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Just a week ago, I celebrated the first Anniversary of Unmarked Street being in business. It was a great time of reflection for me, as I have learned so much since October 2021.   In looking back on the past year of leading my own business, I had the chance to come back to some of the basics that I’d put in place originally, but then drifted away from as the business grew. One of my passions has always been writing, and I’ve been writing little books, poems and everything in between since I was a little girl. So the number one task I really wanted to put back on my plate was my blog. After months of posting on the blog 1-2 times each week, it started to feel like a bit of a chore in early 2022, so I put it down. We focused instead on writing copy and creating content for Instagram to get our following going, and that has been an amazing new form of writing that I’ve had the opportunity to learn. But I’m so excited to announce now that:   The blog is back!   The Right ¾ Travel Blog will focus its efforts on short but informative content on my past travels, tips and tricks I’ve come up with over the years and local California love! We will also continue featuring the Apparel Line’s progress as we get it up and running for sale late this year.   Stay tuned with me every Monday as we move forward with this new plan. I’m so happy to be sharing my knowledge again in my own natural way, and look forward to meeting more of you through its teachings.   Have a blog post or content idea? Something you’d like to learn about or ask me? Be sure to head over to my website and shoot me a message!   https://www.rightandthreequarters.com/blog

Have you ever decided to work with a contractor for a home renovation project, and went with the lowest bidder to save a little money? This is exactly what my husband and I did over a decade ago when we wanted to build out an outdoor patio in our backyard. We couldn’t believe the quote was so low, until we started working with them on the project. Almost immediately, we were underwhelmed by the company’s quality of work. They were late to arrive at the job whenever they did even bother to show up. They messed up the first two concrete pours, and if we hadn’t asked them to fix the errors, they would have just left it uneven. A couple of weeks into the work, they just stopped showing up for a few weeks. After many calls, we found out that the crew had all gotten sick, but no notice had been given to us. Needless to say, we got what we paid for. In stark contrast, when we decided to add a paver patio to our new house a couple of years ago, we hired one of the more expensive companies to do the work. Not only were they on time or early every day, but they finished the job quickly and to a quality standard that we were beyond happy with. On top of that, they offered a lifetime warranty which we used just this past Fall to fix a few pavers that had started to shift. Even then, their service was above standard and exceeded our expectations. When working with any contractors or companies, don’t dismiss options based on budget alone. The level of work that you get by hiring seasoned masters of their craft can often save you money and time in the long run. Consider how much longer a contractor with less experience might take to complete the same work that someone who has been doing it for decades can do it. Even though their hourly wage might be half the cost, you could end up paying MORE because of the amount of time they need to finish the same job. It’s most important to make sure that you feel confident in your potential contractor’s professionalism, experience and ability to complete the job to your expectations. Also remember that many contractors are more than willing to work with you on meeting your budget. At Unmarked Street, we work with our clients to fit in our hours and tasks into their monthly parameters. Some clients need us to work only a few hours a week, but we get more done in those few hours than they ever expected! Other clients prefer to use us only for specific tasks while they continue doing other portions of the work. There are so many ways to work with experienced contractors who can offer you the best quality experience. Don’t be afraid to ask! We are here to help.

