How do we decide what to buy for Give Simple? It's a combination of knowledge of the customer (the most important part!), fashion forecasting, sales history and buying things we want to give as gifts, or that we would love to have for ourselves.
Give Simple is lucky enough to work with a very experienced fashion director, Roz Pactor, a former VP from Foley's who provided fashion direction for a 2 Billion Dollar company for many years. Roz is now the go-to fashion authority in Houston, advising everyone from high end boutiques to newspapers and magazines, to local fashion icons. If you want to know what to wear, or more importantly what to buy next, Roz can guide you!
Roz complies a fashion overview for Give Simple each season, prior to market trips and them she and I strategize which fashion trends will be right for Give Simple. Trends need to fit the image of our company and our customer. This would include considering whether items are fresh, contemporary, well-priced and whenever possible, simple. Really traditional, extremely expensive, or mass produced items just won't make the cut.
That's why you'll see Give Simple working with our Jewelry makers to design styles that cover the Statement Necklace Trend, for example. Instead of just buying the same $300-$600 big necklaces we see in other stores, we had our Domino Jewelry maker update the best seller you love with semiprecious stone beads, for only $45! (and we were right, the style featured in our email sold out in 2 days!) Allison Dayton is working on some larger necklaces in her global style, too.
When we love a trend that is very high end, we work hard to find a well-priced alternative. Look for a new Handbag line to debut on Give Simple soon that will cover the exotic skins, and dulled metallic looks that will be huge for Fall 2008, at prices well under $100.
While Give Simple does not pursue cutting edge trends, we do work hard to give our customers updated accessories and gifts that are in style and on target.
With fashion guidance, care for our customer's needs, and some of our own lusts thrown in, we'll keep bringing you new and fresh products the Give Simple way.

We had the coolest celebrity sighting in New York during the Accessories market! (Forgive my blogging after the fact) Would you belive we saw Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes? They were in town for the Costume Institute Gala on Monday; we were shopping for new Fall products.

We almost always go to a Broadway show on Saturday night when we’re in town over the weekend. And we always go to our favorite after theater restaurant afterwards. We see celebs fairly often there, mostly Broadway performers. We were seated next to Valerie Harper once, and have seen Nathan Lane and other such luminaries. It’s very New York, when you call to make your reservation, you tell them “After the theater” and what show, and they say, “Okay, we’ll see you at 10:45 then” They know what time each show ends and how long it takes to walk over from that theater! (I know, it’s hard to believe I still think this is cool after 200 trips to New York, but I am very corny that way)

After seeing A Chorus Line with Mario Lopez (yes, he looks HOT!) we walked over to our restaurant (you will have to email me if you want to know the name of the restaurant). We were seated next to an empty table for eight. We were eating our salads when I kicked Michael so hard that he almost fell out of his chair. I didn’t really notice Katie (she’s not that familiar a face) but even the most peripheral glimpse of Tom was enough. OH MY! He really is that handsome! They were seated right behind us!! Now I know why our table for four had only two chairs, both facing away from the table behind us. My ears were growing from my desperate attempts to eavesdrop. They were joined by two women I did not recognize, and the women were doing all the talking, although I could not make out much of what was said. I did suddenly have to go to the restroom, though, because as you come back up the stairs to the dining room, there is a perfect view of that table. They were both dressed inconspicuously in black; she had on a turtleneck and a small silver pendant. He had on a leather jacket (of course). They were drinking red wine.

As we ate our entrée, I looked up because a gorgeous woman in a bright red mini dress walked in. It was a chilly night; so obviously, she had stepped out of a limousine. She had on three strands of Tahitian black peals the size of marbles. And directly behind her was Jerry Seinfeld!!! They were there to have dinner with Tom and Katie!!! Right behind us!!! Once everyone had been introduced, the men did most of the talking. They seemed to be talking about some upcoming projects, and they talked about their kids, etc. I could not really hear all that much of the content.

Our little sighting made for a more exciting than usual Saturday night date!