Tangerine Diary

Journal Entry 10/29/06

This October has possibly been the busiest month of my life (and I think Leigh’s life, too). But busy is good and life is good.

We kicked off the month with our biggest, best sale ever. From Oct 5-15, we had tons of great stuff on sale with prices starting at $10. It was really fun to be able to offer such a good selection and good deals to everyone. Needless to say, by the 15th we all needed about a week off to recover.

That, of course didn’t happen, as LA Fashion Week was upon us. With the re-introduction of men’s wear back into the store (with a bigger and better selection and presentation), and the expansion of our kid’s department, our buying responsibilities have grown a lot, so we have to budget our time (and money) the best we can.

Our first day of market was the day before market officially started. We spent all morning buying denim and tee-shirts at True Religion, William Rast, People’s Liberation, Splendid, etc.. By the time afternoon rolled around, we had seen over a dozen lines and stocked up on lots of great stuff for spring.

At the end of the day, we headed to our hotel downtown (Hilton Checkers) where they were filming an episode of “What About Brian”. The lobby was jammed with crew folk, armed with walkie-talkies, comfortable shoes and Avian (which is apparently the show’s H2O sponsor).

Of course, no LA experience is complete without spotting a celebrity and Leigh (being Leigh) strikes up a conversation with “Brian” (who’s name is really Barry something). I put my head down and make my way to the elevator.

FYI: It’s true that the camera really does ad 10lbs. All the “on-camera” talent looked ultra-thin to me (and they look so normal on TV!)

Anyhooo….. After dinner at a somewhat pretentious restaurant (the Water Grille, where they gave Leigh a silver bowl to put her clam shells in), we ordered Talledega Nights in our room and sacked out.

The next two days of market are a blur. We were both pretty tired (and Leigh had a huge migraine), but we persevered and ordered really cute Juicy handbags, DVF, Rock & Republic, Nanette Lepore (very cute), Isabella Fiore, Michelle Jonas (new line for us), and lots more great stuff….

On Sunday we got a day “off”, back to LA on Monday and back to the store on Tuesday to meet with our packaging rep for holiday wrapping, etc..

Lots of fun and excitement this time of year. We are really excited about our men’s launch and anxious to see what kind of response we get from men’s. Next month, I think we both have a few days off to gear up for December (our favorite month of all!)

Diary Entry / Monday, August 27:

Ahhhhhh…..3am. Back in the day, I would just be going to bed after a night out. Now (older, wiser, busier) I am just getting up for a long day of work in Las Vegas.
Leigh is waiting outside on the sidewalk when I get to her house.
We are getting ready to bring a men’s department back into our store, which is fun and exciting, but takes about twice as much work as doing just women’s. Last time we offered men’s wear, we failed miserably because we put little-to-no effort into buying. This time, we are ready – we have market days and a trip to Magic & Project booked just for men’s buying! Mind you, if we weren’t doing men’s, I would not be up at 3:am, so the men better shop!

Vegas is a weird mix of all the vices (alcohol, sex, gluttony), with some family fun and shopping thrown in just for good measure. The town drains me of whatever energy I have and I find myself throwing back way too much coffee (which will have to be compensated for by drinking way too much alcohol later!).

Leigh, as always, keeps me on track and we do a ton of buying our first day. We visit Ted Baker (I do a personal order for my husband), Materialust (a new teeshirt line for men & women), Replay, Theory men’s, Juicy men’s and Salvage (which is so cool, we order it for both men & women).

We rush to get done buying so we can have a little time to visit the Fashion Show Mall, where we go to exactly one store: Neiman-Marcus. Aside from Tangerine, why shop anywhere else? Leigh tries on about 500 pairs of shoes (none of which either one of us can afford). Prada, Gucci, YSL, the guy with the red soles whose name I can’t pronounce, and a few others. There was not a single size 9 in the whole place (really), which is lucky because now we can afford to buy dinner.