There is a lot of focus these days on Sustainability in the Apparel Industry. We are a large contributor to the global carbon footprint due to many of the practices that are involved in making, dyeing and finishing fabrics alone. Many mills and factories all over the globe are making strides to improve their practices, implement clean water recycling systems and some practices have even been banned. Regulating groups like Oeko Tex and BlueSign have also come into play in the last few decades, helping to steer manufacturers at all levels of the industry in the right direction. But it can be expensive to meet their standards, and it has prevented wide-spread adoption of their certifications, especially for smaller companies who can’t afford to pay the annual fees to these organizations. One question I get asked a lot by family and friends is, “How can we help contribute to making the apparel industry more sustainable?” And my answer is usually very simple: Wear what you already have in your closet. As an apparel developer, this should probably be blasphemy. Advising people to stop buying new clothes kind of flies in the face of what I do. But it is true that the most sustainable outfit you can wear is already sitting in your drawer. It already exists, so whatever footprint it made on the planet is already there. Continue to wear it until the end of its product life, and you can help to prevent further footprints from being made. So this opens up a can of worms about how we as an apparel industry can do better about making our products sustainable. For the most part, we won’t stop making new garments. Some companies might choose to close their doors as the ultimate sacrifice in the name of going green, but it’s not likely to be a widely adopted method. Here are a few things that Unmarked Street is standing for, as we help brands of all sizes create and grow their apparel businesses: Create QUALITY Clothes: When garments last for decades without getting holes in them, having buttons fall off, zippers fail or any other quality issue, you can and should keep them in your closet for the full length of their life. When we create apparel that meets these expectations, we can provide wardrobes that last a lifetime or more. If you do decide that you’re sick of something before it has shown any signs of damage, please donate it. There are so many others who could benefit from receiving your outdated clothes or buying them at a discount in a second-hand store. Create PURPOSE-DRIVEN Clothes: Most of my clients aren’t subscribing to trendy fast-fashion apparel. They are building garments that fill a gap in the market or serve a very specific purpose. Especially focusing on brands within the outdoor industry, most of the apparel I work on now is meant to help people get outside on their bikes, on the trails or on the slopes. They promote being in nature by providing items that protect you, support you and encourage you to get outside. When it makes sense, use RECYCLED Materials: There can be a lot of pressure put on apparel industry employees to use recycled materials in their garments because it can be an “easy win” with their consumers. By now, everyone understands what recycling is, so adding a “recycled fabrics” hangtag to their garments can promote confidence and brand loyalty with current customers. But it’s not always super simple to understand what’s going on in the supply chain with recycled goods. For example, a few years ago, we heard that a couple of mills were not using plastic bottles from the landfill to melt down and create their polyester. Instead, they were making brand new plastic bottles, melting them down and then calling them recycled! It’s no help to contribute more plastics to the world when there is plenty to get rid of in every single recycling plant across the globe. So we have to be smart. We have to do a LOT of research to make sure we’re using truly sustainable fabrics and not making the situation worse. Sometimes it makes sense to use them. Sometimes it doesn’t. Use NATURAL Materials: Materials made from plant fibers that can be harvested, replanted and replenished naturally and quickly are a great solution to sustainability issues. Instead of using Rayon, which is a man-made fiber meant to feel soft and silky, consider using Modal. Modal is spun from beech trees, which can grow quickly and repopulate easily. Natural Cotton is another sustainable yarn that does well year after year in crops throughout the world. Linen, Wool, Bamboo and Hemp are other great examples that can be used in place of man-made Polyester fibers in our clothes. Use BIODEGRADABLE Materials: The science around biodegradable materials is still fairly new. We’re seeing a few great reports of mushroom leather being used in high-end bags now. These leathers will someday return to the earth easily, but the question we haven’t quite answered yet is: will they also return to the earth when they’re in your closet for a couple of decades? I am in touch with two mills who are using food enzymes in their fiber compounds, to eat away at the fibers when they’re deprived of oxygen in a landfill someday. This could be an amazing way to help fabrics biodegrade, but so many of them have to be paired with non-natural fibers to make them soft or stretchy. So it feels like there is still much to learn here. It is exciting to see where people are starting to go though! Use up DEAD STOCK Materials: In factories all over the world, there are rolls of fabric sitting dormant with no intention of ever being used. Brands might have purchased them at one time, thinking they needed it all or intending to use it but their plans changed. Some (if not most) of these fabrics could be purchased from these