Anna has been working with Blue Fish since the Fall of 2010. She is Jennifer Barclay’s right hand lady in the design department and is involved in everything from garment design, fabric sourcing, working with the pattern maker, color palettes, print design themes and print studio management. After her recent trip to Paris we asked her to write us an inspiration blog. So you can see what she is thinking about in the coming year in design, and also to inspire yourselves!
Anna’s Adventure
When it was time for me to take a vacation away from my regular routine at Blue Fish, I decided I would go wherever I wanted to go most, regardless of cost or distance. I didn’t have to think long about the destination, a place that I had seen once before for a brief three days and that had made a big impression: Paris. Inspiration was everywhere and I took photos of many window displays and tried to remember people with unique style that passed too quickly for a photo.
A gorgeous print and skirt design.
Orange! Love the accessories.
There were so many creative window displays.
But it wasn’t just fashion that inspired me while exploring this new city. Everything from flaking paint on an alley wall, to light reflecting on water in the Luxembourg Gardens, or quaint haberdashery shops.
The lovely, enchanting, Luxembourg Gardens.
Color, pattern, texture…perfect!
One of my favorite days was spent wandering through the streets in the neighborhood where I stayed, between the 3rd and 11th arrondissements. I happened upon some imaginative little boutiques there. The first was Les Oiseaux (The Birds), a shop featuring Parisian designers and locally made garments. Just across the street was a boutique called Kate Mack. As I was browsing, I noticed that the shopkeeper was wearing a garment which looked half finished, with pins and raw seams everywhere. It turns out she was the owner, designer and seamstress of her design label and her workshop was just in the back of the store. She was in the middle of making a custom evening gown for a client. How exciting to stumble into a store like that and end up having a conversation with the woman behind it all.
Les Oiseaux Façade
The Kate Mack boutique.
