Join in this week with a magical talk with Liz DeSilva, she is the Vice President of Creative of Loungefly including the apparel line Stitch Shoppe. We dive into how Stich Shoppe has survived the pandemic and their strive to create clothing that is fun, bright, nostalgic, and most importantly comfortable for all body types.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Miss Pinup Miami (00:03):
Good day. And welcome back to the pin podcast.
I'm your host Pinup Miami, wherewe talk about modern topics with
a vintage flair. It is yourfirst time listening to us.
Welcome. I hope you stick aroundand like everything that we're
chatting about. If you're areturning listener, I want to
say thank you so much. Thankyou. Thank you. Thank you. I've
(00:24):
loved all your feedback and thetext as I've been getting. And
for everyone that doesn't knowwhat I'm talking about, make
sure to follow the podcast onInstagram at the pin podcast
official. Or you can send me atext 2183348 pinup. Very easy
and simple. I can answer anyquestions you got any topics you
(00:44):
have that you want on the show,or if you want to be a guest on
the show. I love that as well.
This week was well last week wasthe last week for the pin
calendar applications that I hadout. And I want to say that the
response was so overwhelming ifit's your first time listening.
The pin calendar is one of myprojects that every year, I send
out applications to any girlthat wants to be turned into a
(01:07):
pin up for a day well for aphoto shoot. And they get to be
able to calendar girls of theYear for the pinna calendar. So
check out more input the pincalendar, I'll be really seeing
who got accepted to the calendarby this weekend. And thank you
all who applied who donated itmeans so much to me. Thank you.
Now today's episode, I have avery special guest we have the
(01:31):
Vice President of creative ofloungefly, including the apparel
line at stitch shop, Liz deSilva, how are you? I'm
excellent. How are you? I'mdoing great.
It's nice to have you on here.
Want to say thank you for beingon the pain podcast. Of course,
I want to know about you whatis, you know, what is the Vice
(01:53):
President of creative.
Liz (01:58):
So pretty much what the vice president creative is I
oversee everything creative forloungefly. So any apparel we do
like stitch up or our loungeflyapparel that's launching in
about a month, all of our enamelpins, our backpacks. So I'm
working with our licensepartners like Disney, Marvel
(02:22):
Warner Brothers, whoever thatis, I'm working with our retail
partners. And I'm working withmy amazing creative team full of
artists that,that make all of our products.
And I'm just making sure thatwe're offering everybody unique
items that you know, boxlunchget something special, our main
line gets something special, andmore than anything, making sure
(02:43):
that we're just staying on topof innovation trends and just
fresh new designs for our fans.
And how did you start off withthe company? like did you start
off by a project? Um, so Iactually, I joined Funko, who
owns loungefly, about a littleover two years ago, and joined
(03:08):
because they had kind of avision to start his apparel
line, and the CEO of Funko.
Brian is awesome. He is soproduct focused. So innovation
focus. And myself and mypartner, Derek, who's the VP of
business development atloungefly, we flew up to Funko
and pitched an idea. And theidea of like, so perfectly fit
(03:30):
in with loungefly that, youknow, they offered us the chance
to kind of just take over likethe vision of loungefly and move
loungefly forward, obviouslyloungefly has been doing amazing
designs for a long time. So um,I just kind of stuck in and I
did I did show design. So I hada whole presentation of kind of
(03:50):
this concept that ended up beingstitch shop and included some
things that we haven't got toyet that I hope to get to
someday but yeah, so that's kindof how I did I had
this this project in my head fora long time and Funko was super
open to it and supportive. Sothat's how I ended up head of
(04:14):
creative at loungefly.
Miss Pinup Miami (04:17):
See, I found out about loungefly because I
sent them in Florida. Disney hasalways been a part of my life.
And I see all the girls thatcollect like all the backpacks.
And they're so cute andhandbags. And Mickey Mouse won
the
Liz (04:32):
Yep, I've actually been a loungefly fan for a long time I
have like it's a tote bag withlike tattoo style swallows and
an anchor that I've had sinceprobably like the early 2000s.
So I've always had like a smallloungefly collection. And I just
love their details andeverything about them as a
brand. So I was really excitedto join the team and they have
(04:55):
an amazing, amazing team ofpeople from sales to design. To
creative, I mean just reallyawesome people that care a lot
about the brand, which is greatto be a part of a team like
that.
Miss Pinup Miami (05:08):
It's always nice when you're surrounded by
you're able to create and besurrounded by other people that
want to create fun things. Ifeel like some jobs are slowly
shifting, but some jobs are juststuck in the old ways. And
Liz (05:21):
I think what makes loungefly great is we have a lot
of real fans like even like thesales team, and the PD team and
the art team, everyone are fansof at least some of the, you
know, properties that we workon. So whether they're like
really into Pokemon, or theygrew up with Star Wars, and
that's like really nostalgic forthem, whatever it is, everybody
(05:41):
got gets really excited aboutsomething which is cool.
Miss Pinup Miami (05:45):
What was the first collection, that stitch
shop came out with
Liz (05:48):
the very first stitch shop collection, I'm wearing a piece
of it. So we launched withDisney, and we launched in the
middle of like kind of the worstpart of the pandemic early on,
we were actually supposed tolaunch sooner. And with COVID,
we delayed and we ended uplaunching in June of 2020. And
(06:10):
we launched with a largecollection that included kind of
vintage takes on Minnie andMickey, three Disney Princess
pieces and three Toy Story. AndI'm sorry, it's been a long
week, three Pixar up pieces.
