She is Thankful ;) (The Vogue in Atlanta)

Happy Monday!!

Ok so this Monday I had to take a little break from my normal interviews because I was TOO excited about my weekend in Atlanta and really wanted to share.

Some of you may know that I am a jewelry designer and let me just say that being an entrepreneur while totally amazing is also totally exhausting. I work all the time…no seriously. I don’t watch TV, I barely go out but I really do enjoy what I do. But there are so many times when I wonder when will all my sleepless nights pay off in a huge way. I have been blessed for my line to be carried in a few boutiques in New York but its still a daunting task to have to pitch yourself at “open see” after “open see”.

So one of my good friends who also happens to be my web designer sent me an ad on craigslist for a department store that would be opening in the fall that would be featuring the top African American designers. First I was shocked, then I was leery, then I said ya know what, I am gonna step out on faith and go to ATL and see what it’s all about. So I did…I arrived in Atlanta on Thursday night.

I rented a car (thank god for GPS or I was calling her Caroline) and stayed with my cousin Morgan and her roommate Candace. They go to Spelman and live off campus in this really nice apartment. So I get to her apartment and spread out all of my jewels to be organized for Friday morning.

So Friday morning after a lovely bowl of cereal I start getting ready to go to the “open see”. For some of you who aren’t familiar, an “open see” is where I take my jewelry to the buyers for the store to see if they want to carry my line in their store. I knew I had to be extra stylish so I decided to wear this new royal purple balloon top, my “1805 Pocketbook Necklace”, skinny jeans, and these new tan tie up platform peep toe pumps. I looked very George Washington meets Vogue LOL.

I arrive at the store which is being renovated and had to stop and take a picture of the sign outside. This is history. There is not one department store thats focus is to feature Top African American designers….and this is an opportunity of a lifetime.

I walk in and set up the jewels on the table. After getting set up, I walked around and of course had to make friends/network with everyone there ☺. I met designers that had come from LA, NY, Tennesee…from all over just to try and get a chance to be a part of fashion history.

After a few hours it is finally time for the buyers to come around and make final decisions about who they were interested in and who would participate in the fashion show the next day. As they were making there way over to my table I was nervous. I hadn’t been nervous the whole time except for that moment LOL. The buyer came over and said “your in”. I WAS SOOO EXCITED. I passed phase one and I got to show my jewels in the fashion show the next day.

DAY OF THE SHOW

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 3:33 pm and is filed under SHE is Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.