freddy&ma

my new challenge

as much as working for yourself is great, always remember that work is easier when someone is telling you what they want from you.  when you tell yourself, things get a lot harder.  i'm showing some of my work for the second time tomorrow, and i have a few others lined up.....it's more that a bit scary, presenting your ideas to someone and then trying to access their reactions or even worse, no reaction whatsoever.  i'm excited to see what happens.......

shopping in the streets

you can find some of the most fabulous merchandise on the streets of nyc.....once a new yorker, i learned quickly never to purchase anything in a boutique until i searched the streets where i would inevitably find the exact same thing for a fraction of the cost.......not that i like to brag; i actually hate telling others where i find some of my favorite buys, but since wwd wrote a whole story about it, i thought, why not share it with you! (see below) let me know what you find --

another favorite....

i adore illustration.  until i worked for an advertising agency, i never realized that people could actually make a living selling their drawings!  There are many agencies that represent illustrators, and i often browse through artists' portfolios.
i've always been attracted to one very famous illustrator's art in particular, and i hope to one day have him design a print for freddy and ma....ruben todedo!!!
he's done work for EVERYONE, and i'm sure you'll recognize his style.........you can check out www.dailycandy.com for more of his whimsical drawings.......i'm hoping to have the pleasure of working with him (or at least one of his drawings) one day soon

new coldplay album!!!!!

the airwaves around freddy&ma global headquarters are often filled with the melodious rock of Coldplay.  it has come to our attention that PREORDERING their new album, due out june 7th, will result in getting TWO FREE TRACKS that will be unavailable for regular purchase after the album goes on sale.  we have generously donated some of our precious blog real estate to a link to iTunes so that all of our readers can take advantage of this great deal.  just click the image below and you will be wisked to iTunes music store where you can quickly get in the queue for this great album.  yes, yes, we know we are too kind.....

what defines the brand - the product or the celebrity?

the new york times had a short piece today about the increasingly large amounts of energy brands are devoting to finding the 'perfect' celebrity to endorse their product.  they specifically single out the gap ads with sarah jessica parker and discuss how gap pulled her as spokesmodel after only 9 months due to a sales decline.  my guess (and a note further down in the article supports this) is that a poor collection was to blame, most people i talked to loved that campaign.....

  i find it odd that brands are so obsessed with finding the right celebrity to pay to be their model.  it seems like they could invest that money into designing better collections and celebrities who were a good match to their brands style would end up buying their products and promoting them for free just because it was great stuff.  at freddy&ma we will be taking the latter approach.  the board of directors has decided at this time to not pursue any celebrities for our upcoming media blitz, instead the ads will focus on our immaculate collection.  we hope that celebrities will want to buy our products b/c of their unique style, just like everyone else.  we are willing, however, to expediate shipping on all orders placed by a celebrity if it happens to coincide with a major event (eg. the oscars), celebrities just need to contact our 'celebrity special needs department' to make special arrangements in these instances.....

is this "the one"?

my philosophy for freddy&ma is simple: there will never be one "perfect" bag......there will be lots of "perfect for this occasion" or "that occasion", but never one bag for all seasons.....that's the beautiful thing about bags, is that they come in all different shapes, sizes and colors, like people!!! i just dumped out a whole bunch of bags on the floor for assessment, thought you all might enjoy- i wonder if i can figure out how much money that's worth, or where all the other bags are hiding?!? besides, why would anyone only want one bag??

did you get lucky?

i'm a magazine JUNKIE......i have a not-so-secret celebrity gossip habit and i cannot get enough of fashion magazines.......but there is one title that I cannot live without, that I save because each issue is a mini-bible of sorts......LUCKY .....their take on fashion is completely original, user-friendly, and extremely helpful.........since one of my goals for freddy and ma is to create products that will help my customers enhance and define their personal style, i aspire to have my name in their pages one day soon....also, everyone really should own a copy of The Lucky Shopping Manual, which can really help even the most stylish girl find new combinations in her own closet.

what's in a name

so as we are designing our first collection here at freddy&ma, we are faced with the daunting task of creating names for many lovely products.  a conversation today went something like this.....

freddy: i am sick of seeing all these handbags on the market that use people names for the bags

ma: i don't know, they seem to work pretty well.

freddy: no they don't, it is old and tired.  everybody does it.  we need to have better names that this.

ma: like what?  what else can you name something (besides people names)

freddy: i have no idea, but.....

the virtual office

one of the goals of freddy&ma is to take advantage of technology whereever possible to make the lives of our employees much easier.  today we are meeting with a cool company called NetSuite that will allow us to manage and run all of our inventory, accounting, payroll, etc, etc, etc, etc, software from any computer, anywhere in the world as long we have an internet connection.  this means less time spent worrying about the nuts and bolts of running the business and more time available to focus on designing amazing products for our style conscious customers.  yippie.

working hard or hardly working?

so today I began the adventure known as "starting a company from scratch".......as I ran around the city (literally, I was walking everywhere to save money on cabs) I was amazed at the number of people who seem to be not working.......lots of very well dressed mommys congregating with their strollers in front of starbucks, people hanging out at restaurants, shopping, you name it..........the only work I see going on is deliveries and construction............I wonder what else these people fill their days with, although surely they are looking at me wondering the same.........as soon as my scanner arrives, I plan to share some of the things I've been working on with all of you......