Miss Pinup Miami (06:34):
They're gorgeous. And so what's the
process? When you come up withan idea? Like, give us a
synopsis? I'm sure there's morethan more details in between.
But if you get an idea, you havea team to design.
Liz (06:46):
Yeah, so I'm my partner, Derek and I, we typically start
by just looking at like thewhole quarter. So if you're
looking at first quarter likeJanuary, February, March, we
look at like, what's happeningat that time? Are there
anniversaries? What licenses arewe going to cover. So once we
have the framework, I startworking with my team. So for
(07:08):
stitch shop, have an amazingsenior designer named Deseret,
and we kind of decide on a maindirection. And then she goes off
and starts getting, you know,crazy with material ideas. And
we both pull kind of artdirections and she starts
pulling, you know, silhouetteideas. And once we narrow a
direction, then we get into asfar as like trims, embroideries
(07:31):
all that type of so we havethese big boards, kind of like
this one right here behind methat just has bad collections.
But we fill up these big conceptboards with whatever we're kind
of liking and then we narrow itfrom there, kind of like big
mood boards.
Miss Pinup Miami (07:46):
I love it. It sounds like you're a movie,
you're creating a storyboard andall the ideas all together and
then you tell the story at theend with these beautiful
graphics all together in acollection.
Liz (07:55):
Yep, pretty much.
Miss Pinup Miami (07:58):
What is your favorite part about working? I
know he said the creative teambut if there's like one little
thing that you like the most.
Liz (08:05):
Um, so I think what is great about working at loungefly
is that our partners like Disneyand Warner Brothers and Sanrio,
they give lounge play a lot ofleeway to explore these super
creative and unique ideas. So Ithink the best part for me is
being able to think outside thebox and bring ideas to say
(08:28):
Disney that haven't been outthere before. And they're really
open to it. They give us a lotof leeway. And I think my second
favorite part is really readingthe fan feedback on social
media, especially during thisyear, I got to read a lot of
people that like hey, lovedhaving something to look forward
to in the mail, we've all gonelike months and months and
(08:49):
months of staying at home. So ifyou have a dress coming or you
have a bag coming, and that'syou know, something that you can
look forward to whether you'rejust gonna plan an outfit to
wear at home, or whatever, it'sstill fun, it's still something
to look forward to at a timewhen you're not going anywhere.
So I love love to see that wemade somewhat of a difference to
(09:10):
people during this you know,really difficult time. So that's
been really great.
Miss Pinup Miami (09:16):
And love the the nostalgia of all the
collections that you have makeseveryone just giddy about them
and think about great memories.
You know, because you forexample, the people you're
talking about, they can't likeif they're in Florida or they go
to the parks a lot that givesthem like that little thing
they're missing. You had a CocaCola collection and now everyone
loves coke. Well, not everyonebut in front of them. They love
(09:37):
the Coca Cola aesthetic. Andit's that nostalgia that people
just want to hold on to and Ithink that's what makes like
stitch shops really stand outand the colors because I'm a
sucker for color.
Liz (09:50):
I can tell I love your color story today.
Miss Pinup Miami (09:53):
Thank you.
Yes, we
Liz (09:55):
definitely keep it colorful aside from maybe around like
Halloween Timing, we get alittle bit darker. But we do we
do have some some pretty brightpalettes and more coming. So
yes, I am a huge fan of color. Ialways say my favorite color is
rainbow because I could neverpick one. But yes, we definitely
(10:16):
like to play with fun colorpalettes and that will never
change about set shop. So
Miss Pinup Miami (10:21):
good. I love that. And I got I saw a lot of
my own pieces I don't really soI've done some commissioned
pieces. And one thing that Iappreciate, you know, coming
like looking on your Instagramon stitch, stitch shop and
loungefly is that you show avariety of all different types
of women and men. So it's notlike a guessing game, because
(10:42):
I've been to some websites thatlike you don't get to try them
on person in person, right? Andyou're like guessing like, okay,
does that look good on my bodyshape, you know, because I'm a
plus size woman. Or for myboyfriend, he's skinnier, but
you know. So it's like, I wantto see what it looks like. And
your page really shows a lot. Soyour brand, like I know you said
(11:02):
earlier, when your team getstogether and creates, you know,
you look at the silhouette. Whatimportance is that because I
know everybody is different.
It's so
Liz (11:11):
important, it's probably one of the most important
things. And when we starteddesigning this line that was
always in the forefront. So itwas always like, is this sleeve
going to be comfortable when wewere doing fittings we fit on
when we started the lineoriginally fit on a size large
and a size 2x. And that's how wedid our fittings. And it was
(11:32):
really important that like everysleeve was not going to pull. So
when we did fittings, I was likepretend like you're driving, I
don't want to I want to makesure it's not pulling on your
arm. And you know doing normaleveryday things because nicer
quality, you know, vintageinspired apparel can still be
super comfortable, and it needsto be comfortable for any size.