factories for pennies on the dollar, not only helping to keep them out of our landfills, but also helping brands save money by using them up! Colors and specific content would need to be accepted “as-is” in this scenario, but it is one of the best ways to eliminate apparel industry waste today. Our beautiful planet is going to need everyone’s help. What we leave to our nieces and nephews, children and grandchildren is up to us now. I’m a lover of fashion more than most people, so an amazing new garment is appreciated by me more than I’d care to admit. But I’ve started to hone in on my purchases, focusing on buying items that will last me for the rest of my life. Classic, quality pieces that will always be in style or fully functional garments that serve a wide array of needs are starting to be my go-to. Gone are the days when I would come home from shopping with bags full of items that would fall apart or get holes in them after a single season of wear. Those pieces need to go the way of the Dodo. Let’s all do our part to end Fast Fashion in the way that it’s been defined for so many years. Instead, let’s redefine what Fast Fashion can mean by reinventing long business processes and calendars. Let’s find a way to make quality apparel creation accessible to those who have their heart in the right place. After all, it could change the world…

I might be late to the party here, as it has been a good nine months since I’ve been through any airport, but when I showed up at the San Jose airport this morning, the TSA security protocols were new to me! A seasoned traveler for the last decade or so, I’m an expert in putting all of my electronics in special pockets so they’re easy to pull out and set inside their TSA tray. I’ve even gone so far as to mentally design the perfect bag that doesn’t require extra zipping or sharing of space in designated laptop / tablet pockets to make it even easier. But today, we no longer had to pull out our electronics! Here I was, pulling items out of my backpack as quickly as possible, only to be told to put them back. In addition to that, I was not prepared to need a tray for every single item, including my roller bag. In the past, my roller bag was typically just put up on the conveyor belt on its back. I suppose this is much more sanitary because the trays are cleaned more often than the belt and machine, but I was once again unprepared. I had to be that lady in line who had to go back to get another tray. For some reason, everyone else around me seemed to know the deal. I guess everyone else has been traveling throughout the pandemic, and I’m the odd one out. It seemed surreal to be almost a newbie again at these processes. I used to kind of pride myself on being good at airport protocol. I guess I just need to keep getting out there more, so that I can get back up to speed. For the record, we did still have to remove shoes, belts, jackets, sunglasses and anything else like that. So there are some things that remain the same. I guess I have to re-think my bag design now though! Who needs a bag specifically designed for easy electronics removal through security if it’s no longer an issue?

I finally have my plan in place for the initial launch of my apparel line! I’ve chosen two amazing fabrics and two key products that we plan to launch for Women-Led Wednesday in November, which is the day before Thanksgiving. We then hope to spark additional sales for Small Business Saturday, propelling us into the Holidays. Here are some of the details for our key partners in this project: TAIANA / KINETECH FABRICS: Based out of Como, Italy, the family owned and operated woven fabric mill of Taiana will be a key provider of our fabrics. Prioritizing sustainability and eco-friendly options across their entire line of materials, Taiana puts an emphasis on research and technology to reduce its carbon footprint. Oeko-Tex certified, Taiana sets increasingly ambitious goals every year, guaranteeing a growing attention in the environmental field in every phase of their material production processes. Their implementation of various “WATT” fabrications to their line now also offers solutions that offer thermoregulation, moisture transfer, protection from electromagnetic radiation and also have antimicrobial properties.It is durable and has been used for its healing properties for decades. These fabrics will offer a unique solution for our line, like nothing else out on the market today.   BOMME STUDIO: Bomme Studio is a contract clothing manufacturer that believes in fair labor and sustainable business practices. Their mission is to provide high-quality ethical labor for clothing brands and fashion designers that want to revolutionize the fashion supply chain both domestically and beyond. Located in LA, we will be excited to partner with a like-minded USA manufacturer only a few hours away from our home base! Bomme Studio has joined together with other LA apparel brands to figure out solutions to end sweatshop labor and reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry. They also source their trims and additional materials from a 10-mile radius of their downtown office. In 2022, they are working to gain their Plastic Neutral certification. As we work toward solidifying a name for the line and securing funding for the initial purchase orders, we will be sure to keep you updated with the progress. Soon, we’ll be reaching out to find some brand ambassadors who can help us to test the product, advise on improvements before final production and get the word out to potential customers. If you’re interested in becoming a brand ambassador this Summer, please join our mailing list for regular updates: https://www.bluejeansandbeaches.com/coming-soon .

