After such an exhilarating first day visiting the Stitch Fix offices and warehouse in San Francisco with twelve other bloggers and online influencers, I was so excited for a day of inspiration and creativity at the Stitch Fix photo studios. The hosts of our trip set the bar pretty high after the first day of touring HQ and the warehouse and I had no idea if it was even possible to top that experience. I quickly found out that is was possible. Stitch Fix outdid themselves beyond my wildest expectations and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.
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Now, let’s get back to my trip.
Designing Stitch Fix Blouses for 2017
When our group arrived at the photo studio, we were given a unique creative task: designing two blouses for the spring 2017 collection. You see, Stitch Fix works with more than 200 brands to obtain fresh styles and clothing options for their customers. They also have six exclusive in-house brands and they design all of the clothes offered by those brands in-house. Perhaps you’ve received items from 41Hawthorn, Market & Spruce or Pixley in your fix … all of those clothing pieces were designed by Stitch Fix to suit the needs of their customers. Pretty cool, right?
Anyways, the design team at Stitch Fix shared a little bit about the design process and enlisted our help to design two blouses for their spring product line. So many details go into the design of their clothes. From cut, to fabric, print, embellishments … even an garment’s “inner beauty” (yes, they even add special details to make the trim, lining and other inside details of their clothes look lovely).
Keep an eye out for an “Amelies” and “Rosé” blouse in your spring fix. You’ll have to let me know if one comes your way and I will be unbelievably excited.
Stitch Fix Photo Tutorials
The learning process continued during the second half of the morning. We were treated to hands-on tutorials from the Stitch Fix creative team. The first day of the Tastemakers Event was such a treat because we were able to learn so much about the culture and inner workings of Stitch Fix. But the second day was great for fueling my creative spirit. My teaching blog led me to amateur photography and uncovered one of my greatest creative passions. I haven’t had much formal training, so I am always excited when an artist is willing to share a few tricks of the trade. When the head creatives at Stitch Fix showed us a few tips, they had my complete attention.
Photography Tips
First up, a hands-on lesson on how to play with light and shadows from Stitch Fix’s Head Photographer, Sara Davis. She taught us how to make the most of natural light in our photos.
Flat Lay Demonstration
Next up, was a personal tutorial in how to style the perfect flat lay photo from Jocelyn Sanchez. If you’ve ever admired any of the gorgeous flat lay or collage style photos on Stitch Fix’s Instagram, you can thank Jocelyn for her handiwork. It was such a privilege to learn a little more about how to style the perfect flat lay from one of the great pros.
Jocelyn walked us through her process for arranging the perfect flat lay. She demonstrated a few ways to fold various clothing items and creative ways to let the pieces interact with each other.
I attempted a flat lay once before and it was a surprisingly difficult experience! After hearing Jocelyn’s tips, I just might be up for the challenge again soon.
Photoshop Editing Tutorial
The final round of creative tutorials was a lesson in editing and cleaning up images in Photoshop from retoucher Rebecca Daniels. I am oh-so-slowly learning Photoshop basics in my spare time, so this particular tutorial was equal parts helpful and intimidating. But I learned a few new tips that I can apply during my own photo editing process.
Picnic-Style Lunch with the Creative Team
After a busy morning with so much to learn, Stitch Fix provided us with a thoughtful picnic-style lunch right in the middle of their creative space.
We couldn’t resist the urge to take multiple photos of the table setup, and who could blame us?
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Lunch was every bit as delicious as it looked. And the buffalo check scarf turned table runner was the perfect decorative touch.
Hair, Makeup and Happy Hour
After a delicious and energizing lunch, it was time for the real fun to begin and preparations unrolled for a photo shoot featuring Stitch Fix clothes. They kicked off the fun with a little bit of bubbly and the best cupcakes ever.
We sipped and snacked while a team from La Mienne took care of our hair and makeup. Talk about the royal treatment!
Even the cups were perfect.
And PS, how beautiful is Juli from PaleOMG? I’ve been following her ever since my first round of Whole30 and it was such a treat to finally meet her in real life.