(11:53):
So that was a big part of likethe ramp up to our launch was
many, many, many fittings. Andnot just that is anyone that's
followed our journey from thebeginning knows that after our
first collection launched, welistened to all the feedback,
all of it, and we adjusted somelength, we added some elastic
(12:18):
into some of the skirts to makethe fit a little bit easier. So
we definitely listen to whateverybody said we've had a lot
of people requesting a shortsleeved dress because they
wanted a sleeve. We had this onebut later, we did more
sleeveless dresses. And so we'vedeveloped to two or three new
short sleeve styles that will becoming out this year based on
(12:40):
just listening to the to the fanreaction because loungefly
answer job if anything, likewe're here to make things that
people love. So it's superimportant to me to hear all that
and, and in the beginning, um,we didn't have like a Social
Media Manager during COVID. So Iactually did it, which was
great. Even though it was a lotof work, it was great because I
(13:02):
got to talk to a lot of fans ofstitch shop and hear their
feedback. And I used to even,like, try on dresses before
launch and show people like hey,my waist is a 36 right now and
this is how this size fits on meand my partner would be like,
what are you doing? Why are yousending them pictures of
yourself. But it's important,right and you know, the tough
(13:22):
part about COVID was that wecouldn't we didn't have access
to a ton of people to show thegarments on even now when we do
our photo shoots we can onlyshoot one person at a time we
don't do hair and makeup, wehave a lot of restrictions just
to keep people safe. So in thefuture Our goal is to have lives
with multiple shorter models,taller models, all different
(13:46):
body types so that people cansee before a launch Oh, okay,
that person has a body similarto mine cool because we do try
to see to as many a really widevariety of influencers and and
models so I'm glad you see thatso that people can can relate to
one of them and see how it fitthem. But we'd like to take it
(14:08):
further as soon as it's a littlebit safer to do that.
Miss Pinup Miami (14:12):
Oh I like that because even a video is even
better because then you see theway it flows because I know for
me when I see like a pencilskirt online, let's say and it
says stretchy and then you lookat the model Yeah, they
Photoshop are really nice. Butyou know we're all well at least
women that are bigger. We allhave curves in places we don't
really want to we don't want tomake any weight these curves. So
(14:35):
it's nice some video too becauseyou get to see how the fabric
flows. It fits it's smooth. Ilike
Liz (14:42):
some of the some of our some of our influencers or
collaborators that we used, werereally great this last year, and
they would do stories and livesand go on and really show people
you know I typically wear thissize and this is how this fits.
And I could have sighs down orwhatever. And they gave like a
(15:02):
lot of great information. So Imean, we were super grateful for
all of them, because they gaveus all that extra info that we,
you know, we couldn't do inhouse or in a studio to share
with everyone. So that was superhelpful.
Miss Pinup Miami (15:16):
I like it.
It's amazing how social media, Iknow that a pandemic has really
turned everyone's life upsidedown. But it really has shown us
new ways of doing things. Andyou saw the positive, you know,
you were involved in thebeginning of your social media.
And I it's amazing that you tookinitiative and did you know the
social media and really got toknow like, the people on there
(15:37):
and help them out and yourpartner just telling you why he
taking video.
Liz (15:45):
Yeah, we finally have like, we have an amazing social
director now that joined us,just before the beginning of
this year. So it's new for us.
But I still when we launchproducts, go on and read every
single comment. I have a lot ofpeople that you know, will reach
out to me on my personalInstagram and ask questions
about the product. And they'llalways be like, I don't want to
(16:06):
bother you. I know you're busy.
And I'm like, No, bother me.
Like, I want to know what youguys think I want to hear
feedback, even if it's good, ifit's bad. Our products only get
better from all of the feedbackthat we get. So yeah, I love
that people still reach out tome, even though I'm not running
the social anymore, and get thatinfo. And then I just I just
(16:26):
take it upon myself. And Iscroll and I read all the
comments, and it's the bestinformation. So for me social
media is great, it's awesome.
Miss Pinup Miami (16:36):
And then you get to, um, what's the word I'm
looking for? You just get a oneon one relationship. And you
take that just like with myevents, like I always have a
survey at the end if somebodyenters one of my contests just
to know how I can make itbetter, or with the person that
hired me so I can improve for mynext event. And it just helps
(16:56):
you grow and just be stronger atwhat your craft is and be able
to you're not you know, nextcollection, you'll be like, oh,
a lot of people like you saidwith your short sleeves. You
know, we need to get the sleevesor stretch. And little details
like the driving thing. Youdon't think about that. But
you're everyone drives. Yes.
Liz (17:14):
Well, I've had dresses, I think when when we were starting
this, I just took everythingthat always drove me crazy about
dresses that I bought over theyears and I tried to fix them I
tried to think about, you know,certain sleeves that always cut
in or just didn't feelflattering. You know, certain
types of waistband zippersbreaking constantly on me that
(17:35):
was one of my biggest things isI refuse to make a line with
cheap zippers. Because I had somany styles I had to if I had
time so so a new zipper inmyself or take to having a car.
Yes. And I was like, I don'twant that. So we have like these
gorgeous beefy zippers that youcan you can zip up yourself and
(17:56):
and they shouldn't snag on you.