We meet our old friends and fellow-fashionistas, April & Kyra (April has a store, Vanilla, in Bend, Or) for sushi and cocktails at Okada in the Wynn. Leigh is the only person I’ve ever known in my life who is not an alcoholic (or recovering alcoholic for that matter) who will go to Vegas and not have one single cocktail. I decide to make up for her lack of drinking and have two. I probably would have had more but couldn’t stay awake any longer.

Next day, we’re up early and ready to go! We write more men’s and track down a line we’ve been in search of for nearly two years: Tsubi. They are listed on the directory but have no booth number. We track down the show manager and he gives us some bonk information. After being sent on a wild-goose-chase “around the corner”, we recruit the assistance of a very helpful employee of the Venetian and she directs us to the conference room where Tsubi is holed up.

We write an order, unsure of how the very-edgy line will work for us and head off to finish the rest of our buying.

We are done just in time to catch a taxi to the airport and fly home.

Going to Vegas as a mom is so different from my pre-mom days and I am so happy to get home to my warm, fuzzy family (I know Leigh is, too). I get home in time to catch the end of Rock Star Supernova, which I am (embarrassingly) addicted to.

Leigh and I both have a 10-hour shift at the store tomorrow, so I rest up and prepare to do it all again soon!

Market Diary:  8/9/06

 
Day 1:  5:15am – Ugh.  Just enough time to swill a double latte, wash my face, zip up my suitcase and say good-morning-good-bye to my husband before heading to Leigh’s house to pick her up for our 6:30am date with Orange County / LA rush hour. 

 
There’s hardly any traffic this morning and we make it downtown in about an hour and a half (a vast improvement over the 2 hours it normally takes).  We arrive at the public parking lot before any of the attendants, leave a note on the car saying that we’ll take care of the ticket later and head off to our first appointment.

 
Ordering lingerie at 8am isn’t hard for Leigh.  It’s a little rough for me since I hardly ever even wear a bra, but we manage to overspend our budget (with a little help from a huge personal order from Leigh). 

 
By noon, we’ve ordered three underwear lines, Michael Stars, Union denim (women’s and men’s), Splendid and True Religion (women’s and men’s).  We’re famished and pick up a bottle of wine to take to lunch at the very cute Angelique Café (where they don’t serve alcohol but don’t mind if you bring your own).

 
The rest of the day is more tees, some collections, a couple of cute, edgy lines that are new for us (Covet & Rojas).  We top it off with about two and a half hours at LaCoste, where we order through July 2007 – ugh.

 
When we arrive at the parking lot to pick up our car (and pay for parking), the attendants have all gone home.  It’s after 7pm.

 
We may have missed this morning’s traffic but we make up for it on the way to Pasadena.  When we finally arrive at our hotel, it’s 8pm.  This has been the longest day of buying ever in our whole history of buying…  We are exhausted and head to a funky, local Mexican place for some tacos and cervecas.  After a couple beers, we start to feel normal again and almost feel like we can do it all again tomorrow!

 
Day 2:  Thursday:

7:15am –  The in-room coffee maker at the hotel makes possibly the worst coffee I’ve ever tasted, but I sip the bitter, thick brew and half watch Leigh do yoga along with the TV “fit channel” and half wonder how the yoga instructor on TV has zero fat anywhere on her body.  Probably doesn’t down too many snickers bars on buying trips.

 
We have a mediocre breakfast at the hotel restaurant and head back to market for another day of sugar-induced buying.  We pick up several new lines, including our personal new favorite, William Rast (Justin Timberlake’s clothing line).  They offer us beer and wine at the showroom and we order more than we planned. 

 
After a long day with no lunch we are tired and cranky.  Sushi and shopping is in order so we head to old town Pasadena.  Sophea Parros is a cute boutique and we sale shop for some cute stuff. 

 
Tomorrow is our last day.  We miss our kids and husbands and are looking forward to the long drive home.

  

Leigh & Jenn Go To Market: A Report from the Fashion Front:
Originally posted June 9th

I’m always surprised when customers ask us where we buy our clothes. It occurs to me that most people don’t know, and that there was a time that I, myself didn’t know where great stores procured all their fabulous merchandise.

I guess I always imagined specialty store buyers to be great world travelers who visited New York and Paris fashion houses, picking through racks stuffed with the latest runway couture and returning home to stock their shelves with their latest discoveries.

