We're preparing for our first jewelry trunk show in Toronto at a retail store, Avenue Couture, in the fancy Yorkville section of Toronto. This is exciting because it will be the first show handled by our new Director of Sales and Marketing based in New York, Marlene. She's been doing a great job so far and I'm quite confident she will represent the Liz Mannette brand well in Toronto.
With the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of visitors going to Toronto for Caribana, we are certain that those who love steelpan music will be happy to know they can finally buy the pieces in Toronto.
So this is the beginning of our trunk shows - where we go to a store or area, for a few days and display the Collection. This is all a prelude to a permanent location serving the folks in Canada. So stay tuned for more.
liz
Showing posts with label Toronto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toronto. Show all posts
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
My first runway show
Last weekend was my first runway show where my accessories were being featured. With seasoned (some 20 year veterans) designers from Trinidad in Toronto for the Caribbean event called "Cuttin Style", the Liz Mannette Collection was under the bright lights for the first time.
Going to the fittings, the rehearsal and being backstage were all new experiences for me. And getting such great feedback and positive comments from the back stage staff and the models about my jewelry was also wonderful.
So what was it like. All the designers seemed quite organized, with their dresses and outfits all laid out, with the names of the models in the order of appearance. The makeup artist team was in one corner, and the hair stylist team in another corner. Some water over in one corner, and then Liz Mannette accessories laid out at another end, right before the models exited the dressing room. Although the plan was to see them all dressed and decide how to add the pieces, I could tell this good plan would not work. So while the models were getting dressed, while some were getting their make-up redone, or others were being fitted with head pieces, I made my way around the dressing room with earrings and pendants.
The Fashion Coordinator, a large funny guy by the name of Richard Young, was in charge, and suggested that one area be adorned with accessories for each line. So for the opening designer, Simply Garnet, who had interesting casual and elegant styles in black and white, I opted for earrings only. This was thrown off a bit by the two male models whose tunics cried out to be accented with our pendants. But in general the range of earrings was a good fit for Simply Garnet. Photos will be on the site soon.
Then with Robert Young of The Cloth, a friend for several years, the pendants and wrist pieces were used. The Cloth's production was different. He wanted fun, enthusiasm and playfullness on the runway. So the models wore ponytails and were asked to skip and dance along the runway. Good for him. Who says a fashion show has to be all dour faced models. (As Tyra Banks once said on her America's Next Top Model Show, look like your dog just died). Fortunately, Liz Mannette jewelry adorned happy faced models, which is a Caribbean runway style, I was told.
So the jewelry was worn with two of the designers. And I learned to always take the smallest sized pieces. The girls did have remarkably thin wrists!
Just before the end of the show, I was asked to greet and wave to the audience. So this, folks, was my first runway wave. Well, I didn't quite walk the full runway. I just walked to the front and did a wave while the sparkly MC told the audience a bit about the jewelry collection. So there it is. My first runway experience. Many lessons learned for the next time. Bring an assistant. Bring my own snacks (for outside the dressing room of course). Bring the smallest items for thin wrist models. Speak directly to designers in advance, and even look at sketches to see what the Collection is all about. And have my camera or iphone with me to take stills or short videos as the accessories are added.
Going to the fittings, the rehearsal and being backstage were all new experiences for me. And getting such great feedback and positive comments from the back stage staff and the models about my jewelry was also wonderful.
So what was it like. All the designers seemed quite organized, with their dresses and outfits all laid out, with the names of the models in the order of appearance. The makeup artist team was in one corner, and the hair stylist team in another corner. Some water over in one corner, and then Liz Mannette accessories laid out at another end, right before the models exited the dressing room. Although the plan was to see them all dressed and decide how to add the pieces, I could tell this good plan would not work. So while the models were getting dressed, while some were getting their make-up redone, or others were being fitted with head pieces, I made my way around the dressing room with earrings and pendants.
