More great stuff for Give Simple!! Monday night I was far too exhausted to blog, so now I am catching up on the plane on the way home.
My favorite part of the show is the section called “Accent on Design.” This is where most of the clean, contemporary looking products are presented. These are the products and look that fit well with the Give Simple mantra of Fun, Great Design, and Good Value.
This area is where, on Monday we met with our biggest Melamine suppliers, French Bull and Working Class Studio. Both of these suppliers have introduced cool new patterns. French Bull has a several new pattern s, we most love the one that consists of four bright colors. We’ll be selling down and exiting some of the older patterns to make way. Working Class Studio has (finally) added some new patterns. We love their original line, but 2 years is a long time to wait for something new! Our absolute favorite new look is the salad plates with vegetables on them. We also found an adorable new melamine line that uses photographs of food to make the decals on their bowls. So the large bowls have photos of popcorn, or salad, or pasta on the inside. The small bowls have mixed nuts, or olives or popcorn. Just a fun little twist. Melamine is a very playful category for us.
We found a handbags and accessories line that we will add in Accent on Design, too. Terrific nylon totes in fun bright colors, plus the cutest varieties of the very important lunch tote. As people started reacting to the gas prices, the first thing to cut back on was Starbucks. The second thing is eating lunch out. People are either trading down to a Subway ($5 foot-long, anyone?) or bringing lunch from home. A brown bag is not appealing, and your handbag (no matter how oversized!) doesn’t work, in your tote bag, your laptop will smoosh that banana. Plus who wants a sandwich or leftovers that have been out of the fridge for hours and hours? What you need is an insulated lunch tote. We have them already from Murval, but we’re adding 10 new options in the next few weeks. After all, your lunch tote should coordinate with your outfit!
We met with another one of our all time favorite vendors, PeaceLoveMom, on Monday afternoon. T-shirts so cool, I wish I could wear them (I don’t think dog mom really counts!) Suzanne just has so much energy and is so much fun to work with. Great way to end the day.
Tuesday bright and early we met with our friends at Stein&Blye to work on some holiday jewelry. Pearl, bead and stone in illusion necklaces, small cluster drop earrings and coordinated trios of stretchy bracelets. Beautiful shades of sophisticated grey, creamy pearl white, girly pink, and the hot fashion shade purple are in the works for October. After that a mother of pearl flowers in pretty resort colors will come in for December.
At the Piers, the third and thank goodness final part of the show, we found a resource for adorable baby gifts. Then it was a sprint across the street to our car, and off to the airport. We need to get home and make all of these great products reality on Give Simple!! Lots of work ahead!!