner.

Ana Sui top

high waisted button front jeans

My highlighter yellow Louboutin pumps. 

Yippee!

I'm super excited and my meeting went well despite the shitty flight and mere 3 hours of sleep. What shitty flight you ask? Well, let me break it down:

My friend/merchandise manager Joanne and I left Orange County airport Thursday morning at 11 to go to NY via San Francisco. WHY would we do that? To save the company money of course. 

Well, we got to SF and had a 2 hour layover. We grabbed lunch and went to the gate to find that our flight was delayed. 1 hour. Off we went to the bar to drink our time away, then back to the gate to find another delay. :( One more hour.

Cut to us getting into JFK at 3am. We got to our gate and then they announced that the gate wasn't functioning so we were stuck until we could find a new gate. Seriously. Another 1/2 hour and we were off.

We got a little less than 3 1/2 hours of sleep before having to go off to the Betsey Johnson showroom for our meeting.  The meeting went really well and I met with Betsey and her team and we talked about going forward with me as their designer (YAY!!) and then it was off to JFK to fly home.

We were scheduled to go from JFK to Phoenix (again, to save money) then Phoenix to OC again. 

Wellllll, as you may have guessed- it was delayed. Only a little at first, and then 2 hours. We were going to miss our connection. 

We were re-routed to Las Vegas... seriously.... where the flight was full and full of drunk people excited to party. 

Finally home at 10:30 pm after a day of hell. I feel like crap and I want to sleep for a week. haha.

Creeps!

So I have to express my pissed off-ness on this issue. I hate to be a brat but I'm really annoyed.

Last year, for my Harajuku Fall 09 collection I made a creeper and creeper boot, which I thought were awesome and I really truly loved. 

Well, low and behold amazing fashion blogggers like Rumi at fashiontoast and Susie at Style Bubble (here and here) are wearing similar styles. WHY does this piss me off? Well, because my freaking salesmen dropped the shoes because they didn't "get" them. They had no idea where I was coming from so they just didn't bother. 

SO ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!!!

creeper boot

creeper

The upside is that Gwen ordered a pair of the boots in Black and White patent (shown on the flat creeper) and in plaid for her upcoming tour with No Doubt. So those of you who are going to the show- look out for my shoes! YAY!

Maybe those stupid salesmen (whom I actually love, but NOT when it comes to this issue) will feel stupid when they see them in the market and wonder where ours went.

Hmph.

Dinner with a Shoe Girl...

So my friend Jessie who I've added as an author on here, yet who hasn't posted since her first post (total guilt trippage) got engaged to a LOVELY young man named Mark, so we figured we should all get together and celebrate! We went to Gulfstreem in Newport and it was DEEE-LISH! 

I literally ate every single bite. oops.

I can't find my camera's USB cord so my camera is stuck with a cutie pic of us at dinner together!! :( Booooo. Why cant Olympus just use a regular freaking UBS. 

But I digress.

Oh well. Here's what I wore.

(jeans-JBrand, blazer- Kenna-T, shoes- Fendi)

I LOVEEEE these Fendi shoes. They are so rad! I love the sexy cutouts and the slight cone heel. I really like all these open/closed shoes happening. They're great transition styles.

These are in super soft suede too, which I think makes them extra rich. Plus, any shoe that requires a zipper to get into is OK by me!

I'm in Good Company

So the heart shaped peep toe is obviously a trend and I'm glad to have been a part of it. ;)

Just thought I'd share 'cause seeing things I did in the past (these are Harajuku Lovers fall '09 shoes and will be out soon) being mirrored with other designers makes me feel like I'm doing something right. 

Alexander McQueen

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Harajuku Lovers

I did a bunch of colors, and red is the only one without contrast piping- but it's the only picture I had. O well. Now I'm sounding like an insecure 3rd grader defending her art project. 

You guys get the idea. 

Through The Fog...

I'm back! I'm really bad with jetlag and feel like I'm in a fog. It usually lasts about a week and it sucks. Impossible to get out of bed in the morning and equally difficult to fall asleep at night. Last night I tossed and turned until about 4am :(

I'm forcing myself to get up and out of the house. I need to start researching for my NEW SURPRISE line ;)

I'm feeling terribly overwhelmed with the prospect of taking on said line, but I'm also really excited!! I can't wait to tell you guys what it is. It's super legit and a HUGE step for me.

I will of course continue to do Harajuku Lovers, which is what I was just doing in China. Those shoes are getting more and more fun to do. We just made some super adorable pre-fall shoes :)

I was supposed to be able to tell you the official news tomorrow but the powers that be changed the board meeting (which will make it official) to the 10th... so hang in there. ha ha.

Until then, here's what I'll be running around in today. My new Prada sandals. Simple and sexy. I just loooove the detail on the platform. So cool, right?