Day 1- Saturday Aug. 2
3:30 am- Alarm clock is going off after I only got about 2 hours of sleep. I was awake packing and getting folders ready for the trip.
6:00 am- I spot Holly and Dee from the kids team at Zappos and they are heading to NYC too. We plan to catch a cab together into the city once we land.
4:30 pm- (east coast time now)- The plane finally landed after circling JFK for an hour and a half. All of the planes in the sky were backed up in a landing queue due to earlier bad weather in the area.
7:30 pm- It is packed in Little Italy on Mulberry Street as it has been converted into a pedestrian street. Everyone is trying to get a patio seat at any restaurant- it is a nice night out. We manage to find a magnificent restaurant that Holly had been to before and fill up on some tasty Italian food.
10 pm- Back in the hotel, freshly showered, and figuring what folders I need for my appointments in the morning. It'll be fun to see my vendors as well as to see all of the new sleepwear and lingerie styles. I have been told from various male co-workers that they wish they worked in my category. haha!
11 pm- Time to get to bed and aclimate myself to this time zone. Good night!
Day 2- Sunday Aug.3
6:45 am- Wake up call! I slept like a baby last night. I had my window open so i could hear all of the city sounds- love it! Going to check emails and get ready for my 9 am appt.
8:45 am- I arrive at the Metropolitan Pavilion on 18th & 6th. The Lingerie Americas show doesn't open until 9 am so there is a long line of buyers outside waiting to enter.
9:00 am- First appointment-
Natori- one of my more successful sleepwear lines. I have an hour and a half with them but it flies by as we go over sales, best sellers, and both the
Natori and the Josie lines. Josie is by the same
designer but has a younger feel to it.
11:30 am- Still at the NAP booth. They work with a lot of European lines and import the product. I saw both the
Derek Rose and
Eminence mens lines. Now onto
Crabtree & Evelyn Sleepwear.
12:15 pm- Crabtree has a lot of spa wraps which have been good for us in that brand. I still have one more brand at the NAP booth:
Princesse Tam Tam- a French lingerie line. Between the
Natori and the
Princesse Tam Tam I see that light yellow, flamingo pink, and bright violet are trend colors. Spring '09 will be a colorful one!
1:05 pm- I meet Kendall from Blush Lingerie- a line we don't have yet. They are a family business run out of Canada- the line looks beautifully feminine.
2:00 pm- I go over to the
PJ Salvage booth and see my rep Cindy Tell- we chat about business and I meet the president of Loomworks. Peter is from South Africa so we chat about that for a little bit. He is from Durban- a town I spent a month in during my documentary shoot in 2000. The spring line is so fun and yummy feeling- it's going to be hard to narrow down!
3:00 pm- I go to the
Eberjey booth. Akemi tells me they just sent us our first shipment. Based on the time our photo department shoots the pictures and the content team writes the descriptions, we could be live with them in about 2 weeks- exciting!
3:30 pm- We finish early so I wander around some more. I see that the
Jessica Simpson Intimates line is finally out on the market, so I meet the VP of Sales and sit down to see the line. It looks great and we already have the shoes on Zappos.com as well as receiving about 350 searches a day for it, so the demand is there!
4:30 pm-
Bamboo Nights is my last appointment of the day. They launched on our site in July and the sales are amazing already- they definitely have a customer base out there. According to our sales by state
report, we have sold the most product of theirs in Vermont- so unexpected! They show me some new additions to the line and then I hang out until the show
closes.
6:00 pm-
Bamboo Nights is taking me out to dinner at Cook Shop on 10th ave & 20th st. When we check in at the restaurant, Louis and his wife Joy become celebrities as the hostess recognizes their last name, Van Leeuwen. Apparently their two sons own an ice cream shop and make the ice cream from scratch- it is all the rage in NYC and Brooklyn!
10:30 pm- After checking emails while watching American Dad, I am ready to call it a night! Wow, today flew by...
Day 3- Monday Aug.4
7:00 am- Rise and shine! I got a great night's sleep.
8:45 - Headed to 180 Madison Ave to meet with Cuddl Dudds. They have some great bamboo knits as well as
underwear, undershirts, and thermals- good for fall '09.
10:00 am- Off to the Empire State Building for my next appointment-
Smartdogs slippers.
10:05 am- Wow- lots of tourists in line to get to the top of the building!
10:30 am- Taking a picture from the 40th floor appointment room- I am being such the tourist.
