Boutique #6!!!

My dresses are now in SIX boutiques!!! I can’t believe it! I remember eating lunch with one of my friends and his dad after getting back from NYC and telling his dad I hoped to be in 2 stores this spring. I would never have thought I would be in 6 already!

The new boutique is Plaza Suite in Clemson. I am very proud to have my dresses in the city I went to school. I can’t wait for my friends to check them out when they get back to school!

These are the new dresses for the Clemson store. My dad is delivering them today!

Plaza Suite in Greenville!

My dresses are now in Plaza Suite in Greenville! I use to get many of my function dresses at this boutique when I was at Clemson. They have moved to a new location since I was in school. They are now more downtown. My dad, the delivery man, says it is really nice! I am so happy to have dresses in Greenville!!

My dad is taking more dresses next Wednesday to another store I will post about next week, so look out for another post soon!!

Raleigh!

Check out Lisa Jeffries blog post about my dresses!

http://hanginginmycloset.blogspot.com/2010/04/ellen.html

A few weeks ago I got asked to go to an event at NC State to sell my dresses. So LL came with me and we drove to Raleigh! We got there a little early so we could go shopping. they have an H&M up there. Not that far of a drive to get to an H&M!

Here are a few pictures from the event. Laura Lee looks like she is posing for all the pictures, but I promise she didn't even know I was taking them!

Fashion Show

The Fashion show last night was wonderful! Fashion Board did an excellent job! My picture taking skills are terrible and I missed several of my dresses, but I did get the final walk on video!

LL and me in e&o

My mom, me and LL in e&o

USC Fashion Show!!

The Shop Tart just posted about USC’s fashion board fashion show on Tuesday, April 6. I am so excited for my dresses to be in the show for the second year but even more excited to see the other emerging designers! They were all so talented last year! Come if you are in the area!!

blake&brady

blake&brady is the newest boutique to carry my dresses!! This boutique is in Anderson, SC. I was so excited when the owner contacted me about putting my dresses in her store. All of my friends at Clemson love this boutique! My friend Liz use to go there maybe once a week. I wanted her to read this post and be surprised, but I was too excited and had to go ahead and tell her about it! I can’t believe just a year ago I was shopping at blake&brady and now my dresses are going to be sold there!!

She has already sold 2 and I just shipped them an hour ago. Hurry and get yours! These are the dresses now at blake&brady!!

A new dress for Sugar Boutique

This is the third style at Sugar!

Become a Facebook fan of ellen&ollie!

Become a fan on facebook of ellen&ollie and invite all of your friends to become facebook fans of ellen&ollie!!

Dresses at Sugar Boutique

My dad took these 2 styles to Sugar yesterday and one sold before he could get out of the store! There is one more style going to Sugar that will hopefully be there by the end of this week or the beginning of next week!

ellen&ollie EXPANDING to another Boutique!

I am so excited my dresses are now in another boutique in South Carolina. The boutique is called la di da and it is in Fort Mill. These are the dresses in the Fort Mill store.

New Business Cards!

My cousin, Brian, has been using his letterpress to create my business cards. The first group of cards he gave me was just for “practice” They looked perfect to me, but he worked out the kinks and he gave me all new ones. I love the paper he used for them! My cousin Kelly, Brian sister, gave me this cute cardholder. It is perfect for my business cards. It even has the polka dots and the bird on it! Thanks again Kelly!

Saved the Best for Last

This is my favorite of all the new dresses!

Vintage Floral Dress

One shoulder dresses

Skirts

Everytime Jodi sent me on an errand in New York I would look for elastic that was a different color than black and white. I have wanted this for so long and I still don’t understand why it is not carried in more stores. But on one of my last errands as an intern they finally sent me to a place that had every color. I couldn’t think at the time what colors I really wanted, or even how much I wanted. I should have gotten every color. I’m sure I would eventually use it! So far I have only used the yellow and purple for these skirts.

Tie Strap Dress

I have to thank my friends for helping me with the straps of this dress. I made 3 dresses and there are 4 straps per dress, 2 in the front and 2 in the back. I had to turn 12 straps from the inside out, which takes forever. I took all the straps with me to work on during the Super Bowl. My guy friends even helped and I had them all done before half time!

U-neck Dress

I love the vintage look of this fabric. I feel like all my New York fabric this season is floral.

2 more

I am putting 2 dresses up today because I put all of them on facebook yesterday. The fabric for both of these came from New York. Most of the fabric I used for these new dresses is from NYC. I am definitely missing having the fabric/notion stores at my fingertips, but I can usually find what I need at House of Fabrics on Main Street. I am very lucky to have such a unique fabric store right in Columbia. The satin ribbon used on the first dress is from House of Fabrics.

2nd Dress

I changed the design for this dress at the last moment. I had something completely different in mind for this fabric. This dress came to me while I was working out at the gym, as do a lot of my designs. I get bored while I run, so it is a great time to think about the dresses. The strap can be moved to any position on the shoulder and can be spread out to whatever width you want.

New Spring Dresses!

I have been working for 3 weeks on these dresses. I put all of them in M Saturday. I can’t decide if I should put the pictures up one a day or put them up all at once. For today I am just putting this dress up.

There were so many things I learned from Jodi that were obvious, but making these dresses showed me how much I learned that I didn’t even realize. I took a lot of time with each dress to make it exactly how I wanted it to look. Jodi doesn’t stop until she has everything perfect. She checks every detail to make sure it is what she wants. So these dresses are the best I have ever made!

The 1st dress:

Happy Valentine's Day

I have officially been selling my dresses for 1 year. I put the first dresses in M February 14th, 2009 and sold the first one that day too. This is a picture of the first dress I sold. Happy Valentine's Day!!

Last Jodi Arnold Event at the store

This was my last event at Jodi’s store. We had a girl come for the event that makes jewelry out of coins from all over the world. My favorite was a gold bracelet with a penny on it. Lincoln’s eye was a diamond. I will definitely miss the parties at the store after work on Thursdays, but not the cold walk back to the subway.

At this event Jodi asked me what was the best and worst part of the whole experience. There is no way to have a best there was just too much that was so great. I can't even remember what I said was the best. I know it was a list of things though. The worst was easy to answer. The absolute worst part was being away from my family for so long.

Hannah, Jodi, me and Danielle

Hannah and Danielle