So um, so yeah, I just took alot of my history of wearing,
you know, vintage inspiredclothes and all the things that
kind of drove me crazy. Likethis dress, for example, has
buttons closer together over thebus, so that you don't get that
pole. You know, all those thosetype of things that you just
wish when you got the dress andyou really love it, but you're
(18:18):
like, Oh, I wish it had this. Wetried to take as many of those
things into account and evenwhen we thought we took so many
in, we've taken we've gotten somuch feedback from people that
have made things that muchbetter. So I think, you know,
stitch shop in in 2022 I mean,we'll probably be, you know,
another level. Yeah, a wholenother level of, we just want to
(18:38):
make things more comfortable. Iwant you to be able to go to
Disneyland for the day, wear iton rides, eat all the snacks and
still be comfortable.
Miss Pinup Miami (18:48):
That's the important part. Especially if we
go to the parks you know, youwant to be cute for Instagram.
But they wanna
Liz (18:56):
be I can't help you with your heels but I can definitely
try and get you a comfortabledress.
Miss Pinup Miami (19:01):
I think it's funny when I go to dapper day in
Florida and people take theirheels and put them in a bag in a
lounge fly bag.
Liz (19:10):
Perfect.
Miss Pinup Miami (19:11):
And then they just take the photo and put it
back
Liz (19:14):
there smart though because I have limped out of a dapper
day before I have almost had tobe carried so they are smarter
than make. Yeah, I didn't think
Miss Pinup Miami (19:24):
I will I always wear flats or like some
cute flats. But when I saw thatI saw a couple of girls just pop
out heels from their bag. I waslike wow, that's
Liz (19:33):
brilliant. I can't well I can't wait until the parks open
here and I can see I've got aDowntown Disney a couple of
times and I seen people institch shop I actually took a
day off of work last week andwent to Downtown Disney because
I'm not a big fan of beingaround a lot of people during
COVID just, you know just wantto be safe and so I took a day
(19:57):
off of work to go and it wasless crowded and I was sitting
down and it envoy to VISTAStreet and a girl was walking by
and she was head to toe and saysshop with her Ewok outfit. And
then she had a loungefly Endorbackpack. And I just like my
friend was talking to me and Iwas just like, oh, jumped up ran
(20:18):
into this tree. How do you takea picture of her she just looked
amazing. And I can't wait to seemore people like getting a
chance to wear their dresseswhen the world is a little bit
more open.
Miss Pinup Miami (20:28):
Oh my god, that must feel so amazing.
seeing somebody with your likeeverything that you've worked
for so long all together,especially when she like,
coordinated it all cute.
Liz (20:37):
He was head to toe it's like exactly what I envisioned
when we're making the theapparel and to see people just
walking around in real life isphenomenal.
Miss Pinup Miami (20:48):
So talking about people, I have questions
that I got sent in on Instagram.
Sure. And via text. The firstone is what's your most popular
design?
Liz (21:01):
I think, um, from what I know from looking at sales, I
think from the beginning, ourmost popular design was the
original yellow Sandy skirt,which had the big Minnie Mouse
balloon on the front. Oh, kindof Yes, yes, I'm pretty sure
that that was our best sellerand that style in general, the
(21:23):
sandy skirt, which is like alittle bit longer length skirt
that we've now added elastic tothe back so it's even more
comfortable. That's where it'sso versatile. And it's it's
super comfortable. And it's agreat Canvas for beautiful art.
We released one today with theNeverland Peter Pan mermaids.
And it just it's a beautifulCanvas for either an all over
(21:45):
print or a scene. So I'm prettysure it was that yellow polka
dot Minnie Mouse skirt from thevery first collection has just
been everybody's favorite. So Iwill tell you that it's not a
mini skirt, but we havesomething inspired by that
coming later this year.
Miss Pinup Miami (22:04):
And it's yellow. What do you have any
like favorite designs or doesyour favorite change every time
a new one comes out?
Liz (22:13):
You know what I like? It does change kind of depending on
the time of year. This is one ofmy favorite dresses. It's just
this like Desi diner dress. It'ssuper comfortable. So I wear
this a lot. But I think in termsof designs, I absolutely loved
our princess books collectionthat we did, which it had no
(22:36):
princess faces, it was just allof their storybooks and like
secondary items from theirstory. And then we had this
amazing stitch up bag that wasshaped like five books on a
shelf and the innovation in thatline. And the things that our
team did just came together sobeautifully. And that was very
unique. And so I think I thinkthat one's probably my favorite
(22:59):
from a design standpoint,
Miss Pinup Miami (23:01):
because the designs are not only overall
good when you really look atit's very detailed.
Liz (23:06):
Yes, we are all about the details.
Miss Pinup Miami (23:09):
Yeah, like this celerina story.
Liz (23:12):
This collection. For example, when we did the trims,
we made them like a little moreoversize. So instead of doing
like a small scallop trim, wewanted to make it feel like a
little more cartoony, so it's alittle bigger and more
oversized. Like it was actuallylike Minnie Mouse's dress. And
that's the type of stuff I love.
I love it.
Miss Pinup Miami (23:29):
What is the most exciting part about working
with stitch shop.
Liz (23:34):
Um, I get I mean, to be honest, probably just now being
able to see people and thehappiness it brings them like I
love waking up in the morningand saying like, I'm gonna pull
together a look even when we'renot going anywhere during COVID
I love just putting myself in agood mood with a great outfit.
