Pre-view of Fall Inspiration

Everyone always wants to know: What is your inspiration?

It's always a funny question to me because so many things inspire me, but because I try to avoid being too trendy, it's always a hard question to answer.  I consider my collection timeless classic pieces that will always stand the "test of time".

But in light of the question, here's my best answer:

Being a So Cal girl, color has always been a part of my life, EVERY season.  Moving to the Midwest, I've had to change that a little.  And I've actually had more fun finding inspiration for fall than I thought I would.  Growing up in the 70's (yes I am officially old), I can't help but remember the  browns, mustards, olives and oranges of the decade, from mixing them with your clothes to even wallpaper (yes, our walls and even our door had wallpaper.)  Believe it or not, I still love those colors, as well as, burgundies and vintage blues. These are perfect for our Liberation Collection.

Besides being inspired by color, one of my favorite movies of the decade was the iconic Annie Hall, Diane Keaton wore menswear so effortlessly and I loved that...from houndstooth to wool blends to tweeds.

Not having a design background, I always just pull inspiration from within and get so excited when I see that my gut instinct is usually right on track.  So when I saw this "Talking Tweed" promo on style.com for Fall 2012, I couldn't help but smile.

Our Fall collection is a 70's and menswear inspired line, honoring houndstooth and shaggy wools to the vivid colors in my memory of my youth. (I just wish I had a picture of the butterfly wallpaper covering our door to share with you!)

Plan.Shop.Post.Click!

Our Marketing lady, Blue, may have gone into some details on our fabulous photo shoot from Sunday, but I am going to reveal the truth.  The dirty details. What really goes on in planning a photo shoot before we hit the set.

I’ve done a couple photo shoots in the past for creative assignments, but I have never been a part of a Brynn Capella shoot…it was definitely an entertaining but crazy ride.

First, I collaborated with the amazing Allison (our PR intern) to research trends of the 70’s as well as determining what approach we should take to suggest that era without duplicating it in a cheesy way.  After we formed our concept board, we set off to the best part- SHOPPING. 

Brynn put a lovely dent in her credit card limit at Nordstrom and Anthropologie, but we got some great pieces for our models including high-waisted pants, loose tops, and other menswear-inspired outfits.  Paired with the array of Brynn’s fall bags, and we were looking forward to some “shagalicious” photos.

Oh, but the ride was not over for me yet.  Because Brynn and I are type-A people on caffeine, we decided to make sheets of all of the outfits, with all of the bags, with all of the pose suggestions in neat little packets…and yes, that did take me FOREVER to complete because my boss always likes to make last minute adjustments to ensure perfection.  Love you Brynn ; )

On the day of the shoot, all of this hard work definitely paid off.  It was definitely the smoothest running shoot for Brynn so far, and I couldn’t help but smile at the final product that I helped create.

Fall 2012 Photo Shoot

Last Sunday was our photo shoot for our Fall 2012 Liberation Collection!  


So much planning goes into a photo shoot, that I didn't realize, from rounding up the perfect outfits to coordinating everyone's schedule.  With Chicago's finicky weather, we had to reschedule the shoot, originally planned for Saturday, due to the rain. Of course, with 0% mentioned, it still drizzled a little.  Ugh!  


But we were ecstatic to have our photo shoot nonetheless.  

 

Carla and Kelly were troopers changing on the streets of downtown and Nicole made their hair look beautiful!  The day started off at the Board of Trade and ended up all the way to the South Loop.

Brynn had a goal to have every bag in the collection shot with our two models Carla and Kelly.  So we had to be on it, getting the next outfit ready, so no time was wasted.

Aside from the cold weather, us girls were ready to face through it, strutting all around the loop in style! This four hour shoot was very fun and flirty! The energy that day was groovy and the bags never looked better!  It that was a great success! 

Spring is Almost Here

As the warm weather approaches, so do the new spring and summer bags. So that means it's time for Inventory day for the girls at Brynn Capella Inc.

Last Friday came and went so fast. It's actually amazing how many handbag bins fit in the office closet! After we took all the bins out, the main area was filled wall to wall with bags from season's past. It was fun seeing how much the line has evolved over the years. There were even some bags that we didn't realize were still in stock, as they aren't online anywhere. (I smell a new task a brewing.)

The morning was filled with counting every single bag and double checking our main inventory counts. After our quick Pizza lunch break, Brynn decided to have a fun session of researching names for the 70's inspired Fall 2012 Collection. From researching slang words (That's Dope, To The Max, Chill, Groovy, Foxy Mama), fashion trends (Bell Bottoms, Hot Pants, Menswear inspired) and popular movies (Annie Hall) and songs (Imagine, Heart of Glass, Brown Eyed Girl), we finally narrowed down our selections. Now besides Spring/Summer, I can't wait to see Fall too.

Lastly, we re-organizing the bins and shelves to make room for the new bags arriving soon.
I'm sure nothing will bring as much excitement to the intern girls once the new spring bags arrive! Fun bright colors to brighten the office, so as the days get warmer the anxiety grows!