Big up to Ballerhouse.com
for spotlighting BK Designs and featuring Laidback as one of the lines to check out next week at the show.

While not the most flattering pictures of the Laidback chick this is the real!!! The Laidback chick was reduced to tears of exhaustion today preparing for BK Designs. I carried 128 yards of fabric from the Garment District to my printer in Dumbo. It was pure hell!!!! and had to be about 80lbs of lugging fabric up the train steps and down several times to get to the printer. The Laidback chick sheds tears to keep you Living Laidback.

I feel like I have been neglecting you guys, but when you see what I am working on you will see that it is very much worth it. Working steadily on getting everything together for Bk Designs, wrapping up a class that I teach at FIT that also has me looking to collaborate on a few new ventures. In all of the craziness my laidback nephew JB is laid up in CHOP, so I am back and forth over there. However through all of the creative madness I am still hunting and researching a space for Laidback. A source of inspiration is the lovely new boutique in Nolita Shane and Shawn a beautiful new shoe store that laidback jr and I checked out this weekend. The design of the store plays homage to the comfort of the cushioned shoe with tufted walls. LB Jr was amazed at the beauty of the bathroom. The store is an experience in it’s own. Kudos to the cuties that I first spotted on The Big Idea then later befriended through myspace.

Last night Ngozi and I headed over to a Wachovia hosted event of Champions panel. Steve Stoute, who’s career I’ve been following even more closely as he partnered with Carol’s Daughter was on the panel. I had the opportunity to ask him about dealing with niche projects and his thoughts on opening a retail space and he offered some cool insight about his experience. That alone made the event worthwhile. Mediabistro’s, Laurel Touby, and Heartland Brewery’s Jon Bloostein rounded out the panel with some great information. Laidback collected some insight for the future of the biz and connected with a nice group of business professionals.

As I prepare for the Brooklyn Designs Show a summer launch party, a series of trunk shows and how I am going to bring Laidback to the college set, I have been keeping you folks in the dark. Laidback is in the planning stage of it’s first store. Fueling the fire to bring you the Laidback store is this booth display that Gali (one of the FIT students from the retreat) and I have been working on for an upcoming tradeshow. Take a peek at the show floor plan and share your thoughts on where and what you’d like to see in the Laidback boutique.

Last Friday I had the joy of going to the beautiful Glen Cove mansion as a guest speaker along with my friend and fellow entrepreneur Ouigi, of The Brooklyn Circus to spread the light on building a brand and the heart and sole that goes into it. We had a great time and it was great hanging out with The Future (students at FIT). Don’t underestimate the power of Generation Y.