Among my many denim projects while at Fossil, my pièce de résistance was this amazing little denim jacket. Coming off of my denim jacket project at ANF, I had a strong knowledge base under me to get the fit of this piece dialed. And I worked on this pattern until it was damn near perfect. Every seam placement and shape was scrutinized to make sure it was flattering on a variety of bodies. The pockets were moved quarters of an inch at a time to make sure they didn’t create a dreaded saggy chest appearance. Lengths were tested for the body and the sleeves until they hit at the most flattering position. And then after all that, we poured over the stitching details, buttons and labels. While I have had a fair number of favorite projects throughout my career, this one really felt like I came to life through this garment. My new position at Fossil had a lot more freedom than I’d ever had before in my work, and I was able to express my talent through the creation of this jacket. It somehow feels and looks like me when I put it on, and it brings comfort and warmth to my body and spirit when it’s with me. I know that all sounds super cheesy, but it’s hard to describe the connection that I have with this piece of clothing after spending so many hours on its design, fit and feel. Clearly, I have a bit of a love affair with a good denim garment! But I truly believe that a classic denim jacket will never go out of style. When the weather is just perfect for a light jacket, my trusty denim friend is almost always my go-to item. It feels appropriate to pair with a t-shirt and jeans or with a pretty summer dress. This jacket often can be seen hanging on the back of one of our kitchen chairs, especially in the Spring when I tend to reach for it every day. It is almost a piece of our home that makes it feel like “us.” I once made the mistake of donating my original version of this jacket when I was cleaning out my closet before a move. Almost immediately, I regretted that it was no longer a part of my wardrobe. Not only is the color great for pairing with anything, but it fit me just perfectly. A couple of years ago, I decided that I should stop longing for it and see if I could find a second-hand version online. Poshmark did not fail me! I had to scour photos of the various versions I was finding to make sure it was the right one. Its country of origin is unique among most other Fossil Denim Jackets, so that helped me to narrow it down. When I received it in the mail, it was like seeing an old friend show up at your doorstep. I will never let it go again.

When you search for Santa Cruz, California online, a list of multiple activities and tourist attractions will come up. The various beaches, our famous Beach Boardwalk and state parks definitely top the list. However, I rarely see some of my favorite local spots on those lists. Understandably, it’s probably because I’ve been living in Santa Cruz for several years now and we tend to leave the most popular sites to the tourists. I’ll admit that I still have never ridden on the Big Dipper Roller Coaster at the Boardwalk or visited the Mystery Spot. (I know, I know… I will definitely get to these places one of these days). It’s almost like when I lived in New York City back in college and didn’t go visit the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building until I had visitors in town who wanted to hit all of the sights. Instead, my husband and I prefer to find the quieter spots around town where we can enjoy the weather, the location, the views, and a little more calm. Here are my Top 5 spots in Santa Cruz, if you’re interested in seeing the area like a local:   Downtown Capitola Whenever we have visitors staying with us, we always opt to take them to Downtown Capitola over Downtown Santa Cruz. While it can still be a busy area, it is typically described as “quaint.” The various shops are predominantly owned by locals, and there are plenty of restaurants to stop into for lunch or a snack. My perfect day in Capitola looks like this: Head south on 41st street and stop at Verve for a latte and a short walk to The Hook to watch the surfers start their morning. Walking back to the car, make a stop at East Side Eatery for one of the best Breakfast / Brunch spots in the entire Santa Cruz area. After Brunch, head downtown and park at the public lot at 426 Capitola Avenue for your best chance at finding an empty spot. It will cost you to park no matter where you find a free space in the area, so make it easy on yourself instead of wasting your time doing laps on the streets. This lot only charges $0.50 per hour, so it will be your best bet! Wander in and out of all the amazing shops throughout the afternoon and check out Trestles Restaurant if you’re looking for something a little upscale for dinner. Wear plenty of sunscreen and bring your sunglasses.   Seabright Just North of Seabright State Beach are several of the best restaurants in the Santa Cruz area, in my opinion. Not only is Seabright a quieter, less frequented beach to set yourself up for a day in the sun, but the area has much less car traffic than Santa Cruz proper. Among some of our favorite restaurants in Seabright, I can highly recommend Seabright Social for great locally brewed beers and food, or check out Betty’s Burgers to try a local chain. For an outstanding Italian meal, you can’t go wrong with La Posta or Tramonti on Seabright Avenue. Nestled right next to each other, there must just be something special about that location! Reserve a table for yourselves to make sure you can get in at a time you desire. You don’t want to miss your chance to have their food.   