Nuo new print

Hello everyone,

This weekend I am going to be at the George R. Brown convention center for Camex which is a college book store trade show. I will be there supporting my line for Nuo and showcasing one of my brand new prints. Since people always ask how I come up with them I'm going to give you a behind the scenes look at my design process.

This is the abstract flower print I did for Nuo it's a best seller right now so my goal in designing the next print was to come up with a new variation of this classic.

First I find my inspiration. This is vintage wallpaper I love the curved lines.

This is one of many designs that came from this inspiration. I liked it but it wasn't quite there yet.

I pulled out the elements that I did like which was the petal like curved lines. I began overlapping and flipping them until it turned into a flower.

Next is deciding colors and how detailed we could be with the flowers.

The final step is making the pattern. We have to decide what size will look the best on all the merchandise which ranges from small net book clutch to a full size suite case.

These are the final products on the satchel and slim laptop brief. This process seems pretty simple but after it was all said and done we spent over a week in development.

Hope y'all enjoy the two new prints they will be in stores soon!

Love Life, Love Fashion
Love,
Chloe

Supporting locals designers and Spring 2011 Web shoot

Hi everyone,

I know it has been forever since I have written a blog. There have been so many times when I know I should written something but time constraint or just not knowing what to write stop me. What is sad is that I do have so much going on, I actually have tons of material to write about.

So I thought, the best solution to keep in touch with everyone is to video blog. You do not have to read my bad English and grammar anymore. I will no longer torture you with it. My close friends read my blog and just died laughing. I am sometime mortified after I read what I have posted but I am still better then Courtney Love. But at the same time, I cracked myself up with the writing. It really showed that my brain is going at 100 MPH and my fingers is in the school zone.

I will definitely be posting more often b/c I will not have to type. I am a horrendous typist, I create my own language.

Well, my first blog is about the Emerging local designers Party , Lot 8 boutique is having on Friday, 2-4-2011. I talk about in the video. I hope everyone come out to support and celebrate our local talent.

Here is the invite:

Yesterday, we were steaming and tagging the new local designers clothes when a customer fell in love with a piece and literally bought it of the rack. There is nothing like that feeling of selling your first piece. I hope everyone of the designers get to experience that feeling. It is pure joy and elation.


The rest of the video is a little snap shoot of the web shoot we did at the store. I hope you enjoy my first video. I am very excite to start this video diary of my year with you.



Well here is the link to the video:

" width="600" />

Did you notice the bang?? I really like my new haircut, I feel young and cool. That is a great accomplishment for a woman about to turn freaking 40!!!!! I am freaking out.



Enjoy,

Love Life, Love Fashion
Love,
Chloe

Giving thanks andd giving back

Hi everyone,

I have been a bad bad girl this last few weeks for not blogging. I am pretty sure I am on Santa's Naughty list. Xmas is coming up so let me try to get out of it by giving thanks, giving back and letting you know about some pretty great deals I know about.

Everyone loves a great bargain during the holidays. I am always thankful for a great sale myself. It brings me such joy and great gifts.

I want to start off by being thankful for having my business still in this economy. It has not been easy this year but I am here to stay and "making it work". I want to thank everyone that have been shopping with Lot 8 boutique for the last 10 years. Wow! It has been that long. I feel old. I was 29 or almost 30 when I opened Lot 8. Time does fly, have mercy!!

You all have my gratitude for all those years. If you are in the Rice Village for this week only, mention this blog and get a free Lot 8 T shirts. I will sign it if you like. Thank you for all those years and many more together. I feel slightly a bit like Oprah, giving away free stuff.


I want to also thank everyone for making my laptop accessories line with Nuo successful. I still can not believe it is in 1,200 Staples stores nation wide. It is also on Dell.com, OfficeMax.com and Ebag.com. Unbelievable!

Here is my giving back, take 50% off all my DaoChloeDao for Nuo at Lot 8 boutique for this week.