The Big Stitch Fix Clothing Surprise
Once we were all dolled up, it was time to get dressed for the photo shoot. While we were planning the trip, Stitch Fix had sent all of the bloggers a plaid shirt and a cargo jacket with the task for each of us to create 1 to 2 outfits using those pieces as part of a fall style challenge for the photo shoot. They had collected all of the clothes for our outfits on the first day so that they would be steamed and ready for the shoot. Which was awesome all by itself.
We were all more than a little surprised to discover a row of clothing racks in the photo area, each of which was labeled with our individual names. There, we found not just the cargo jacket, plaid shirt, and few other items we had sent over to be steamed, but an assortment of brand new Stitch Fix clothes.
There were so many great items on my rack and I was far beyond any normal level of excitement when it was announced that the clothes set aside were ours to keep! When I met Layla the day before she had alluded to some type of surprise that she helped prepare for me. But I was definitely not expecting this.
An entire rack of brand new Stitch Fix clothes? Um, yes please! And thank you!
The Stitch Fix Photoshoot
So there I was, all dolled up and dressed in the outfit I styled around my newest plaid shirt. I know it may seem as though I’m completely at ease in front of the camera, but I really only have one pose and I feel completely awkward most of the time. Fortunately, Lindsey Di Ruscio came to my rescue and helped to make sure I was looking my best, in addition to helping me with posing.
I tell ya, the creative folks at Stitch Fix really know how to work some magic. Many of the other bloggers on the trip are true fashion bloggers who were completely at ease in front of the camera and seemed to have infinite poses in their back pocket. I was easily the most awkward one in the bunch and the photographers and stylists were able to channel all of that awkwardness into something graceful. I don’t know how they did it, but I am in awe of their handiwork.
SHOP MY LOOK
plaid shirt – Stitch Fix
pointed lace top extender – Grace and Lace
boots – Enzo Angiolini (similar)
jeans – BlankNYC
watch – Fossil
The fun continued with the outfit I styled featuring the cargo jacket Stitch Fix sent my way. I must say, this is one trend that I have been happy to embrace this fall. The olive green looks great with a dusty pink top (similar) and scallop lace extender. The tote is also from Stitch Fix.
SHOP MY LOOK
Top – Forever 21 (similar)
Scallop Lace Extender – Grace and Lace
Leggings – Amazon
Scarf – Target
Watch – Fossil (similar)
Boots – Enzo Angiolini (similar)
Tote – Stitch Fix
I couldn’t resist the opportunity to jump into a photo with Africa Miranda, one of my many new friends from the trip.
I also instantly connected with Jamie from The CRAFT blog. It was probably predictable that I would become fast friends with the craft blogger in the group. Jamie was so down to earth, and interesting, and fun and also quite the bombshell.
We had such a blast and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to have my photo taken with the amazing stylists who were also on-hand to help us look our best during the photo shoot. My own stylist, Layla, wasn’t there; but Kate, Patrice, Emily and Talleda took great care of me. I loved chatting with all of these ladies so much and the Stitch Fix stylists have been so helpful in transforming my own personal style over the past two years. I just had to get my photo taken with them.
This one’s getting framed for sure.
Once all of our individual photo shoots came to a close, it was time for one last, ultra-fabulous group photo.
| BACK ROW from left Rosana Coco Andrea Taralynn Juli Monique |
FRONT ROW from left Jamie Kyrzayda April Kimberly Daniela Africa |
And with that, we brushed the confetti off our shoulders and out of our hair, then went back to the hotel for a few hours of down time.
The event wrapped up with one last amazing meal. This time we dined at Trou Normand for great food and even better company.
And just like that, the Stitchfix Tastemakers Event came to a close. It was such an exciting trip and amazing experience. Rob and I decided to stay an extra night in the city so we could be tourists for a day and finally meet up with our long-distance friends. We hope to fill you in on those details soon.
In the meantime, thank you so much to Stitch Fix for inviting me on one of my favorite trips ever. I will never forget the wonderful time I had or the incredible people that I met.
