Kai Scissors

Good day everyone,

I finally have a new blog, hopefully this is a start to more postings. I am finally getting a system down.
I get asked a lot about my favorite things or just what is the best sewing machine, scissors, and so on. Well here is the best shear on the market in my opinion, Kai scissors made in Japan. They are my favorite shears in the world!!! I really love them, they cut like butter and last forever!

I know in this video I said "Gingham" instead of "Gingher". Honey, I never said English was my strong point. Atleast I was still thinking Faaasshiiiiooooonnnnnn! Serious.

OK, this is what happens when you write a blog early in the morning. I digress. I forgot to mention the prices in the VB, the 5000 series is around $14-$32, the pro 7000 series is $60-$130. I am not getting paid to write about this. I just really love these products!

I hope you do too! Here is the website, www.kaiscissors.com

Massage Heights Robe

Good afternoon everyone,

Monday morning I was on Fox News where I talked about my robe I did for Massage Heights. My team and I made a video a few months ago on the "behind the scenes" making of this robe. It took us over a 100 hours to make this robe!

Now you can register to win the robe and see it in person at 13 Massage Heights locations in Houston. The robe will go on tour at all the locations through April and May. For more information, go to massageheightshouston.com

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Love,
Chloe

Spring cleaning sample sale!

Hello everyone!

I have decided to give myself a fashion cleanse and all of you can reap the benefits! Over the past 11 years I have accumulated numerous fit samples, inspiration pieces, runway designs, and even pieces from my personal closet. It is out with the old and in with the new!

Girls if you are looking for that one of a kind prom dress this sale is for you. All cocktail dresses range from $98-$25 and evening gowns from $399-$50.

Don't worry if you aren't a size 2 model we have QVC samples and runway shoes size 7-11.

Here is a sneak peek at what you will find.

Magenta Gown with braiding detail at waist $299

White silk chiffon runway piece only $399

Lucille summer dress $99

13th challenge dress $78

Houston Fashion Week runway shoes with laser cut detail on strap only $10

Sale starts Friday!

Love life, Love fashion
Love sales more!
Chloe

Update- What's Happening in my World

Hello All,

Life for me has been crazy as usual, and everyone who knows me knows how busy my schedule can get. Lots of things have been going on these past couple of weeks, and before I forget what they were, here's a little bit about them:

Feb. 27th: I was at Camax Campus Market Expo promoting my new print for Nuo. Models wore my clothes and showed off the laptop cases available in the line.
While I was there, Study Breaks, which is a college magazine, asked me to help sponsor and promote their Girls Night Out Contest. Submit a 30 sec. video on why you should win, and you'll be entered in a chance to win one of my Nuo bags bag full of new clothes, dinner, limo service, vip treatment at the clubs, and your own paparrazi for the night. Details on their website here.

Mar. 1st: I attended the Passion for Fashion Luncheon at the Hotel Zaza and got to dine with Mark Badgley and James Mischka of Badgley & Mischka. They were amazingly sweet and down to earth.

Mar. 2nd: I was on Fox News talking about Project Fashionista at the Children's Museum. Project Fashionista is a great way to channel your inner fashion designer to design clothes out of everyday materials. The event is on Wed. Mar. 16th from 11am-1pm, and I will be there to judge the outfits! There will be a lot of other fun activities going on, so don't miss it! Details here. Not only for the kids, adults can play, too (we all have an inner child anyway).

Mar. 7th: I was on a panel for Fashion Group International Houston's career day and student fashion show along with David Peck, Marina Saba, and guest speakers Janet Gurwitch and Carmen Marc Valvo. It was an honor to be around such accomplished people and to encourage student designers.
Later that day, I also met up with Jen from TLC's the Little Couple to make her another outfit. We went shopping at High Fashion Fabrics and she picked out the fabric she wanted. I normally don't do custom work, but she is so sweet that I could not say no.

Mar. 9th: I was lucky enough to be invited to the preview of Cirque du Soleil's new show OVO. Me and my mom got the VIP treatment, free drinks and tapas, great seats, and got to see an AMAZING show. It makes you realize how amazing humans can be. We have no limits.

Mar. 12th: I hosted Macy's "Find Your Magic" Fashion Show at Memorial City Mall. The audience was great especially Angel. I want to give a little shout out to her mom and grandmother. Ya'll made my day!

Here's an upcoming event in case you're in Austin: SXSW has a new fashion showcase called Style X from Mar. 18-19 at the Austin Convention Center. I will be there for the fashion shows and speak on a panel. More details here.

So that's it guys, that's what I did over the past weeks. Crazy huh? Hopefully I don't run out of energy because there's always more coming up.

Ciao,
Chloe

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:

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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