It seemed so glamorous.

The truth is that buying is a fun, frenzied, nerve-wracking, knuckle-cracking adrenaline high not unlike high-stakes gambling in Vegas - but the high-rise fashion markets in downtown LA that tower over the alleys crowded with black-market DVD hustlers and counterfeit Louis Vuitton sellers are much different than the Parisian fashion lofts of my imagination.

Don’t get me wrong – we love our jobs – but buying isn’t shopping. It is with this in mind that we bring you our on-line buying diary.

We will include daily entries of our trips, including photos of upcoming deliveries (when available) and a list of our favorite things from the best pair of jeans to the most fabulous cocktail dress for the holidays. And since we do most of our buying at least 4-6 months ahead of time, you’ll get the latest information on upcoming trends and sneak peeks at the hottest new merchandise.

So, enjoy this page – and if you see something you think you can’t live without, feel free to send us an email and pre-order your object of desire. We will make sure we have your size on order and hold it for you when it arrives in our store!*

*We will hold unpaid pre-orders for up to 24 hours. Paid pre-orders will be held up to 30 days or shipped to you at your mailing address.

Upcoming Trends for this Holiday Season:

Victorian Sleeves (long, puffed sleeves gathered at wrist)
Cigarette-leg pants
Super wide-leg pants / palazzo pants
Vests layered w/ ruffled collars underneath
Plush, feminine, rich fabrics – yum!

June Market:

June 7th, 2006: Day 1:

It used to take about an hour or an hour and a half to get from Temecula/Murrieta to LA. Today it’s going to take two and a half. The 91 freeway is a notorious ball-up of four lanes merging to one at one of the busiest freeway exchanges in the universe. By the time we reach our destination, we are an hour late for our first appointment.

In addition to being exhausted from fighting traffic, we are winding down from our Starbucks-induced high and starting to feel tired from early morning wake up calls from our kids. Leigh’s baby, Grace is a 9-month “mini-me” replica of her mom, including everything from eye color to energy level and lately is not requiring much sleep (at least at night). Leigh is sleep-deprived. But at least being awake at all hours gives her the extra time she needs to finalize buying budgets and the employee schedule for the store.

My girl, Abbey is a bit older but no less sleep-dependant. She, too has been up since before dawn and I have not had enough coffee.

When we arrive in LA’s fashion district, it is buzzing with the beautiful people – reps and buyers are swarming for coffee and bagels wearing up-to-the-minute trends. Everyone looks great and no one appears to be trying. Market is not good for anyone low on self-esteem or experiencing any symptoms of PMS.

Our first meeting is to see True Religion. It’s easy to write the orders because we love everything. True Religion is so successful at Tangerine because they always offer new styles, fabrics, colors, etc.. and discontinue the old, so it’s more collection-based than some of the other denim lines. With True Religion, if you don’t get it when you want it, is will be gone, never to return – but don’t worry, something just as good or better is always available in the next delivery. We write a pretty good order and move on.

Also on today agenda is: Nanette Lepore, Trina Turk, Wendy Hil, Diane Von Furstenburg, James Perse, Isabella Fiore, Splendid, and a few others.

We are seeing deliveries that will ship from October – December. My favorite thing from the whole day is a fabulous strapless toile cocktail dress from Nanette Lepore. I order one for myself. Leigh’s choice du jour is James Perses’ amazing cashmere sweaters. We order sparingly, as the price point isn’t cheap, but it’s worth it. We order each style for ourselves. (Ok, so there are benefits to our jobs!)

We knock off early and head to our hotel room in Pasadena. It’s our first time not staying in downtown LA (one of our reps tells us that all the hotel rooms were booked because of the Gay Pride weekend).

Pasadena is beautiful. We are staying here from now on. Colorado Street has tons of great-looking restaurants and cute boutiques, etc.. We visit lots of stores and get our father’s day shopping done before meeting up with our long-time friend, former employee and now-store-owner in Bend, Oregon – April Lawyer. We are supposed to go to some restaurant owned by J-Lo, but we are all tired and not feeling like we’re dressed appropriately to go anywhere affiliated with J-Lo, so we head to the nearest cute-looking upstairs restaurant.