And I love seeing people onsocial media excited about their
(23:57):
stitch shop. I love seeingpeople of all different sizes,
all ethnicities wearing it, it'sjust it's absolutely beautiful.
definitely my favorite part
Miss Pinup Miami (24:08):
and then taking selfies with them like
hey,
Liz (24:12):
I hope I get to like I feel like I've become you know,
social media friends with somany people I've never met I
hope to start bumping intopeople in the parks in the next
couple years and and be able tomeet people in person because
there's been so many lovelypeople that have supported sit
shop from the beginning thatwere complete strangers to me
that are just really reallysweet people. So
Miss Pinup Miami (24:34):
who and I hope to make it out to California to
check out Disneyland I've neverbeen
Liz (24:39):
Yes, well we go we go to Florida quite a bit the
loungefly team when it's safe.
We were going you know two threetimes a year to meet with our
Disney Parks team out there. Sowe love coming to Florida and
seeing what's new at the parksover there.
Miss Pinup Miami (24:52):
Where can somebody in Florida buy stitch
in the Disney Springs or
Liz (24:56):
so right so right now, stitch shop is unique to
loungefly.com. And also, ifyou're in LA, you can get it at
the Funko Hollywood store wherethey have the actual garments,
or you can try them on. But foreveryone else outside of La
loungefly.com is where we launchall the collections right now.
(25:18):
And that may change in thefuture. We're working on some
things, but for right now,that's where you can find it.
Miss Pinup Miami (25:26):
How do you choose the next collection?
Liz (25:30):
So, um, so just like loungefly, we look at a lot of
different things we look at, youknow, anniversaries that are
happening, we look at, you know,seasons and holidays and all
different things. So we alwayswant to make sure you know, say
if it's Disney, for example, wewant to make sure that we're
giving enough love to our Disneyclassic friends. Our princess
(25:54):
friends are Pixar friends. Soone is about balance. Two is
about just what's going onwhat's trending. What are people
loving? You know, last year,there were big anniversaries for
Fantasia and Toy Story. So wedefinitely had to cover those.
So I can give you like a littlesneak peek of what's to come.
(26:15):
Winnie the Pooh for example hasan anniversary this year. So
you'll see something Winnie thePooh from us as well as Dumbo.
So that's kind of how it'sreally like what's going on in
the world. What what makes sensethat year and also sometimes
it's just fan favorites from youknow if we had a bag for
(26:37):
loungefly that sold really welland we get a lot of feedback
from fans like hey I love youknow I love this Tiana bag wish
there was more Tiana product andthat's something we would take
into consideration if we hear itenough. So definitely we listen
on
Miss Pinup Miami (26:53):
social media matching dress for my bag.
Liz (26:57):
So yeah, actually like a lot a lot of times people will
write like, I love thiscollection. I wish there was a
stitch up best to go with it orsomething like that. And again,
I read everything that Ipossibly can so some of it does
really come from fan feedback.
Miss Pinup Miami (27:11):
What is your favorite fandom
Liz (27:14):
so anyone that knows me who has been to my house or my
office that I've created hereknows that I am a hardcore
Disney fan. I have a pinkguestroom that is all Disney
theme. So if you if you ever seeat my house you can choose
there's a Star Wars and HarryPotter themed guestroom, and
then there's a Disney themeguestroom and I am a massive
(27:38):
Minnie Mouse fan. I just feellike she's such an iconic
fashionista and she just has alook that has stayed classic
throughout time. I grew upcompletely obsessed with Snow
White and Cinderella. Butnowadays, you know some of the
new princesses have have snuckinto my heart so I have a pretty
(27:59):
large collection of vintageDisney products. So yes, I'm
definitely my big my. I'm aDisney girl. I also love a lot
of other things but if thebiggest is by far Disney
Miss Pinup Miami (28:16):
nice. I love making a Minnie Mouse would make
this would make a great panellike who's the best fashionista
menu or Miss Piggy? I feel likethat would be like a great
debate.
Liz (28:27):
Yeah, I've been trying to like drop hints to Disney and
our partner to Disney for a longtime that you know I could
retire and be happy if theywould let me design a stitch
shop dress for many. One day.
That would just be like thecoolest thing that I could ever
imagine to do.
Miss Pinup Miami (28:43):
That would be amazing. You dress like many and
then you have no
Unknown (28:47):
wearing the dress.
Miss Pinup Miami (28:50):
That would be amazing. I believe that will
happen for you.
Liz (28:52):
I hope so let's all put it out there.
Miss Pinup Miami (28:56):
What is your favorite lounge by bag?
Liz (28:59):
Oh, that's hard. I feel like somebody asked me this the
other day on social too. So wedid a Cinderella collection.
That was a pink mini backpackcosplayer her pink dress and the
details that the team put intoit were just beautiful. And then
there was a there was acrossbody. A blue quilted
(29:21):
crossbody that also loved butthat was my favorite until we
did the princess bookscollection and that bag is just
perfection so I think I wouldhave to say that that the
princess books collection is byfar my favorite bag.
Miss Pinup Miami (29:36):
Because I've never seen anything like it
literally a little bookshelf onthe go.
Liz (29:41):
Yeah, I just I love it. I carry it quite often. It's
definitely just one of myfavorites because it's so
unique.
Miss Pinup Miami (29:50):
What inspires the silhouette and your designs?