If you are not in Houston. Nuo technology is based in Austin. They are opening a Holiday “Pop Up Shop” located in the new RunTex store opening tomorrow on Far West Blvd @ Hart Lane in NW Austin. The best part is there will also be a dedicated SAMPLE SALE RACK of laptop bags starting as low as $5 for iPad/Netbook Sleeves up to $20 for Totes and Messengers! I might do a special meet and greet there. Will keep you posted.

Well, I hope Santa read this blog and put me back on the Nice list. If not I might have to join the Bad Girls Club. Oh my gosh! I hope y'all know I am joking. My silly humor.

Happy Holidays.

Chloe (Oprah) Dao

Can not sleep.

Good early morning,

Its around 3:58 a. m. I kind of just woke up out of no where. I am tired but can not sleep bc my head is overloading with problems to solves, designing some new pieces for the Holiday, fitting that needs to be schedule, dresses that need to be in production, special orders.
That is just the design and production end for my line for the store.

There is still marketing and so many other things I need to work on.

Part of me feels like the Holiday is coming and I want a mini vacation. But the fashion business does not work that way. I need to have Fall 2011 be finished by mid Feb.

How do I split my time btw design, production, and marketing? That is always a dilemma. I am smart enough to know I need help.

I am trying to be smart. Am I being smart? Am I making good decision. Why do I have to make all this decisions?

Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much?

Why am I writing this blog in the early morning?

Why am I questioning if I can do all this when I have been doing it for the last ten years? Maybe I guess bc I feel like it is a new ballgame out there.

Maybe this is just me pmsing....?.

Maybe I need to tried to get some sleep. Or just get up and start work so I can feel some kind of control and accomplishment.

Am I letting you know too much? TMI?

Am I watching too much Oprah's and I want to share my uncertainties and doubts.


I should go back to sleep and try to have dream about relaxing on the beach.

Wish me luck and sweet dreams.

Chloe

Spring 2011 Video, Thank You Mr. Anthony Dowd

Hola,

So as promised, here are some pictures from the filming of my spring 2011 fashion story. This spring I was feeling happy and free- like a bird. The fashion story is the embodiment of the spring 2011 girl. She is the 3 F's: flirty, fun, and pure fashion. The story begins with a girl who is about to start the best day of her life. She wakes up, hops on her Vespa, buys herself some flowers, goes shopping, eats ice cream, plays at the park, and finds love. I wish I could always have days like that. Here's the link to the video, enjoy!

Unfortunately, the swing didn't make it into the video.


I want to thank everyone who came out to support my collection on Wed. at the first ever Houston fashion week. My team and I were super proud of the collection. It turned out more beautiful than we imagined. Some of even got emotional, lol. You know it's good fashion when you make someone cry.
But most of all, I want to thank Anthony Dowd for his hard work on the video. Without him there would be no video. It was his baby, his vision, and he was the art director and the producer for the whole shoot. He did an amazing job with such short notice. He's my 411. I'm so sorry that I forgot to acknowledge you on the program.

Other shout outs:
Thank you so much, Phil for allowing us to borrow your vintage Vespa. I wanted to drive away with it.

Thanks to Michael and Rich for letting us shoot in your fabulous townhomes!

Michael Frankel and Sean Elder and the Art Institute team for videotaping and editing.

I really enjoyed working with my two models/actress/actor Bridget and Don. Bridget, you looked a-ma-zing in the clothes! You looked modelicious!

Love life,

Love fashion,

Love Chloe Dao

HFW and Spring 2011 Collection

HI Everyone,
I finally have a moment to breathe and update my blog. Lots of stuff has been going on, mostly I've been working really hard on the Spring 2011 collection for Houston Fashion Week! I am super excited and super exhausted, but I gotta make it work and carry on. My show is on Oct. 13th, so be sure to come and see what I've been busting my butt for. You can buy tickets here; 1 ticket will get you into all of the shows for that day. Divisi Strings will be providing the runway music for my show. If you went to my Spring 2010 show, you know that they rock the house.