Black’s Beach I actually hesitated to put this Beach on my list, because it is SUCH a local’s secret spot and it would be ruined if it became too popular. We close out every single Friday afternoon with a visit to this beach, where they have fire pits, much less people and public restrooms at the top of the hill. We recently had some family photos taken on this beach when everyone was in town for a visit, and they turned out beautiful. We were the only people on the beach that morning!   The Harbor The Santa Cruz Harbor is another quiet beach spot where locals will head for volleyball on the beach, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking and (of course!) boating. One of our favorite activities for a Saturday afternoon is to head down to the Crow’s Nest Beach Market for a slice of pizza and a beer from the cooler. Sitting out on their patio, we can watch the boats coming in and out of the harbor. After an afternoon of the entertainment, head just a few steps away to the main Crow’s Nest Restaurant to try their award winning calamari. It is some of the best in the city! (The Crow’s Nest also has a stellar Brunch menu, if you find yourself at The Harbor on a Sunday morning. Ask for the eggs benedict with a biscuit instead of an English muffin. It is a meal to remember!)   Swift Street On the opposite side of town, the WestSide of Santa Cruz is another hot spot for locals. Along Swift Street, you can find a bustling patio scene at Humble Sea Brewery. Growing at a wild pace and expanding to multiple locations in Northern California, Humble Sea is earning awards and local love more and more every day. If you’re looking to do some brewery hopping, you can walk from Humble Sea to Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery in a measly five minutes. Heading South on Swift Street will take you to the famous West Cliff Drive and provides an easy way to get to Natural Bridges State Beach. If you’re in this area, check out Steamer Lane Supply for a burger or quesadilla. I purposely schedule a lot of my work meetings at this location, just to enjoy the view and weather for a picnic-table-style discussion.     Santa Cruz has numerous areas to visit, but be prepared for traffic and difficulty parking if you head to some of the most popular sites. The streets in the area can be difficult to navigate, so bring your patience and chill “beach vibe” with you when you come.

Building a tech pack will be slightly unique to every company. Each has its own template, and many use Product Line Management Software Systems to store data, simplify the work and standardize the formats. Throughout my career, I’ve found that every Tech Pack should house three main elements at the very least: Technical Sketches: I’ve seen technical sketches executed in a variety of ways, and as long as your manufacturing partner can understand the specifications listed, any of them can work. Some companies will allow their designers to do hand-drawn sketches with details called out all around the illustration. A truly buttoned up version will show a proportionally accurate flat sketch, which is digitally drawn on the computer. Surrounding the sketch will be similar detail notes with arrows pointing to the detail location. At the highest level of Technical Sketching, I’ve helped teams employ a coded construction manual. The manual includes close-up digital sketches of each detail itself, which is then coded with an alpha-numeric combination. For example, three different Collar Construction details that the company uses over and over again could be coded as “C01-C03” on the Technical Sketch to simplify the verbiage. As many manufacturers’ first language won’t match yours, it can be much faster and easier to communicate via these drawings, instead of writing out too many words. Bill of Materials (BOM): A chart listing out every single fabric, trim, label and packaging item should be included for each garment. These charts should also list out fabric yields and/or trim quantities with their cost per yard or per piece to help calculate rough costs. The factory will use these forms to make sure they’ve ordered all correct elements of the garment, using your chosen items and colors. Bills of material can be an often overlooked item, as they tend to become a copy / paste template from piece to piece when you’re building larger lines. My advice is to pay close attention to every single row and column in your BOM, to ensure all of the details are correct. I cannot tell you how many times a garment arrives with an incorrect trim or missing a crucial part because someone didn’t list it properly on the BOM. Measurements: Whether you’re only listing out the sample size measurements at first, or whether you’re fully including graded specifications and grade rules, measurements will be key to creating your apparel samples. Your factory can reference back to your target measurements when they are creating your pattern and sewing your samples. This also gives them a great reference point when they are quality checking your garments before sending to you. From there, you can add additional elements: Construction Detail Sheets, Packaging Instructions and How-to-Measure Sketches, to name a few. (We will talk more about these details in future posts). The most important goal you want to accomplish with any Tech Pack is to communicate all of the important garment details to the manufacturer as clearly as possible. Simple garments will have less pages and information, so it doesn’t always have to be a huge document. I also recommend that you never duplicate information in a tech pack, so that can also help to simplify this process. For example, if you list out a pocket measurement on your measurements sheet, don’t also list it on a technical sketch. There is too much room for error when listing information twice in a Tech Pack, which will only cause confusion and unnecessary questions from your manufacturing partner. Keep it simple not only for yourself, but also to prevent these kinds of mistakes and you’ll see success with your Tech Packs.

