The first year that I attempted to design accessories, I would sometimes hear from lovely ladies that my work was very Anthropologie. Not knowing what this Anthropologie was, I decided to take it as a nice compliment and continue creating as usual. While living in Portland, I discovered a catalog with the most exquisite treasures and absolutely gorgeous photographs of coveted creations. At that point everything made perfect sense and it was my goal to somehow connect with this ethereal company.
I am overwhelmed with glee to mention that the Rosette Fascinator is now a part of the Anthropologie catalog. It is called the Primrose Fascinator and it is available in Raspberry, which is actually The Valentine, and Gold, which is just a hair different than The Harvest.
Anthropologie contacted me in late February asking if I wanted to partner with them and discuss future possibilities of using one of my designs. They asked for samples of the Rosette Fascinator, which I happily sent, and after a brief waiting period, I received a promising proposition.
I was frightened and flattered at the same time, but after careful consideration and deliberation, I decided to take the offer. The initial order was for 50 fascinators, in two color ways, totaling 100 pieces to test on their website. If they would prove to be a success, they would order more to place in their top-selling stores around the country. I was overwhelmed, but confident I could make 100 of them. The very next day, they ordered 500, but I decided to stick with making only 100 pieces.
The order of 100 took a little over a month to complete, and as it is not always easy to make the same thing over and over, it was totally worth it. I have to give major credit to Nate for cutting all of the petals, all 800 of them, and snipping all of the threads, which I'm sure is into the thousands. He is amazing and I couldn't have done it without him! I also have to thank Nate's mom, Nancy, for sourcing + supplying the elastic headbands that I use to make the fascinators. Halfway through production I ran out of them and couldn't find them anywhere in Philly. For some reason, in the tiniest of towns in Vermont, she scored the motherload!
After the tracing, cutting, sewing, and snipping was all taken care of, the final step was packaging. Each fascinator had to be individually wrapped in protective plastic then shipped to Anthropologie's catalog warehouse for distribution. I decided to go a step further in the packaging process, because really, this was a chance of a lifetime and I wanted to make each and every one that much sweeter. I decided to use the ever-popular baker's twine, but in green + white, to string my hang tags and tie the elastic headbands with. I think it made such a difference and it was really fun to knot all of those adorable bows. I'm a huge fan of packaging + presentation and I'm so glad I added a little extra magic to each piece!
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This adventure has been a valuable learning experience and really is a dream come true for me + my tiny company to be included in such a lovely catalog of beautiful things!
