Week 6: Facebook Account Finally Made

Hi everyone! April 1st is approaching sooner and sooner, and Mimi and I are excited to tell you that our Facebook shop is officially up! We will not be selling until the 1st, but the Facebook shop will be an easy way to contact us and have us answer any inquiries.

Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/christine.mimi.92. If you're interested in any upcoming products (perhaps the studded bag I posted), please shoot us a friend request! (: The picture below is what the page should look like if you click on us, so press that friend request button in the top right corner!

As for our other products, Mimi and I are collaborating with a designer friend of mine and we will be making some interesting and cute pieces for you guys! Among some of the pieces we have done are (no pictures! I don't want to give too much away ;)) are the studded bag I posted last week, and this beautiful satin black skirt with circular studs.

Though the skirt is from Forever21 and didn't look very expensive when I first got it, upon adding the studs, the skirt looks like it's worth at least thirty dollars! I was surprised how great the skirt turned out and am excited that you guys will get to see our products soon!

Thank you everyone for your support and wish us look on the grand opening!

Week 5: A Nouvelle Boutique Teaser

Hey guys! April 1^st is approaching faster than ever and Mimi and I are excited to show you a preview piece that we designed so that our audience could get a taste of what our shop is all about. I wish we could tell you exactly what we plan on selling, but that’s not really how thrifting goes. We expect to find pieces that are fun and interesting, and recreating them in modern fashion so that you can enjoy a trendy wardrobe without the designer price-tag.

You guys on who are reading our blogs get the Nouvelle Boutique clothing preview a week earlier than our Facebook shop, so please give us some input of what you think of our piece in the comments below.

In addition to our Blogspot exclusive preview, Mimi and I have assembled a comical little teaser of what we will NOT be selling, based on the music video for “Thrift Shop,” which is a also our music for the teaser.

Don’t laugh too much at us—the whole point was to show our audience how fun thrifting can be and what “interesting” pieces you can find when you least expect it.

Thanks again for reading! Happy Thrifting! (:

Week 4: The Pitching Begins

Mimi and I brainstormed all week trying to figure out what we were going to do for our pitch idea for this upcoming Friday. The thought of teachers and the registrar and parents and other students coming to see our teeny tiny DIY project is a bit more than a a little overwhelming. However, we came up with some pretty neat ideas and music that we're going to use for our video, so I'm slowly leaning toward the more excited experience rather than mind-trembling.

We're thinking of doing a video with "Thrift Shop" as our background music and act like the guys do in the music video, so I hope it actually turns out a bit funnier than we imagined.

In addition to the video we're doing for our pitch, we're also going to start re-designing the clothes that we got from our first haul. My brother ordered studs for us last week and we're going to go check out some lace and fabrics today, so the project is really starting to pick up pace!

Wish us luck and until next time! (:

Week 3: At Last, A Name

After weeks and weeks of agonizing over a name to name our little store, Mimi and I decided on one: Nouvelle Boutique.

The name was originally going to be Nouveau Boutique, but our friend Justin, who is in French and had to check whether the words were masculine or feminine, said Nouvelle was the right way to go.

Initially, we had tried Chrimi (which is pronounced like "creamy"), but we decided that would have been better if we had opened up a pastry shop or something like that. After scouring dictionary.com to no end, we finally turned to Google Translate and looked up things that we felt related to our store in French. We decided on French because it's such a beautiful language and that so many people know. In addition, so many English words are similar to French words, so even those who don't take French might have an idea of what the word means.

I'm relieved we got the name out of the way. It makes our shop seem more real and concrete, rather than some idealized thought process we had going on in our minds.

Once we figured out the name, I started playing around with Paint (sadly, I lack Photoshop, but even if I did have it, I wouldn't know how to use it) and came up with a few designs. The black one on the left is the very first logo I came up with. I imagined a logo being sleek and really professional, so I went with black and white and typical Times New Roman. I then continued to play with more colors to see what
would make make out design pop a little bit more. I tried this pretty sea foam green that I kind of liked, but I realized it didn't make the letters as clear as the black one did. At last, I attempted to make our logo more colorful by using a gradient of my and Mimi's favorite colors. To keep it simple, I used the initials and rather than a large explanation, a small caption-like explanation under the main logo.

Upon deciding, Mimi and I decided to go with my initial logo, which was the black one. We still haven't decided whether or not we're going to screen print them to sell yet, because we have to see whether people would be interested in buying them or not, but it's definitely an option for us!

On a final note, we also decided that we are going to donate half of our profits to either a non-profit organization or potentially an orphanage. We want to really make what we're doing count and be able to make a different in the lives of others.

Wish us luck on our journey of re-acquiring, re-designing, and re-selling! (: