Spring, Summer 2010 isn’t even over yet, but Alexandalexa.com buyer Vanessa and I (Holly, the blogger) found ourselves surrounded by cute summer clothing, all ready to style up your little ones as soon as the slowly approaching winter passes next year.
For today’s buying trip, there was no tradeshow in site, all our appointments were at one location, with one sales manager, in one lovely air conditioned building in London.
It takes 8-9 hours, depending on how many buyers are, to pick your ‘Stories’ for the next season, but nothing could me more fun to two shopaholics who love fashion, especially kids fashion.
10:00 – 12:45: BURBERRY
We started our day in the Burberry Room which is decorated in a clean, simple and modern way. Sales manager Sebastian, who hails from France, was ours for the day and started out by showing us the latest in Burberry kidswear.
We were brought Coffee and Tea and sat comfortably in the private room while each piece of baby, girls and boys Burberry items fro SS10 were danced in front of our eyes on pretty white racks.
In the creative world, new seasons are as secretive to the public as police files, no pictures, no stories, nothing. But we CAN generalize what we saw to give you a bit of a hint on what you will see next year.
What We Saw @ Burberry: On top of their much loved traditional ‘Nova check’, Burberry has modernized its classic print with a kid friendly colour pallet that fit those classic summer colours, but with a twist…
12:45 – 13:15: LUNCH
Burberry took a long time, because we ordered A LOT, so as soon as we had finished writing it all down and taking pictures, we trapesed upstairs where the agency had fresh salad, BBQ chicken, nachos and burgers ready for us to devour. We sat and ate with the other agents and buyers there that day, looking out at what was for a moment, a sunny day. The food was great but we finished up quickly, still two more brands to do and only 5 hours left in the day!
13:30 – 15:45: Chloe
Just walking into the room where the georgous Chloe collection is kept is calming. The room is all white, with simple gold hanging rails and without the colour palets of a boys line, the beautiful pastels, beiges and whites chloe is becoming known for create a cute girly atmosphere.
Their displays are great with vintage fixings and embellishments like bunnies, mice and birds, and with beautiful white dresses hanging on rough wooden hangers, it is like a wooden wonderland for little fairies in their displays, just what every little girl loves.
What We Saw @ Chloe: Though we can’t say exactly what we saw, the line they showed us was full of new child friendly prints as well as classics from womenswear like images of perfume bottles, ballerina slippers and more. They had a classic coat that would have fit right in during the early parts of the past century, we scooped it up for SS11 because of its impeccable tailoring and style, knowing it would be a key piece of the A&A lookbook.
16:00 – 18:00: Hugo Boss Kids
The Hugo Boss room is basic, organized and familiar, we were all starting to lose a bit of steam from the over stimulation of the day, so we each had a second coffee and some mini mars bars to get our energy up!
Like Burberry, we looked at Baby Boss, Girls Boss and Boys Boss. For boys, we purchased some great pieces from their recent collection as well as the fashion polo’s and classic polo’s we love so much. For girls it was dresses, jackets and even a track suit, keeping within Hugo Boss’s classic cuts, clean lines and unmistakable colours.
What We Saw @ Hugo Boss: For Hugo Boss, we can give you a hint, at least for the boyswear, their theme for next year SS11. Race Cars & Speed Boats….vroom vroom!
18:00: Home Time!
Now I am excited for SS11!