The inspiration for the collection comes from the color and print of the Think Pink scarf that I designed for this year.

Here is the inspiration board and a couple of sketches from the collection. The birds represent to me the freedom and the exuberance of the 1920's. The collection mixes elements of the birds, laser cut outs, and my love of color-blocking. We have up to 20 pieces already, but I feel that I need to add a couple more evening dresses. I'm hoping that the collection comes together the way I imagined it.

Also last weekend, we've been filming a fashion story that we will be playing in the background as my collection walks the runway. Thanks to the team at Art Institute for doing the filming, and thanks to my models Bridget and Don for making my clothes "modelicious". Don't we all wish we could be modelicious, lol. I'll post up pictures for the filming in my next blog.


Love life,
Love fashion,
Love Chloe

Sept. 6th

Hi everyone,

Its Friday night around 9:30 pm. I had a fabulous time last night at my party at my Lot 8 boutique. It was pretty fun to kind of kick start Audi Fashion Houston coming up on Oct 11-15.
I will be showing my collection for Spring 2011 on Oct .13th. It will be me, Toni Whitaker, Irina Shabayeva. I love it. It is an all ladies show. Tickets are available online at www.fashionhouston.com . I am just now starting on the collection. I have 5 weeks to pull this together.

I usually wouldn't stressed about it but I am leaving this Sunday for Philly and NYC. I will be gone for a whole week. I know my team will be working on the direction and ideas I have given them. The truth is I am still at the experimental stage of the collection. It is still trial and errors right now. Pray for me! I will need it. This is truly a very tight schedule.

Even though, I am nervous about my new collection. I am very anxious to do my QVC shows coming up Monday. Here is my schedule for Sept 6th , Eastern time,
I have a 6 am-7am, 1pm-3pm, and 2 styles for PM style with Lisa Robertson starting at 7pm.

That is a lot of shows but I have not been back to QVC since my July show.

Ladies, I have great reorders in new colors. You all have been asking for my stitch cardigan (A84524) to be made in new colors. I brought it back in rich, creamy , luxurious ivory and sophisticated, bold, royal deep purple. Look out for it with Lisa Robertson.

You know I have worked on some of these designs months and months before it gets on air. Sometime, some of my favorites do not survive the process and I am so sadden when that happens. There are many reasons why we can not make certain things. The biggest is we just can not afford it or we do not meet the fabric minimum order. My dream like every other designers out there is to make clothes without a budget restriction. How wonderful would that be? Do not get me started.


Well with that said, I think I did a pretty good job with the new designs I am showing Monday. Here are some pics. Tell me if you like it. If you are watching and buying something please try and call me on air. My favorite part of the show is talking to you my ladies. Without y'all, there is no me.

Miss Jessica wearing....

Ivory Cardigan (A84524), Printed Knit Top with Cowl Neck (A209804)

Charmeuse Blouse with Georgette Trim (A209797)

Houndstooth Crop Swing Jacket( A90946) , Striped Knit Top with Bow Detail(A209795)

Faux Wrap Ponte Skirt (A89823) My favorite skirt!

Double Breasted Trench Coat(A209793), Printed Poncho Blouse with Elastic Waist(A209802)

Cardigan with Button Back Scarf(A209801)
Stretch Knit Stirrup Legging(A84543)

The Trend of the Season

Faux Leopard Print Jacket w/Funnel Neck (A203260)
Stretch Knit Stirrup Legging(A84543)



On a side note, most of the time, I am always just jumping from one project to another and not taking the time to really feel blessed. I do not know what happened today, but suddenly, it hit me. I am a very lucky girl to be able to just create thing and have an audience for it. Thank you everyone who appreciate my work,sincerely.

I am being mushy. I do not know why? I am a girl. What more can I say.


I hope you will be watching.....

Chloe