11:00 am- Meeting
Dereon Intimates- would love to bring them on for spring '09. The colors are bright and the style is
urban. Kamille the
Dereon rep and Cynthia, the
designer said they plan to do plus sizes for fall '09, which is great, since there is such a void for that in the
intimates category.
11:45 am- Cynthia the
designer of
Dereon and I catch a cab to the Curve NY show together.
12:00 pm- Curve offers free lunch to buyers and vendors so we grab a half sandwich. We eat them on the deck outside overlooking the river and the
breeze feels so good. Across the way I see a lingerie model who's robe won't stay closed because of the wind. Ha! It doesn't even phase me to see women in lingerie anymore
2:00 pm-
Cosabella appointment went really well. She shows me fall/ holiday and there are so many great pieces. They have only been on our site for about 2 months and are blowing out of items. Good thing it is replenishable!
2:30 pm- I just met with Only Hearts. The. main thing I heard before I had the appt. by various people was "I love Only Hearts!!!", so I knew going in that it may be something we might want to bring on to the site in the future.
3:15 pm- I finish the appt. early and I spot the
Bedhead booth so I pop over to say hello to Joanne.
4:30 pm- At my last appointment with
Natori Intimates. There is a very scary man a couple booths over in just his
underwear. He needs a waxing very badly!
Natori basics are doing amazingly so I look to pick up some fashion colors in those styles. The model tries on a couple of items that are new so I can see how they lay on the body.
5:10 pm- I see the actress Stacey Dash (from the movie "Clueless") on my way out- she has her own
intimates line called Letters of Marque.
5:20 pm- I pop back to my hotel quickly to drop off 10 lbs worth of catalogs. Yikes! That all has to fit in my carry-on suitcase on the way home.
7:50 pm- At the Stanton Social Club in Soho with
Natori Intimates for dinner. It is a tapas place, but with other kinds of food other than Spanish style- we had french onion soup balls- crazy, but so yummy. For desert we had makers mark milkshakes!
8:30 pm- I thank
Natori for the dinner as they drop me off at my hotel. I then find Holly and Dee from the kids team at the Roger Williams Hotel so I join them for a drink.
11:30 pm- Time to go back to the Roger Williams for a shower and to check emails before hitting the hay. It's amazing how fast those emails can build up over the day.
1:25 am- Done checking emails- good night!
Day 4- Tuesday Aug.5
9:00 am- Happy National
Underwear Day! The legendary National
Underwear Day giveaways will take place around New York City with free undies being distributed to thousands on the New York City streets.
10:00 am- I meet with Gwen from Bendon and she shows me the Fayreform line for larger busted women (so pretty!) and the
Elle MacPherson line.
11:00 am- I walked a couple blocks over to the NAP building and am about to meet with
Karen Neuburger. I like how most
intimates brands are located within a 4 block radius on Madison Ave- it makes it so convenient to schedule appointments and meet with everyone.
2:15 pm- Just learned that
Le Mystere won an award in the fashion portion of the CILA awards last night! They consistently win awards for bra construction for basics, but this was a first for them in the fashion area. I congratulate the
designer who is sitting in on our meeting.
4:30 pm- I have been
running up and down Madison all day- am heading to 183 Madison for my last 2 appointments. One in a showroom and the other with
Fleur't Lingerie which has been on our site since May. Such a cute, flirty, feminine line!
6:00 pm- My
Fleur't vendor Leslie and I meet Holly and Dee and head to Soho for dinner at a Thai restaurant.
8:15 pm- We head towards Ludlow to find a neighborood bar to have one more drink at and find a place called "The Living Room" which is sort of divey yet hip. If I lived in NYC I would hang out there on a regular basis.
10:00 pm- Working on work emails back at the hotel and "I love money" happens to be on VH1. I am laughing my head off since they are having a crying championship on the show- they are rubbing onions and cayenne pepper in or near their eyes, blowing cigar smoke in each other's eyes, smacking each other, tweezing nose hairs--anything to make them cry. What craziness!
11:00 pm- Still working on emails but I better pack my suitcase so I don't have to worry about that last minute. I have a feeling all of the linesheets I picked up will take up about half of the space in my little carry on suitcase- eek!
Day 5 Aug. 6
5:15 am- Alarm is going off. I
guess I should get up since supershuttle will be here to pick me up soon. My hair is in one big mass of curls and it makes sense when I find out that it is raining. Crazy humidity!{color}
6:30 am- Waiting in the hotel lobby for my ride and checking work emails on my blackberry.
9:30 am- I board the plane at JFK and head for home,sweet home :)