Unknown (29:55):
Um,
Miss Pinup Miami (29:56):
so you're saying, Are you Vince that you
look into vintage repro or Yeah100%
Liz (30:01):
so we look at vintage styles, myself and Deseret, our
senior designer, we definitelywe look at actual vintage
silhouettes. And then it comesdown to like making sure making
versions that are comfortableand versatile. So I always think
like, if you're gonna have adress in your closet that you
(30:22):
spend around $100 for you wantto be able to style it different
ways. You want to be able towear it to different events. So
it's really important to me tomake something that I feel like
one can be worn in differentways. So we have like our tank
Olivia dress that you can wear,you can like layer a cardigan
over it, you can layer a blouseunder it, you can wear it many
(30:42):
different ways, and to
Miss Pinup Miami (30:45):
fit on your socials because I saw a girl
that you guys posted her sleeve,like a long sleeve underneath
one of your dresses. Yeah, to dothat.
Liz (30:53):
Yes, exactly. So we like things to be versatile, so that
all our fans have an opportunityto wear them. And then I also
wanted to make sure that thepieces, you know, they could be
dressed up or down so that youcould throw on a pair of heels
with them and wear them out on adate. Or you could throw in a
denim jacket and a pair ofConverse and wear them to the
park and they work either way.
So just try to make them superversatile. Make them so that you
(31:14):
can pair them with, you know,different belts, different
accessories. So kind of kind ofclassic pieces that you know,
whatever you're a fan of canlive in your closet for a long
time. And more than anythingquality quality fabrics, that,
you know that are easy to wearquality materials and trims that
aren't going to give out on you.
Miss Pinup Miami (31:39):
Have you found it difficult in the pandemic to
source out any materials.
Liz (31:44):
So sourcing not too difficult. But just in general,
the pandemic has just caused alot of delays for everyone. So
whether, you know people gettingCOVID or, you know, just
shipping delays because ofCOVID. So many things went wrong
(32:05):
this year because of COVID. Butagain, we have amazing fans and
people were extremely patient attimes. You know, we we couldn't
launch things until maybe amonth late, sometimes more.
People were amazing. People wereunderstanding. I mean, there was
a point at which I'm sureeverybody remembers like you
couldn't, nothing was shippingon time. Like if you placed an
(32:28):
order, it was sometimes takinglike three, four weeks for for
ups or the post office to get itto you. And that's frustrating,
especially when, you know,people are out of work or
they're choosing to spend theirhard earned money on your
products and to see them, youknow, frustrated and waiting for
stuff but not to have anycontrol over that. So the
pandemic was challenging ourteam was a large chunk of our
(32:50):
team was furloughed for asignificant amount of times I
think my creative team was downto five people at one point,
which is not a lot for all theamazing stuff we came out with.
So yeah, it was definitely achallenging time. But I think
we're very lucky. I think bouncelight is extremely grateful and
(33:14):
all of the team for where we'reat and the fans that continue to
support us through 2020 isamazing. Oh,
Miss Pinup Miami (33:22):
I we usually where I work with manufacturing
plants and it's been such adelay on everything. Even a
snowstorm that just happens.
There's always
Liz (33:31):
something new there's always a new reason everything's
delayed. Yeah,
Miss Pinup Miami (33:35):
just add on and people are now becoming
understanding because everyone'sgoing through it. So that's
like, I guess the plus size two?
Yeah. Is your closet full of allyour designs? Hmm,
Liz (33:47):
yes. So. So my closet is ridiculous. I call it Liz land.
And I actually bought a housewith it. I bought this house
specifically because it had thisreally weird extra bedroom
upstairs it's like really longand skinny. And I don't know
(34:08):
what anybody would use it forbut I turned it into my closet
and it's amazing and everythingis in its pink and everything is
in rainbow order. So yes, I dohave it full of stitch shop. I
also prior to joining labs Iused to make a lot of my own
clothes. So I have a lot ofthings I made in the past and
(34:29):
just you know favorite dressesand I'll never let go of so I
have a rainbow of apparel upthere and shoes. I have a lot of
shoes.
Miss Pinup Miami (34:40):
I think I've seen you post on your on your on
your Instagram in the pink room.
You know your outfits. Yeah.
Yeah, so
Liz (34:49):
the more the pink room that's like where my office is.
So I have two pink rooms Iguess. My guest room which is my
office now due to COVID and thenmy closet is upstairs. And
that's also it's also pink. Soit's, yes, I'm pretty much
always in a pink area.
Miss Pinup Miami (35:07):
So the last question I have is what designer
inspires you?
Liz (35:12):
Oh, that's a really good question. Um, I don't know that
I've ever had like one fashiondesigner that I really
gravitated towards, I thinkprobably more artists, to be
honest. Because I do I look atsilhouettes and things like
(35:32):
that. But especially stitch upis very, very driven by the art
that's on the dresses and thecolors. So like a lot of Disney
fans, I've always been a hugeMary Blair fan. I'm an artist,
that maybe some people knowMatisse he did. He's amazing.
Cut out beautiful paper cut out.
I'm polish. And there's a typeof paper, a very colorful paper
(35:58):
cut artwork in Poland that Ilove. So I think I've always
been a little bit more inspiredby prints and art than actual,
like fashion designers.
Unknown (36:12):
Oh,
Miss Pinup Miami (36:12):
I can see that. And then especially it's
all been stitched by. It'sperfect, because then it just
blends. I'm curious. Well, howdid what how did you come up
with the name stitch stitchshop. Um,
Liz (36:23):
so one coming up with a name for a brand is really hard
now because everything's taken.
