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100 Collections, that's about 25 months (assuming we launch once per week), and so that equates to about 2 years! But nope that's not true we have been around for more than 2 years actually! (Can you believe it!!) I just checked, and our first post was in JUNE, 2008. Back then, I recall Sis calling me one day, telling me excitedly how she went to the supplier and took a hell load of stocks and I was just like "whaattttttttttt" hahaha. I was still in JC then! Well after getting the stocks, we got down to thinking about names.
I recall lying on the bed, and coming up with retarded names like "THEBUMBLEBEE" (okay because both of our names start with B) HAHA. Or like DOUBLEB. Or BERTBREE. (which sounded like burberry hence we scraped that idea). BERTBREE.LIVEJOURNAL.COM. Hey come to think of it it actually sounds quite nice? :p But anyw we settled for THECLOSETLOVER because we were thinking girls need clothes in their wardrobe all the time and we love clothes so yes the closet lover it shall be!!! :D It's kinda long we know, but it sounds quite nice la right? :p
Our first collections started off with...shots (without the head)
Took the photos against our wall in our room with this orange lamp!! Some of the shots are modelled by Bree, some by me!! Guess who's who. Actually it's quite simple to guess because I don't have a habit of doing my nails while she loves nailart. Oh btw her nailart designer is super awesome!!! Go ask her where to do her nails :p
And then...from collection 14 onwards we started doing studio shots with Jeanine! Jeanine is Bree's old friend :) We were really thankful then to have her as our model!! Haha she really helped bring out our clothes really well! The studio we went to belonged to the photographer's house, and boy it was apparently a really warm place (because it's housed at the attic) and there's actually a fan blowing at jeanine because there's no aircon!! She looks damn glam right haha ;)
Look at Jeanine!! Modelling so well (:
And then Jeanine and the photographer got really busy so we had to switch again! In this period, we actually stopped for a looooong while because I had A levels, we didnt have a model/photographer then = no resources and hence we were unable to shoot ):
Bet you didnt know, but we actually had a period where we thought of stopping the business! Gosh haha.
I was entering NUS and Bree was busy with her previous job at M1 and we were thinking that we had stopped for so long,
would our customers still stick with us? Handling a blogshop is not easy, we had to go to our suppliers to get stocks, take photos, launch, post out items and the process goes on and on.
Bree wanted to give up then (haha :p) BUTTT I didnt want to! Somehow I still wanted to try and hold on to this.
So....I managed to find a model, pris and a photographer (wilson!)
Got to know her through seeing photos on facebook and asked her through Wilson, who happened to be her friend.
It was a crazy crazy period for me. Because every week, I would rush to the supplier and had to lug all the bags of stocks myself, to my hall and UP THE STAIRSSSS. (3 storeys). Imagine the torture haha. I recall putting my bags on those wheel scroll chairs, pushing it from one end of the walkway to the other end. And how my whole room was just filled with bags and bags of stocks! And I used to mail parcels at the post office in NUS too!! Old times :)
Business picked up, and I could no longer do it myself (juggling school, hall, TCL) so Bree stepped in and helped haha. It was sooo much better after that because mel has the car, and with a car it's alot more convenient!! But anyw, here's pris for you :)
Pretty pretty pris :) Well, then Pris became exclusive for one blogshop and we could no longer use her ): Had to switch models again!
Sophie willock came after that! :)
Featuring one of our best sellers then, FLORAL ROMPER WOOH!! Haha!
In case you are wondering, all editing of photos are done by yours truly! Using PS7 and "upgrading" to CS4 now wahaha.
Except for sneak photos on FB without the true colors, those are done by Wilson :)
From this collection onwards, we didnt have Wilson as our photog. I can't rmb why but I think because the studio that we used provided a camera to use, so Bree and I became the photographer HAHA. After that, we had a switch again and..I became the model!
I had a hard time convincing myself to model okay because I didnt want my face to be seen everywhere! (shy laa)
But I still enjoyed modelling in the end! Doing all the stupid poses HAHA.
And...then we moved on to self-manufactured items!!! Yes, due to the competitive nature of blogshops, we had to move to manufacturing our own designs to keep up with the times. We all know customers look for exclusive designs, quality apparels and affordable pricing too right! :) We took a long long time to design on which design to manufactured, and we finally decided on a top! :)
Pris was invited to be our guest model for that collection (: This is collection 59!! Wahahaha. See the DOUBLEB label? No points for guessing why it's called DOUBLEB label :p
Second self manu!!!! HIGHWAIST JEGGINGS! Maybe we should bring this back in huh hehe :p
We really liked the cut and wash!!
