08.31.07
Posted in Main Page at 10:30 pm by Tammy
An idea must have creepped into Kim’s head in the middle of the night cause he called me early in the morning. Recently he rent this 2-floor window display on the side of a busy street. His new idea, is to have a mini fashion show every evening for an hour or so. He asked what I think of the idea. First thing that came to my mind is: Hey man, r u sure you wanna spend that much?
Of course I was just thinking to myself. Verbally this is what I said–:”I’m a little concerned about the cost.”
“Oh nono, the models, we don’t have to pay. The mall will take care of it. We just provide the designs.” Said Kim.
“Ah, then i think it’s a great idea!” I said.–Sure, what you have to lose anyway?
So in the afternoon I canceled my plan to do my hair, and went to the mall with Kim for an appointment with the admin there. Without much persuasion the mall agreed to arrange models and furnish the 1st floor for us. It is in both side’s interest–the mall gets all the attention and our brand gets known.
We continued with the details and by next Tuesday we’d get back together with their deco proposal.
I do think it’s a good idea to transform the 1st floor into a stage, or an apartment with real models showing there for an hour 2-3 times a week, instead of putting manequins in the windows, but I ‘m not sure how it will really work out. I mean sometimes, what you expect is not what really happenes.So…I’m just keeping my fingers crossed. …
And of course, all these experimenting only makes me more excited. I’m almost willing to do anything. 
By the way, these days I’ve been listening to living la vida loca, trying to make myself love it. I am trying really hard, but i think i inevitably lose track of the song after the 1st minute passes.
It is not a bad song of course, or else it wouldn’t have had gained all these popularity, but, I also think it’s so over-played most people just couldn’t tolerate one more time. Like the Titanic theme song. It is really, not bad. But it kind of became bad.
And on top of that, they chose the English version of the song. So where is the Latin touch then? ….
Watched a nice movie tonight–Alpha dog. I notice that films based on true stories tend to be good.
Ps. Gordo bought me flowers today. “So I won’t complained that he never buys flowers anymore.”
Ya, my mouth is shut for a while.
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08.30.07
Posted in Main Page at 11:42 pm by Tammy
Mini’s first time– bad. Result: Fell asleep and missed part of the story.
Hard Candy–Great. Psycho thriller.
Any movie lover should look it up.
Also, Edmond is an interesting movie to look up too.
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08.29.07
Posted in Main Page at 10:52 pm by Tammy
When I signed in on msn tonight at 10 I got an email from Cheryl. It was pictures of the new samples that just came out. I was so pissed looking at them! All of the samples came out wrong, either in fabric, details, proportion or simply the design! It was a huge disappointment. I don’t know right now if I am more angry, or more discouraged. Things you expected for 2 weeks finally came out, and they are not what you pictured, and not even close. For a momment I don’t feel like working anymore. I just wanna scream at whoever made these samples. I thought Flora was a good patternmaker, but apparently I was wrong!
Cutting is more important than design. Good pattern-maker is more important than good designer. I wish I were that good enough to make patterns myself. But I am not.
No idea what to do. I’m just very, very disappointed.
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08.28.07
Posted in Main Page at 11:35 pm by Tammy
Sometimes I feel powerful–Like today, i was in my tennis shoes,short pants and knitted tanktop,running across the huge market with 3 big black bags full of fabric. Miracle–I’m even starting to find my bearings! (Attn: I’m the kind of girl who would still get lost even if I’d travelled the same way a thousand times.) I think they are 7 kilos at least.
Going to the fabric market makes me happy sometimes–when I find beautiful fabric or accessories, but the trip itself is always tough. By the end of every trip I was normally very very dry. Sometimes I ask for water in the store, but I do not carry any bottle with me because it adds up to the weight I have to carry.I was talking to a guy while waiting for my fabric to come. He buys fabric for their designers. That’s some comfortable job their designers are having! I wish at least sometimes someone could help. I go to the fabric market averagely 3 times a week now, and normally 2 out of it is just for carrying my sample fabric back!
The other side of the coin is, yes I get to exercise. This is about the only exercise I do. i don;t do Yoga, don’t jog, never go to gym. All these walking and “heavy-lifting” might make up for the loss…
When i came back Kim showed me the new place he rent. It is actually a huge display window.(2 floors) He rent it for 3 months. It’s at the entrance of the train station, opposite to Ikea by the roadside, a place that thousands of people pass by everyday. It must have cost him a fortune. He must have big faith in this mall thing, because they way the cost is generating, is just too scary to even think about. For me it is just so exciting and I am trying to do my best.
In the last couple of days I’ve been in a “retro mood”. But I’m not gonna talk about it.
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08.27.07
Posted in Main Page at 5:04 pm by Tammy
If u r a woman age 30-35, would u wear this to a dinner?
PS: Porportion is wrong, originally I want this middle part much bigger than it is. i am going to ask to change pattern and make a different one, can compare the two one week later.
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08.26.07
Posted in Main Page at 10:52 pm by Tammy
Today went to a factory with Gordo. Factory is in Heyuan, which is 3+ hours’ drive from Guangzhou. We left at 9 in the morning and came home around 10 in the evening. Gordo did 8+hours of driving in a day. Heyuan is a beautiful city. It is surrounded by mountains and lakes and therefore has incredible scenery. It is an ideal place for a 2-day driving trip. The owner of the factory invited us to a local meal (Hakanese food). The food is not the exquisite type but tastes fantastic. So I’m pretty much tempted to go there again, just for leisure.
I’ve gotten quite dizzy from sitting long hours in the car. There are still 2 designs missing but I simply cannot work tonight. Guess I ‘ll have to do it tomorrow.
