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We’re beginning a BIG week here at FF… The final NEXT BIG THING item has just debuted and the voting booth officially opens Wednesday, July 2nd. To celebrate, we have decided to offer FREE SHIPPING THIS WEEK ONLY!
So, if you’ve seen some things you like over the last month of interviews, this is a great time to support these 27 superRAD up-and-coming designers from around the world. CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE NEW ITEMS>>>>
This is a very special free ship party cuz there’s NO MINIMUM PURCHASE. (Usually you have to spend like $20 bucks.) Simply enter the discount code “bigbang” at checkout to save $7.95 towards shipping. This offer is not valid on sale, warehouse pickups or pre-orders and it can’t be combined with any other. Hurry! This FREE SHIPPING party comes to a close Monday, July 7th.
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I can’t believe it but here we are with our 27th and final NEXT BIG THING feature! We wanted to save something real special and unique for the end and so today we present you with Ruffeo Hearts Lil’ Snotty’s mad rad neck’in brace. RHLS is Brooklyn design duo and ones-to-watch Mackswell Sherman and Sarah Jones. Learn more about these two inventors gone wild!
Tell us more about your unique item.
The neck’in brace is essentially a fanny pack for your face! Has a pocket for cell, iPod, etc. and it’s made from organic raw denim. Yes, this thing both looks kool and has serious utilablity. It is flashy fun function.
What’s this new biz model you’re working on with other local artists?
It’s called PARACHUTE. It’s a wonderful rubix cube re-arranging and bangin’ the cottage industry to a still ethical yet competitive w/ mainstream industry model. Our mottos are SHOP LOCAL, UPCYCLING & CO-PRODUCTION.
So SHOP LOCAL means working with existing retail venues, but also creating a fresh new relationship with your immediate community. The RHLS submotto is “FRIENDSHIPS = MARKETING SCHEMES.” We wanna know you, we want your inseam dimensions!!! We want you to come into our Redhook location and get your custom pattern made so we can make you the perfect garment for the rest of your life, updating your pattern as you work out and your quads get all exploding…
UPCYCLING… We are making the connections to get that garbage fabric and cut it into pure crystals. We take the fishheads of Willy Wonka (version 1) and transform them into DIVA Shell pealing back banana jokes (Uh, that didn’t make sense… But you can piece together what we’re trying to say.)
CO-PRODUCTION… So there’s all these geniuses in one huge studio space and we workshop and seminar with each other. Calm, collected modest MEGA BRAINS like: Cubist Literature, Junk Prints, Desira Pesta, Ledthread, Misery and co, Sweetest Pea and Moon Tree Prints and a talented daredevil cyclist named Mike who krunks it up in 3D plus he’s the on-site carpenter and therapist. Then Rob waxes pure visionary structure and a mean guitar lick with really pretty singing.
What is the origin of your company’s name?
Ruffeo and Lil’ Snotty were secret code names to conceal our courtship from Sarah’s ex, Macks’ then roommate. They became official in anonymously left loveletters and muffeled messages on answering machines.
What are you all about?
Revolutionizing the clothing industry from the outside looking in and late nights of thinktanking while getting tanked.
What inspires you?
Transforming garbage into gorgeous functional gear, miraculous kindness & support from complete strangers and a little unknown beatmaker/rapper from Seattle named Joe Millionaire.
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Hello again BFFs! Little J blogging to let you know about another fab weekend of my summer in Michigan! This weekend was filled with nostalgia! I was over at my bestie Sam’s house for one of our favorite traditions from high school called Pizza Friday. Back in Junior year, every Friday night before the Varsity football game, we would gather with our group of friends and eat pizza and just hang out. Well this past Friday we decided to have a little reunion and brought back Pizza Friday! It was so great to see some of my old Clarkston High friends and just hang out.
But the best part was after everyone else had left. Me and Sam decided to take a trip down memory lane and bust out all the movies and cds of our favorite set of twins…THE OLSENS! We’re both HUGE Olsen fans [as is Jen!] and I just so happen to own EVERY Olsen twin movie, including So Little Time on VHS and their Greatest Hits cds. So we grabbed our Starbucks, put on our oversized sunglasses and started the Olsen-tastic Twin fest with Our First Video, featuring my personal fav “One Buffalo, Two Buffali”!