Manufacturing an item is a long long process. Here's how the process goes!! For those who are interested, if not just skip this part :p
THE SELF MANUFACTURING PROCESS
1. We select designs we like, whether through pictures/real items/sketches and send them to our suppliers
2. Fix an appointment with our supplier to discuss on the design!!
3. Wait patiently for our samples to come
4. HURRAY! Samples are here!! (We are always damn excited to see our samples haha)
We'll try on the samples and see what neccessary adjustments we need to make (to the cut, sizing, length etc)
5. Pick the material and color that we want! Picking colors is reallllyyyyy difficult. We dont know what colors you girls will like!
Most of the time, we choose more popular colors, if not sometimes we try to be adventurous. Hehe.
But Bree doesnt like me to be adventurous because you girls dont like adventurous colors ):
Is it true? :p
6. Confirm the sizing/qty. Sizing includes XS, S, M, L...etc etc!
7. Wait patiently for our items to come!!!
Every design, whether material, type of button, even type of inner lining, type of complimentary belt (if there is) are picked by us! With recommendations from our suppliers of course :) Extremely thankful to have them around! For the good workmanship you are seeing,
it's all thanks to our suppliers! :) This whole process takes up to...about 2-3 months? From the time when the sample arrives to the actual batch arriving, it takes about 1.5 months!! Backorders are opened if an item is popular and there are insufficient stocks for everyone! (:
Moving on, from studio shoots, we went on to attempt outdoor shoots! Our first outdoor shoot featured our colorblock tulip dress! We actually took another top then, but we haven launched it yet!! It's a sequin piece, abit like a halter design, maybe we'll launch it for CNY? :p
There's rebs and tish for you! I remember how we were quite unprepared for our first shoot, lack of insect repellent, RAINNNN etc etc. ):
You see this nice picture below, actually we were dying because there was intermittent rain which was super irritating as we had to get in and out of the shelter!! But thankfully, our shoot still pulled through haha :)
Wilson is always pushing me for outdoor shoots. Styling, theme, concept (which is really quite difficult to come up with, really admire those blogshop owners who can keep coming up with such creative ideas!!) I am not an extremely creative person to begin with haha so really had to rack my brains for the themes and concepts. ):
One of our best shoot, tho a difficult one! What you see here is a very nice picture of a boat and the models...BUT what you dont see is the boat rocking from side to side violently because the sea was choppy that day!! Haha I puked into the sea due to sea sickness. zzzz.
And finally....to today! Collection 100th!! We were really lucky to have met Pause's owner, who allowed us to use his cafe for a shoot!
And wilson's brilliant idea to include a male model in to jazz up the shoot :)
I can only say that we have been really lucky, to have met awesome models, photographer, customers and suppliers.
Managing TCL was not always smooth! Bree's literally dying from all the work (yes we need helpers and we'll be hiring!)
Some of you have sent in resumes, will be looking at them soon (:
Sometimes we meet nasty customers, but sometimes we meet really nice ones too!
The nice ones make up for the nasty ones haha. And all the support from friends, family (the list goes on).
Thank you to each and every one of you!!! I think we can't say thanks enough haha :)
We can't wait for our year end designs to be launched!! (AND CNY TOO!!)
Some of the designs are up on KISSJANE racks alrdy! So pop by if you are free!
We'll continue to work hard to bring affordable, quality and nice apparels to all of you okay!
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ALRIGHT that was a really long post. Onto some sneaks for C101!!!
Last saturday, I celebrated my friend's 21st!! (Another 21st right!! haha)
We went to House@Demsey.
Quite a lovely place to hang out with your friends/love ones :)
BIRTHDAY GIRL!!! HAPPY BDAY JIA (AGAIN)
Have known jia since secondary school days, really nice to see how we have all grown up from our younger days HAHA.
I ordered this salmon dish, I FORGOT THE NAME sorry heh. But I really liked the broth, and the salmon and clams!
The rest....hmm not really to my liking haha. It came with noodles that looked like cha soba, and tonnes of potatoes and sausage!
Okay camwhore time! With sherzzzzzziepoooooooo. Wearing a nice polka dotted tube dress :p
Awesome card-making skills from sher. So cute!!!!
Haha look at the balloons! Sher bought them from holland v :)
And a series of stupid shots. Jia looks really sleepy here :p And sher just looks like..."do what you want to me I dont care" HAHA
The last photo is staged!! We planned for that shot heh.
The interior of house is really quite nice! And vintage. Even their toilets are awesome! Sorry didnt take pictures of the toilets :p
Ngles who came damnnn late but still made it in time for cake cutting!!
Me wearing TCL Classic Delight Dress in burberry!!
<3 Best shot of us in the night except that jia's looking away AT HER CAMERA because this is my camera.
Evil jia hahaha.
Okay here's the dress again! Comes with the obi sash as shown! (:
I really like the flutters at the collars, so pretty!
On dress down days you can just pair it with a normal belt hehe.
Wedges were launched on TCL previously :)
Alright, end of a massive long post. See you girls tmr at the launch :)
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