On the way home I reviewed and revised my dream again: I am going to have a store of my own, which produces my brand. I am going to rent a little place so I could hire some stitchers, 2 pattern makers. Then I am going to make beautiful expensive silk evening dresses and cocktail dresses. They will be fancy with beadings etc. Then I am going to sell leather handbags as well. Oh, then there will be some accessories. I will paint my store in colors, have a beautiful gold-guilded huge mirror, put some couches, set up a mini-bar. I need pictures, and good music in my store. The lightings of the store has to be perfect. Every woman will look beautiful there.At the back of thestore I will have my own office…
It will take 70-80 square meters for a store like that, at least. It’s impossible. It will be a big investment, which will make us lose a lot of money if I do it right away. But I enjoy dreaming of it.
Mark sms-ed me that my collection is gonna be the opening at the show. The music he picked for me is living la vida loca by Ricky Martin. I was almost loca when I heard this. I mean, it’s so outdated. man. But he told me he and Herina’d been working on the piece for the whole afternoon, so I guess I trust their power of presentation…
I don;t know if it is a good thing to be presented as the 1st–It will be the first to leave an impression, but it may also be the first to be forgotten. But Mark said my collection is one of the most colorful and is the most difficult to get in. i had worries that there will not be enough time for dressing up, now at least it is taken care of…
Yesterday I saw some pics of Yunnan in one of Kim’s Korean magazines. For a moment I really wanna go again.But I got no time. It was a fantastic time I had spent there with Mira a few years back.
Oh, the 2 girls working for the owner of the factory graduated from the same university.I am like 5 years ahead of them. They make me feel old in many ways. 
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08.24.07
Posted in Main Page at 2:35 pm by Tammy
My parents dog. (Weiwei is the white lady)
She died this morning, buried besides her late husband Maomao.
Pix are She and her admirer Ding ding, who does not know she passed away yet.
Ding ding comes alone to visit Weiwei quite often. He knows the way.
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08.23.07
Posted in Main Page at 8:20 pm by Tammy
I haven’t been updating a lot of the blogs lately, not because I am too busy, its just…there is nothing so exciting happening around. Right now I found myself floating between school stuffs and company chores. I’ve been wandering a lot , physically, in the fabric market and sometimes I do get a little excited at seeing beautiful accessories or fabrics. And..mentally, I’m wandering everywhere. There’s thoudsands of dreams relating to fashion, or, clothes business, and at the same time there deosn’t seem to be a quick way to those dreams. I’ve got lots of business drives but I doubt if I have any business sense at all. So I’m wondering,wondering all the time and by the end of the day I normally get very depressed.
After slaving for about 20 days in a company, My classmate Yen went for an interview for another job today. By the end she told me she was not going to take that job. I asked why. She said:”They don’t really need a designer. They plainly told me this. What they want, is someone who could follow up the samples and make sure it comes out the way the picture is.”
“I see.”I said.
One thing I do realize, a lot of profit-making clothes company do not really need any “designers”. Pictures from magazines, internet, and even customer samples are available all the time. It takes a pattern-maker and a few stitchers to make it work. Even if you got designers, it doesn’t mean that the designs will be original. And furthermore, even if your designs are original, it doesn’t mean the general public will want to wear. What sells well is normally the regular type, with a little bit of details somewhere’s all. So… either you have a lot of money to invest in your own brand and therefore creat your own market,(then you need a designer), or you follow the market and make what is already acceptable to the general public, then a designer is really not indispensable. Most people just go with the latter.
So i just keep wondering and wandering these days…
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08.20.07
Posted in Main Page at 10:07 pm by Tammy
I’ve always thought, if I had my own store, I’d put out a little wine bar in the store for my shoppers. I thought this will make my store stand out and please my client.
but….today I found out, not only someone had my idea, and they actually did it and made a success out of it. Man~~??!
Today I met the Mayasian buyers. They described and showed me their store pics.???????…
Later I had Korean food with them and my boss Kim. Got home pretty late.
Maylasian buys like evening dresses with lots of beadings and sequins. Looks like beadings and sequines are never mistakes. I also showed them some of the younger designs. But those are “too sexy” for “married women’. So if we wanna target this customers, I know what to do.
Problem: It is easy to find someone to do beadings for you , or even design for you in Guangzhou, but it is also impossible to ask for just a sample. People only do quantity. That’s the difficult part.
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08.15.07
Posted in Main Page at 8:56 pm by Tammy
Today Mark showed me the model’s photoshoot pics. Sigh, the girl wearing my dress is so fat.
I told Mark:”Her leggs are thicker than mine, and her face even look chubby-chubby. So uncool.”
It’s true.
On my way to school May was already broswing the pics, and I text-messaged her:”How is mine looking?” Her message back:”Not bad. Except your model looked a little fat.” When I saw the pics I realized it is not just “a little”. Mark said they are all over 1.75m, but somehow they don’t look long enuff. They are mostly very busty. Meaty. My poor little miniskirt and corset, they are going to break.
Mark said the catwalk models are going to be great-looking. Hope so.
On the other hand, FM students found me shoes that exactly match the outfit, and they made very nice earrings!
Last night talked with Mary over the phone. She spent over 40 minutes complaining her work condition, which made me feel lucky about my work. At least my boss is a nice person. I left work at 7pm and he would offer me a ride. Mary got off at 7:30 for once and her boss is not happy.(She normally work till 9:30 -midnight).
I guess I should work harder then. Good thing is , I pretty much enjoy what I’m doing. The only part I hate is staying in the mall and be the salesgirl on Tuesday. Especially when that day I happen to have no fabric samples and cannot draw. Other than that, it rocks.
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