Throughout my career, the area I’ve visited most often is Heshan, China. The area is in the southern part of the Guangdong Province, and it is where my then-employer’s largest garment factory was located. Over eight years of working with this manufacturing partner, I had numerous opportunities to learn about this area by exploring its varying restaurants, shopping centers and hotels. For the first several years visiting Heshan, we consistently stayed at The Country Garden Phoenix Hotel. The rooms are spacious, the décor is ornate and beautiful, and the restaurants always provide an excellent dining experience. One of the best Coconut Curry dishes I’ve ever tasted was in their hotel restaurant for lunch service. I’ve been trying to replicate it at home ever since. Large banquet rooms can be reserved for large groups, and I’ve had the pleasure of eating many team meals there as well. My first visit there in 2014 was one of the most memorable trips I’ve ever taken. The team that I traveled with quickly became fast friends of mine, and most of them I still stay in touch with to this day. Most of us were new hires at the company and we worked long hours every day to make good impressions. In the evenings, we were hosted at dinners in elegant Chinese restaurants where the local team helped us to try all of their favorite foods. One evening, they took us to a local restaurant that made Italian pasta, pizza and desserts. A short walk from our hotel, we actually went back there a second time before we left! While that Italian restaurant no longer exists in the area, and the excitement of traveling to Heshan eventually became just a normal part of our annual calendar, we never encountered a bad trip. And I have to attribute that 100% to our amazing hosts. The people we visit in this area of the world are unmatched in their level of hospitality. It’s hard to compare to other trips because we all got to know each other so well, we almost felt like a group of friends getting together every few months. In more recent visits, we started staying at a brand new Four Points by Sheraton Hotel that was built in Heshan. The new hotel is beautiful. Its restaurant is also extremely nice, although its menu is a little more American-ized or European. If and when I go back, I will likely stay here again. There’s something about that classic Sheraton smell that draws me back again and again.

This Friday, April 1st, Unmarked Street will welcome its first new team member. It feels so exciting and almost surreal to be at this point in our journey. Our growth up until now has been extremely organic, and we have many of you to thank for referrals and industry connections. (Thank you!!!) The outreach has been amazing! But as we continue to search for like-minded brands to partner with, our marketing and networking game needs to be ramped up. I am doing my best to learn all the nuances of marketing and social media, but it’s just not something I’ll master fast enough. So without further ado, we are so excited to welcome Nat Gerding as our new Social Media Manager in April! Nat’s background as a marketing and social media manager for the last several years will make her a great fit for our growing company. Helping us to stay in touch with the latest trends, algorithms and marketing methods will help Unmarked Street to find a wider audience and ultimately help more brands bring their apparel line dreams to life. Nat is a beautiful photographer, and is also based out of Santa Cruz, California. Her passion for the ocean and surf photography is obvious in her images. In 2019, she spent 100 days in a row surfing to learn the sport and gain a level of confidence on the water. Since then, her new love of surfing has taken her to beaches in multiple countries, and it has become a regular part of her life. Often seen playing with her two gorgeous dogs on the local beaches, Nat understands how to prioritize the most important parts of her life first. It’s something I’m genuinely excited to learn from her as we work together more. Welcome, Nat!