The Fashion Coordinator, a large funny guy by the name of Richard Young, was in charge, and suggested that one area be adorned with accessories for each line. So for the opening designer, Simply Garnet, who had interesting casual and elegant styles in black and white, I opted for earrings only. This was thrown off a bit by the two male models whose tunics cried out to be accented with our pendants. But in general the range of earrings was a good fit for Simply Garnet. Photos will be on the site soon.
Then with Robert Young of The Cloth, a friend for several years, the pendants and wrist pieces were used. The Cloth's production was different. He wanted fun, enthusiasm and playfullness on the runway. So the models wore ponytails and were asked to skip and dance along the runway. Good for him. Who says a fashion show has to be all dour faced models. (As Tyra Banks once said on her America's Next Top Model Show, look like your dog just died). Fortunately, Liz Mannette jewelry adorned happy faced models, which is a Caribbean runway style, I was told.
So the jewelry was worn with two of the designers. And I learned to always take the smallest sized pieces. The girls did have remarkably thin wrists!
Just before the end of the show, I was asked to greet and wave to the audience. So this, folks, was my first runway wave. Well, I didn't quite walk the full runway. I just walked to the front and did a wave while the sparkly MC told the audience a bit about the jewelry collection. So there it is. My first runway experience. Many lessons learned for the next time. Bring an assistant. Bring my own snacks (for outside the dressing room of course). Bring the smallest items for thin wrist models. Speak directly to designers in advance, and even look at sketches to see what the Collection is all about. And have my camera or iphone with me to take stills or short videos as the accessories are added.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Twitter and Toronto
To those who are into Twitter, I've started sending Tweets of my daily adventures in the world of jewelry design and running a new business. And of course, when I travel, it will be even more exciting as then all my staff etc can get continuous updates of what's going on with me.
Hey. We'll be back in Toronto in two weeks. This for the Caribbean Fashion Gala on Sept 27th. Liz Mannette Collection will be on the runway with top fashion designers from Trinidad and Tobago. This will be our first major fashion event where the full Collection will be profiled and promoted. So, I'm quite excited about this as it will be great exposure, and practice for when I do my first major show.
We'll also be organizing one or two private showings while there and hopefully we can reconnect with the friends we met on our last trip to Toronto during the Caribana celebrations. I think we're close to getting into a Toronto retailer, which is the goal after all is said and done.
Maybe I can even visit some Toronto sites and have some fun while I'm there.
Hey. We'll be back in Toronto in two weeks. This for the Caribbean Fashion Gala on Sept 27th. Liz Mannette Collection will be on the runway with top fashion designers from Trinidad and Tobago. This will be our first major fashion event where the full Collection will be profiled and promoted. So, I'm quite excited about this as it will be great exposure, and practice for when I do my first major show.
We'll also be organizing one or two private showings while there and hopefully we can reconnect with the friends we met on our last trip to Toronto during the Caribana celebrations. I think we're close to getting into a Toronto retailer, which is the goal after all is said and done.
Maybe I can even visit some Toronto sites and have some fun while I'm there.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Toronto was a hit
Well, all I can say is that Toronto was a smashing success. We organized our exhibit at York U and we were able to meet and interact with many researchers, writers, academics on mas, pan and Carnival. It was also good for me to see the slide show presentation on the history of steelband by Kim Johnson. Kim and I used to be neighbors in Trinidad, but this was actually my first time listening to him share his great knowledge on pan. We are trying to get that slideshow and some of his images for our pan project---more on that later.
We also ran into mas man extraordinaire Peter Minshall, who was quite happy to see our Collection of steelpan items in precious metals, and our product brochure which showed the link between the pan and piano. And we will be inviting him to our launch of our next Collection closer to Christmas. Ray Funk was also at the conference. Ray has been researching calypso for years, and now he told me he will be focusing on the steelpan. I do look forward to working with him in the future. And Dr. Keith Nurse of UWI spoke on the potential for Carnival and cultural industries, which set me thinking of what we can do to be an example for other companies in this sector. I'm already looking forward to collaborating with him.