And then it was off to the Wild West, Paris, Austrailia, London, Atlantis, Rome, and New York City with MKA as our personal tour guides! Seriously, the Olsen twins brought so much to my life in the 90’s, I know how to spell “pizza” only because of the song “Gimme Pizza”. So if you find yourself home on a Friday night, order some pizza and get out those sunglasses because You’re Invited and if it’s up to me, you’ll RSVP!
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It’s been a few years since Keith and I stood on 5th Ave to watch the ever entertaining Gay Pride Parade. We finally made it this year only to have like a giant summer rainstorm hit us… But that certainly didn’t detour the gays from showing their pride… It just turned into one giant wet t-shirt contest! Uh huh, just image what we saw! MeWOW! But seriously, I had the best weekend. On Firday we had our BBQ, then on Saturday Keith I went up to Chappaqua to visit my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jim then the Pride Parade yesterday… Phew, it was a mayjahly boosy weekend. What did y’all do?
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I know, I know, it seems like you all just got outta school like a minute ago but the big Fall / Back to School season kicks off here at ff.com in about 2 weeks. Shocking, riiight?!? Well, tool-tailer Sears is already on top of it with a new campaign and website starring High School Musical starlet Vanessa Hudgens. I’m not the hugest Vanessa fan… For obvz reason (she’s in my way to get to Zac) but I do think she looks kinda adorbz in these pics. Check out the special Sears site for more looks AND a chance to win a special Vanessa performance… Um, AT YOUR SCHOOL!!!
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Oh, I’ve really been trying to steer clear of blogging about Amy Winehouse this year. It just breaks my heart to even look at her. But I was happy to hear that she’s actually been performing again recently. First, she did a surprise gig at Nelson Mandela’s 89th birthday celebration last week and then she performed at the UK’s Glastonbury Festival this weekend. You know she just got outta the hospital after being treated for emphyzema related to smoking cigz and crack. I’m glad to see she’s singing again, but girlicious couldn’t stay outta trubz for long. She insulted Kanye West while on stage and then punched a fan in the face. Oh Amy… Get off the junk!
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Today’s NEXT BIG THING entry is brought to us by our Northerly neighbor Colleen Baran from Vancouver, BC. She makes the framework series ring no. 23, reminiscent of an engagement ring that captures the beauty of negative space. Where’s the romance in that, you ask? Well, let’s ask a designer who is currently collecting old love letters for inspiration.
You started your business very young, yes?
For as long as I can remember, I used to make a bit of everything. I made clothes, painted, drew, wrote, cooked, did photography, etc. But it was jewelry that always pulled me back and drew me in. I started selling it when I was 15. It was my money for coffee, books, clothes, and fun stuff as a teenager. Now that I’m (ahem) “grown-up” it’s my main love and focus but it’s only in the last four or so years that I’ve been working on it solidly. Since then I’ve exhibited in 11 countries and have been published in a couple others. It’s not that I’m not still excited by making clothes and the like, but I can make jewelry all day, every day, and still be excited and inspired, and it will be the first thing I look at. I suppose it was around the time that I realized this that I became serious about it. I think it’s like one day looking over at your best friend and realizing you’re in love.
Tell us more about your Framework jewelry series.
The Framework series is inspired by the idea of negative space and space as a jewel. Like little outlines or drawings in metal, framing your finger. It’s light and simple and wearable and yet quirky and looks a little different from every angle. I like the Framework ring #23 for so many reasons. It’s like a string tied around your finger yet reminds me somehow of an engagement ring. It’s also an interesting little shape on its own & almost doesn’t immediately look like a ring when you see it off the hand.
What inspires you?
I’m inspired by life in general. Plants, shapes of buildings, shapes of the body, hands, books, music, everything. Things that make me happy make me inspired. Ideas come from a little bit of everywhere and I carry a notebook to jot them down. (Actually my current one is by Jill Bliss and carried on fredflare.com! Love, love her notebooks!) But mostly I’m inspired by the actual Making of things. Shapes & ideas usually evolve while I have tools and materials in my hands.
Do you have any particular goals for your business this year?
My general goals over the next year are to make lovely things, to develop exciting ideas and then to see where that goes. More fixed plans include work for upcoming exhibitions, honing my color photography skills, exploring more green/environmentally friendly materials and further developing a few new lines. A project that is related to some of my jewelry is my collection of love stories. And also a few big goals that are secret because I’m a little superstitious sometimes…
A collection of love stories?