Traveling to foreign countries can of course be daunting. The biggest fear I talk about with nervous travelers is the language barrier that they’ll encounter with the locals. And while I believe that you can and should travel wherever you want without fear, I do recommend that learning a little bit of the language is a smart idea. In my travels throughout the globe, I’ve been to places where I know the language a decent amount and I’ve been to many places where I only know how to say, “Hello” and “Thank You.” It is definitely true that knowledge of the local language can be a huge asset. The first time I ever experienced an issue with a language barrier was when I was in Germany for the Eurobike Trade Show in 2015. I was training for a triathlon at the time, and planned to stick to my training plan throughout the trip. One morning, I got up for my run and set off on a route that I’d planned on a map the night before. I took my phone with me, and felt confident that the out-and-back path would be easy to remember. It wasn’t. As I was heading back toward the hotel, two miles from finishing my run, I realized that I wasn’t recognizing my surroundings. The buildings looked very different from what I remembered seeing on my way out, and I had a moment of panic that I was lost. I went to turn on my phone’s GPS to find my way back, only to realize that the international plan I’d purchased for the trip only included phone and text messages. It didn’t include data! (Another mistake I’ll never make again…) Stopping into a couple of local breakfast shops, I asked several locals if they could point me back toward my hotel. Nobody knew what I was asking them. We were in such a small town, nobody I found could speak English with me and I didn’t know much German at all. Eventually, I somehow recognized a large passageway while I wandered the streets, and I found my way back just in time to quickly shower, change and make it to the car to get to the show. Without that bit of luck though, I wasn’t really even sure what my next move would have been. On the flip side of the coin, the best example I have of knowing the language is when my husband took me to Paris for the first time. Four years of French in high school and some thorough brushing up before our trip really helped me to recall the language. As we made our way through the city, my French came in handy everywhere we went. Getting amazing service at restaurants, chatting with vendors at shops and farmer’s markets and helping us find the right train stops, streets and directions was at the top of the list. My husband loves to tell the story about the farmer’s market we visited in Nice, where I asked about the price of some delicious looking raspberries in Italian by accident. After countless trips to Italy for work over the last few years, this was apparently my go-to language before I had coffee and before my brain was fully working. The vendor answered me in Italian, which prompted me to apologize for using the wrong language, of course in French. He laughed and responded in French, asking us if we also wanted to purchase some of the strawberries he was selling. Like a real amateur, I then replied in Spanish and he told us our total cost in Spanish as if it didn’t phase him at all! Haha! By this time, I was just embarrassed and asked him to forgive me, as I was a silly American who was trying her best but clearly not succeeding on this morning. So he naturally also switched over to speak English to us for the remainder of our interaction. Amazing! In France, our willingness and ability to speak some French was essential. I had actually been nervous to travel to Paris, as I’d heard so many mixed reviews about people being treated rudely when they visited. We actually found it to be the complete opposite. Parisians are some of the friendliest, kindest, quiet and polite people I’ve ever encountered in my travels. A simple “Merci” and “Bonjour” when passing someone on the street instead of “Thank You” and “Hello” goes a long way in their city. Making the effort means something about the level of respect you have for their community, and that will always be the best way to travel.

After a couple of years into my first job, I started to crave the opportunity to challenge myself in a new department. While Outerwear felt like a pinnacle product to help create for the iconic brand, I was acutely aware of the risk I was taking by pigeonholing myself into this niche. Many brands don’t even offer Outerwear garments, and if I wanted further opportunities in the industry, I knew I needed to branch out. At the time at ANF, our “sister” team under the same technical design management group was the denim department. I started to ask about a transfer to their team, but knew it would take some time to figure out the transition. A natural intermediate step for me to take then was to have a hand in creating some denim jackets. I’d get the chance to learn more about this versatile fabric while sticking to my department and current set of skills. It felt like a perfect match. The best part of working with denim is learning about the hundreds of creative ways to give the fabric some personality. You can abrade denim, bleach it, sand it, paint it, wash it in countless ways and bring it to threadbare patches (to name just a few techniques). Our Research and Development building at the New Albany campus had ways for us to experiment and try any and all of it! We had so much fun working with the teams in R&D to come up with each garment’s unique denim treatment. As I became better in these methods and started to show my creativity to the group, I was given the opportunity to help with the Hollister and kids’ denim jacket projects as well. They were all wonderful collaborations with the lead technical designers of each brand’s Outerwear line, and this was an amazing time in my career to learn from so many talented women around me. Just as my transfer was about to go through to the denim bottoms team, I ended up leaving Abercrombie for my next opportunity. It always felt like my career could have been such a happy one if I’d stayed and grew within the ANF family. But my husband and I always wanted to live outside of Ohio, and that was a dream we prioritized after our first few years together. Luckily, in my next role at Fossil, I had ample opportunities to continue my education in denim and even more.