So I wish everybody thatstarting new brands a lot a lot,
because I think you have to justmake up words. Because it's
really hard. We had a lot ofreally cute names. And they were
already taken. And if they'retaken in the country that you
plan to ship to one day, youdon't want to like go into that,
(36:44):
that area. So it was reallyimportant that we kind of
focused on the quality and Iwanted people to know that this
isn't like fast fashion, you'renot buying like a blank t shirt
that you can buy and justscreenprint you know, it's
actual cut and sew fashion. Sowe wanted to have some element
of that cut and sew piece so andthen shop sh o p p e just made
(37:09):
me feel like a vintage like icecream shop or candy shop. So So
yeah, so it kind of just combinethose the kind of just the
aesthetic of stitch shop andthen that cut and sew component.
Miss Pinup Miami (37:26):
Oh, nice. I was just, I just thought about I
was like, I wonder how she gotthem.
Liz (37:30):
That was probably like the eighth name we came up with. And
it was the first one to getapproved by legal so it was
really exciting.
Miss Pinup Miami (37:39):
There you go.
He only took a trip. Yep. Do youhave any questions or anything
you'd like to say? add on.
Liz (37:47):
I just I mean, for anybody watching that has been following
our brand. Just thank you somuch for myself and the whole
team. It is not an ideal time tolaunch a new brand and we always
envisioned you know launching ina time when people could wear it
to dapper day and and wear itout into the world. So the
people that have supported itand chose worn it at home. We
(38:10):
love you. And you know it lookslike hopefully we'll all be
getting back to some type ofnormal here soon. And to all the
new people that are justdiscovering said shop. You know,
we're always on social. We'realways here to answer questions.
You can hit up my personalInstagram and ask me questions.
I don't mind you're notbothering me. So yeah, more than
(38:33):
anything, just thank you toeveryone that has supported
stick shop parties participatedwith the brand either on social
media or by purchasing andanyone that is willing to check
it out and see what we havecoming this year.
Miss Pinup Miami (38:48):
Thank you, Liz so much for being on my show.
Unknown (38:51):
Of course.
Miss Pinup Miami (38:53):
I'm gonna put her on her Connect connections
down into the description youcan follow her on Instagram is
this Oba designs, you can followloungefly and stitch shop by
loungefly on Instagram,everything will be in the
description. Next week. I haveDeanna cat Deanna Khan, from
(39:14):
Blondie beauty salon in FortLauderdale. She's all about
bright hair color, which that'swhat I'm all about. I'm excited
to talk to her and how thepandemic has affected her salon.
So make sure to come next weekto listen in. And if you want to
help me a free way to help meout is by signing up at the
podcast. If you're watching onYouTube, subscribe and hit that
(39:36):
like button and notificationbell I would greatly appreciate
it and until next time, have abeautiful day.
Good day. And welcome back to the pin podcast.
I'm your host Pinup Miami, wherewe talk about modern topics with
a vintage flair. It is yourfirst time listening to us.
Welcome. I hope you stick aroundand like everything that we're
chatting about. If you're areturning listener, I want to
say thank you so much. Thankyou. Thank you. Thank you. I've
(00:24):
loved all your feedback and thetext as I've been getting. And
for everyone that doesn't knowwhat I'm talking about, make
sure to follow the podcast onInstagram at the pin podcast
official. Or you can send me atext 2183348 pinup. Very easy
and simple. I can answer anyquestions you got any topics you
(00:44):
have that you want on the show,or if you want to be a guest on
the show. I love that as well.
This week was well last week wasthe last week for the pin
calendar applications that I hadout. And I want to say that the
response was so overwhelming ifit's your first time listening.
The pin calendar is one of myprojects that every year, I send
out applications to any girlthat wants to be turned into a
(01:07):
pin up for a day well for aphoto shoot. And they get to be
able to calendar girls of theYear for the pinna calendar. So
check out more input the pincalendar, I'll be really seeing
who got accepted to the calendarby this weekend. And thank you
all who applied who donated itmeans so much to me. Thank you.
Now today's episode, I have avery special guest we have the
(01:31):
Vice President of creative ofloungefly, including the apparel
line at stitch shop, Liz deSilva, how are you? I'm
excellent. How are you? I'mdoing great.
It's nice to have you on here.
Want to say thank you for beingon the pain podcast. Of course,
I want to know about you whatis, you know, what is the Vice
(01:53):
President of creative.
Liz (01:58):
So pretty much what the vice president creative is I
oversee everything creative forloungefly. So any apparel we do
like stitch up or our loungeflyapparel that's launching in
about a month, all of our enamelpins, our backpacks. So I'm
working with our licensepartners like Disney, Marvel
(02:22):
Warner Brothers, whoever thatis, I'm working with our retail
partners. And I'm working withmy amazing creative team full of
artists that,that make all of our products.
And I'm just making sure thatwe're offering everybody unique
items that you know, boxlunchget something special, our main
line gets something special, andmore than anything, making sure
(02:43):
that we're just staying on topof innovation trends and just
fresh new designs for our fans.
And how did you start off withthe company? like did you start
off by a project? Um, so Iactually, I joined Funko, who
owns loungefly, about a littleover two years ago, and joined
(03:08):
because they had kind of avision to start his apparel
line, and the CEO of Funko.