Of course, the main item on the agenda for the Thursday (July 31st) night was the Kings and Queen's competition at the Caribana festival and our promotions. We were offering all registrants from Toronto the chance to win a free trip to Trinidad for Panorama 2009. So we had our hundreds of nicely designed postcards and positioned ourselves strategically at the gate to ensure all patrons received one. We had to compete with folks giving out free bandanas, free whistles, free water and a chance to win a free diamond. This was our first time doing this sort of public promotion and while the 1500 - 2000 people at the event were Caribbean Diaspora, I'm not sure we will do this kind of promotion again.
Things were a bit different on the Friday night, which was the Pan Alive competition. This was for the true, true pan people and so we had donated one of our signature pieces, the sterling silver basspan bracelet (retail value US$200) as a door prize. We still distributed the postcards (because we had almost 5000) as people entered. In general, I found almost 85% of those approached were receptive and polite. Was it the pan people, or the Canadians, I wondered? Anyway, we did have the opportunity to give our promotional message to the audience as we did the door prize. Next time we have to have a big banner on stage with us.
Hey, be sure to visit the Toronto page for photos of the exhibit, the door prize and other fun things from Caribana.
Most important for us, and for all our supporters in Toronto, we made contact with someone who will be helping us get into retailers in Toronto. So soon we will have a big announcement of locations where the Collection can be purchased!!! This is great.
And, more good news. The Liz Mannette Collection was invited to participate in the Caribbean Week Fashion Gala happening on Sept 27th. So I will definitely be visiting Toronto very soon and very often.
Thanks to all of those who made this Toronto Caribana launch a success. My marketing assistant Carlene worked so hard to get our exhibit together and my sis Bernadette came up from New York to give some support. We have a great team here.
So now, it is on to the next gathering of pan people...in Japan, UK and the US.
It can be tiring, but I'm having a great time.
We also ran into mas man extraordinaire Peter Minshall, who was quite happy to see our Collection of steelpan items in precious metals, and our product brochure which showed the link between the pan and piano. And we will be inviting him to our launch of our next Collection closer to Christmas. Ray Funk was also at the conference. Ray has been researching calypso for years, and now he told me he will be focusing on the steelpan. I do look forward to working with him in the future. And Dr. Keith Nurse of UWI spoke on the potential for Carnival and cultural industries, which set me thinking of what we can do to be an example for other companies in this sector. I'm already looking forward to collaborating with him.
Of course, the main item on the agenda for the Thursday (July 31st) night was the Kings and Queen's competition at the Caribana festival and our promotions. We were offering all registrants from Toronto the chance to win a free trip to Trinidad for Panorama 2009. So we had our hundreds of nicely designed postcards and positioned ourselves strategically at the gate to ensure all patrons received one. We had to compete with folks giving out free bandanas, free whistles, free water and a chance to win a free diamond. This was our first time doing this sort of public promotion and while the 1500 - 2000 people at the event were Caribbean Diaspora, I'm not sure we will do this kind of promotion again.
Things were a bit different on the Friday night, which was the Pan Alive competition. This was for the true, true pan people and so we had donated one of our signature pieces, the sterling silver basspan bracelet (retail value US$200) as a door prize. We still distributed the postcards (because we had almost 5000) as people entered. In general, I found almost 85% of those approached were receptive and polite. Was it the pan people, or the Canadians, I wondered? Anyway, we did have the opportunity to give our promotional message to the audience as we did the door prize. Next time we have to have a big banner on stage with us.
Hey, be sure to visit the Toronto page for photos of the exhibit, the door prize and other fun things from Caribana.
Most important for us, and for all our supporters in Toronto, we made contact with someone who will be helping us get into retailers in Toronto. So soon we will have a big announcement of locations where the Collection can be purchased!!! This is great.
And, more good news. The Liz Mannette Collection was invited to participate in the Caribbean Week Fashion Gala happening on Sept 27th. So I will definitely be visiting Toronto very soon and very often.
Thanks to all of those who made this Toronto Caribana launch a success. My marketing assistant Carlene worked so hard to get our exhibit together and my sis Bernadette came up from New York to give some support. We have a great team here.
So now, it is on to the next gathering of pan people...in Japan, UK and the US.
It can be tiring, but I'm having a great time.
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