I love collecting things (sunglasses, jewelry, dishes, books, etc.) and have recently started collecting love stories to be used in art projects, jewelry, and possibly a book. It’s where my loves sort of cross over and overlap. For my ‘Like Wearing a Love Letter’ series I wanted to make jewelry that was that was just that - like wearing a love letter. Like wearing a dream or a memory of a thought of love. And what better way to add to this project then to use real stories of real love! True love! True heartbreak! Mad passionate love! All of it. So I’ve been collecting love letters and stories internationally. They are amazing! Some have even made me cry. So far I have collected from Canada, Spain, the UK, USA, Denmark and Columbia in English and Spanish but I want them from many, many more countries. Because the whole world is full of love!
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Once upon a time in a place far away lived a young man who wanted to own his own business. So he rented a storefront, painted the entrance silver, and had a woodworker create a sign for above the door. He held writing workshops and art exhibits and Kool-Aid parties. And when the last guest went home, he retired to his one room apartment in the back.
In time, the young man moved on, but some of his friends took over the business from him. So the entrance remained silver and the sign “BUILD” remained in place as a reminder of what we all need to do. . .
I found this picture quite by chance. Not able to think of anything to write about this Sunday morning, I decided to reach into one of my many boxes of photos and blog about whatever piece of nostalgia I pulled out. Given that fred flare is getting ready to open a retail store this year, the photo seems particularly appropriate.
It was fifteen years ago this year in San Francisco that Keith opened Build.
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Such a big week! We had the BBQ and the new boombox and more NBT’s and of course… WE ALL GOT HAIRCUTS! Yep! Here they are! The new and improved gals of ff! Don’t we all look CRAZY in the before pics?! I’m loving all the shorter, cuter, zexier do’s! We weren’t the only ff peeps to get our hur did. Mo and Chris both took the plunge this week too! I wish we had b4 and after pics of them! oh well, at least they get an honorable mention. I wonder who will be next? Diane? Keith? CHOP CHOP!
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Today’s NEXT BIG THING feature is the the pink polka dot playsuit from Connecticut’s Kelly Eident of I’m Your Present! Kelly’s birthday is TODAY June 28th, so let’s wish her a happy birthday, and if she asks what we got her we’ll just jump and scream, “We’re your present!” But try not to spill your strawberry champagne, okay? We just had the carpets cleaned.
I think it’s amazing how quickly you can make stuff. Can you talk about that? What’s the most you’ve ever sewed in a day?
I have gotten a lot quicker just from doing it everyday! When I first started, I definitely couldn’t make more than one dress a day… and I would do things like turn the whole garment inside out just to sew on a cuff or sew a sleeve in backwards and have to redo it. But now I work a lot more efficiently so I can produce a lot more… But it’s hard to say a specific amount in one day. I have days where I start like 20 pieces and then finish them at random. The craziest days are when I have to finish the zillion things I started, like before a craft fair or right before I leave for a trip.
Describe the I’M YOUR PRESENT girl…
She loves picking out outfits, putting on makeup, gushing about crushes with her best friend… she loves pink, frills, hearts, ruffles and bows! She is totally girly but at the same time is a little sexy and tough. She’s quirky, fun, confident, playful. She turns heads… okay, maybe every other head. She’s a femme fatale and she’s got a few tricks up her pink lace trimmed sleeve. She’s a wolverine in sheep’s clothing!
What inspires you?
Materials like crazy ruffly trims, fabrics, pearls, charms. Kitschy things, crazy prom dresses, elaborate cakes, fancy dogs, presents, vintage clothing, Japanese street fashion, dance wear, Francesca Lia Block books, runway fashion, my friends… myself. I mostly have an idea of what I want to be wearing at the moment and try and make it.
Do you have any particular business goals this year?
I do set a ton of goals for myself but it is so hard to imagine a year! Usually its like, I want to get X done this week and then I work crazy hard and do it… or most of it. I’ve been really focused on Etsy, but I am dying to do get my stuff in some other shops/boutiques. I also really want to do some fun photo shoots this year, something I can be proud of rather than automatic timer shoots of myself at 1am trying to get through a pile of clothing!
How did the name come about?
I’m not really sure. I think I was just tossing around ideas for an Etsy shop name and I somewhat randomly picked this, before I even had a vision of what my shop or brand would become. But I love the name and am so happy I picked it. I think it describes my brand’s aesthetic and attitude perfectly. Everything is shiny, pretty, girly and wrapped up with a bow. You can show up to a party empty-handed in a cute playsuit and when someone asks what you got them exclaim, “I’m Your Present!” while jumping out of a gigantic cake and spilling strawberry champagne everywhere.