Dinner and a few drinks later, it’s bed time. We miss our kids. One more night and then we get to go home.

Day Two – Thursday, June 8

7:00 am: One of the things we seem to overlook about living in the Inland Valley is the eternal sunshine. It’s not quite raining this morning in Pasadena, but it’s not not raining, either. The marine layer is so thick that it is actually causing condensation in the form of raindrops. We go running anyway. Not a huge run, but just enough to shake off what’s left of the best night’s sleep either one of us have had in months (ie: kid-free sleep). Anyway, we figure we have tons of time before our first appointment, so we can enjoy a leisurely morning.

8:30 am: There is no way we are going to make it to our first appointment on time. The ten-mile drive from Pasadena to downtown LA has taken 30 minutes so far, and we’re barely half way there. So much for staying in Pasadena from now on.

9:30 am: We decide to skip our first few appointments, thinking we can make them up later in the month. We head straight to the Findings Showroom in the Cooper Building. We love everything in this showroom, so it’s easy to write our orders. We also visit June, Michele Mason, and Development before heading to the New Mart for the rest of the day. We have about a dozen more appointments, writing heavy sweaters, velvet jackets and long, heavy jeans – it’s almost 100 degrees outside.

Most showrooms usually close around 5pm, but it’s market so everyone’s there late. duck out early for an important errand.

6:30 pm: The Guitar Center in Pasadena is a long, low building with blackened windows that takes up nearly half a city block. There is a small gathering of would-be derelicts and homeless loitering outside when we park. The staff (as well as today’s customer base) is composed entirely of fringy-looking men who (judging by appearance only) would either be roadies for hard-core rock bands, owners of tattoo parlors, or doing time in prison. It is here where I witness the best customer service I have ever seen in my life.

Before Leigh even opens her mouth to request the $3000 guitar she is giving her husband for his first father’s day, she is surrounded by a flock of pierced, tattooed guitar experts offering help. Within minutes, their scary façade melts away and they all resemble every boy I had a crush on in college. They are friendly, knowledgeable, cute-in-a-punk-rock-kind-of-way and they are hanging on every word that comes out of Leigh’s mouth. They are charming. I make mental notes on their excellent customer service techniques.

Leigh shells out the three grand and we’re on our way to dinner in one of Pasadena’s very cute outdoor cafes and then back to the hotel for another night of uninterrupted sleep.

Day Three: Friday, June 9:

We’ve gotten so much done (and spent so much money) that we cancel our hotel reservation for Monday night and put today’s agenda on fast-forward.

We write Taverniti (pronounced ta-ver-nee-tee), People’s Liberation (cute gold stitching and rhinestones for holiday). I am personally ready to move on from “bling”, but it still does great for us, so we order plenty. Rock & Republic is also offering a very cute, (very expensive), “pyramid stud” jean & mini skirt. We order both. They are irresistible. We pick up a new line for us, Bamboo Tiger – kind of a cross between Twill 22 & Da Nang. Cute and wearable.

We visit our friend (and possibly first rep ever), Deborah in the Sabrina Showroom. She is also a new mom, so we talk about mom-stuff and then finally write something. We love her.

Our True Religion rep has jumped ship and gone to rep a new line called Ya-Ya, so we go to visit her and end up writing an order. Very cute and different. They also offer a price-point line called “love by ya-ya”, also very cute. We write that, too.

By this time, we feel so tired I think we would write anything – but we feel good about our choices and we move on.

Next we visit the baby floors to scope out any new baby or maternity goodies for our small but growing baby/maternity section. We breeze through that and head to grab some pizza.

Starving/tired and homesick for the kids, we decide to pack it in and take the weekend off. We will head back on Monday and tie up any loose ends.

We feel good about this buying trip. It’s sometimes hard to keep your head on straight when surrounded with such a barrage of cute things and sometimes-pushy sales reps, but we are confident in our choices this time.

Stay tuned for the diary of our next buying trips to LA and then to Vegas in August.