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Happy Boombox day! We have TWO new boombox playlists! DJ Chauntizzle is bumpin’ to those sweet beats & crazy tunes! And the Staff mix is choc-ful-o-fun! We’ve mixed it up with some oldies but goodies and threw in some new hot fresh tracks straight up out the oven!
Now it’s time for my fave part! Since we have a new staff mix, I have a CONTEST for ya’ll! Since we all picked at least one song on the staff mix, you have to match one song to EACH flare! If you get it right, you’ll have a chance at WINNNING a $25 FF.COM GIFT CERTIFICATE! Here are your peeps: Robyn, Jen, Mo, Chaunté, Chris & Keith! LET THE GAMES BEGIN! Winner will be picked Monday, June 30th. RAWK’IT!
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Today’s NEXT BIG THING item traveled to us all the way from Singapore! True story, the shipment was covered in stickers from the Department of Agriculture, who had opened the box and inspected it searching for who knows what. I would have paid money to see the look on the inspector’s face to discover the box filled with Mimipong’s hug your sorrow tear dolls. These plush pick-me-ups are the brainchild of Mimi Lijun who says to think of them as a get well soon card that you can hug. Read more!
Tell us more about this unique item.
Hug your sorrow is more than just a plush! We all have moments when we’re down in the dumps, shedding a tear or too… or some big buckets of them. This doll allows you to write down that nasty thing that has made you sad on the embroidered tag and then give it a big hug for comfort! It’s like a sad page out of your own dairy that you can HUG or a comfort gift to a friend, like get well card. I think fred flare products are always reminders of happiness which is great! So in contrast, here is a product that tells us that even when things go wrong, everything will get better again.
How did you first get started?
Mimipong has existed in my brain for a long time. I have a full time job as an art director in advertising and, while brainstorming for commercial ideas, I would sometimes sneak into Mimipong and start daydreaming about ideas that make me smile instead. So when my first project was realized, Mimipong moved out of my brain and into my studio space/bedroom. It’s really just a playground for me to produce the things I like.
Growing up, did you dream of becoming a designer?
I grew up above my Grandad’s textile shop, so that’s where I hung out everyday as a kid, running my fingers through bails of fabrics and examining the patterns. I took a design BA in London for 3 years. Being in London, going to markets and museums, gigs and traveling out to Europe has shaped me quite a bit.
What inspires you?
I like listening to stories and I am fascinated by human emotions and memories. I love sewing and patterns and textiles. I also love art, gardening, love, indiepop music, traveling, observing people, picnics, happy chats, good sashimi and cute boys…
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Obsessed much? What can I say? I can’t help it… I could just stare at the Gossip Girl kids all day long. They’re that hawt. Yes, the cast has been filming in the Hamptons (I’m still kinda shocked that they’re back at work) and yes, I did see Taylor on the “L” train but now it’s time to celebrate Wicked Westwick, again! It’s Eddie’s bday today AND he’s legal. Today is Ed Westwick’s 21st birthday and what better way to celebrate than to “kick” it back on the beach. Happy Bday Ed, we love you, you effer!
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I am so excited about this. Yes, the most famous waterfalls are in New York… State that is. But now NYC is about to give Niagra Falls a run for its money. Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has just completed and launched his “New York City Waterfall” project. The $15 million water feature consists of 4 “waterfall” sculptures in the rivers around lower Manhattan. The most exciting one is nestled underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Keith and I usually head up to visit Anne in Michigan for the 4th of July, but since she’s selling the river house (mayjah tears) and we’re getting ready to sign the lease for store #1, we figured we’d better stick around. So, you know what I’ll be doing on the 4th… Chasing waterfalls! The “falls” run until mid-October.
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Check out 1/2 of our fave O-List twins, Mary-Kate at the NYC premiere of her new film The Wackness. MaK left the plaid flannel at home and opted for not one, but two outfits to rawk on the red carpz. Two oufits?!? Yes, two… And I swear the other one isn’t Ashley! I have to admit, I love MaKie but I think both of her looks are kinda wack! They both kinda make her look like a no-neck munchkin… Whoops, shoulda stuck with the grunge fest, Mar. Juss Sayin’! Whatday’all prefer?!? Floral mini or white robe?
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