Brian is awesome. He is soproduct focused. So innovation
focus. And myself and mypartner, Derek, who's the VP of
business development atloungefly, we flew up to Funko
and pitched an idea. And theidea of like, so perfectly fit
(03:30):
in with loungefly that, youknow, they offered us the chance
to kind of just take over likethe vision of loungefly and move
loungefly forward, obviouslyloungefly has been doing amazing
designs for a long time. So um,I just kind of stuck in and I
did I did show design. So I hada whole presentation of kind of
(03:50):
this concept that ended up beingstitch shop and included some
things that we haven't got toyet that I hope to get to
someday but yeah, so that's kindof how I did I had
this this project in my head fora long time and Funko was super
open to it and supportive. Sothat's how I ended up head of
(04:14):
creative at loungefly.
Miss Pinup Miami (04:17):
See, I found out about loungefly because I
sent them in Florida. Disney hasalways been a part of my life.
And I see all the girls thatcollect like all the backpacks.
And they're so cute andhandbags. And Mickey Mouse won
the
Liz (04:32):
Yep, I've actually been a loungefly fan for a long time I
have like it's a tote bag withlike tattoo style swallows and
an anchor that I've had sinceprobably like the early 2000s.
So I've always had like a smallloungefly collection. And I just
love their details andeverything about them as a
brand. So I was really excitedto join the team and they have
(04:55):
an amazing, amazing team ofpeople from sales to design. To
creative, I mean just reallyawesome people that care a lot
about the brand, which is greatto be a part of a team like
that.
Miss Pinup Miami (05:08):
It's always nice when you're surrounded by
you're able to create and besurrounded by other people that
want to create fun things. Ifeel like some jobs are slowly
shifting, but some jobs are juststuck in the old ways. And
Liz (05:21):
I think what makes loungefly great is we have a lot
of real fans like even like thesales team, and the PD team and
the art team, everyone are fansof at least some of the, you
know, properties that we workon. So whether they're like
really into Pokemon, or theygrew up with Star Wars, and
that's like really nostalgic forthem, whatever it is, everybody
(05:41):
got gets really excited aboutsomething which is cool.
Miss Pinup Miami (05:45):
What was the first collection, that stitch
shop came out with
Liz (05:48):
the very first stitch shop collection, I'm wearing a piece
of it. So we launched withDisney, and we launched in the
middle of like kind of the worstpart of the pandemic early on,
we were actually supposed tolaunch sooner. And with COVID,
we delayed and we ended uplaunching in June of 2020. And
(06:10):
we launched with a largecollection that included kind of
vintage takes on Minnie andMickey, three Disney Princess
pieces and three Toy Story. AndI'm sorry, it's been a long
week, three Pixar up pieces.
Miss Pinup Miami (06:34):
They're gorgeous. And so what's the
process? When you come up withan idea? Like, give us a
synopsis? I'm sure there's morethan more details in between.
But if you get an idea, you havea team to design.
Liz (06:46):
Yeah, so I'm my partner, Derek and I, we typically start
by just looking at like thewhole quarter. So if you're
looking at first quarter likeJanuary, February, March, we
look at like, what's happeningat that time? Are there
anniversaries? What licenses arewe going to cover. So once we
have the framework, I startworking with my team. So for
(07:08):
stitch shop, have an amazingsenior designer named Deseret,
and we kind of decide on a maindirection. And then she goes off
and starts getting, you know,crazy with material ideas. And
we both pull kind of artdirections and she starts
pulling, you know, silhouetteideas. And once we narrow a
direction, then we get into asfar as like trims, embroideries
(07:31):
all that type of so we havethese big boards, kind of like
this one right here behind methat just has bad collections.
But we fill up these big conceptboards with whatever we're kind
of liking and then we narrow itfrom there, kind of like big
mood boards.
Miss Pinup Miami (07:46):
I love it. It sounds like you're a movie,
you're creating a storyboard andall the ideas all together and
then you tell the story at theend with these beautiful
graphics all together in acollection.
Liz (07:55):
Yep, pretty much.
Miss Pinup Miami (07:58):
What is your favorite part about working? I
know he said the creative teambut if there's like one little
thing that you like the most.
Liz (08:05):
Um, so I think what is great about working at loungefly
is that our partners like Disneyand Warner Brothers and Sanrio,
they give lounge play a lot ofleeway to explore these super
creative and unique ideas. So Ithink the best part for me is
being able to think outside thebox and bring ideas to say
(08:28):
Disney that haven't been outthere before. And they're really
open to it. They give us a lotof leeway. And I think my second
favorite part is really readingthe fan feedback on social
media, especially during thisyear, I got to read a lot of
people that like hey, lovedhaving something to look forward
to in the mail, we've all gonelike months and months and
(08:49):
months of staying at home. So ifyou have a dress coming or you
have a bag coming, and that'syou know, something that you can
look forward to whether you'rejust gonna plan an outfit to
wear at home, or whatever, it'sstill fun, it's still something
to look forward to at a timewhen you're not going anywhere.
So I love love to see that wemade somewhat of a difference to
(09:10):
people during this you know,really difficult time. So that's
been really great.
Miss Pinup Miami (09:16):
And love the the nostalgia of all the
collections that you have makeseveryone just giddy about them
and think about great memories.
You know, because you forexample, the people you're
talking about, they can't likeif they're in Florida or they go
to the parks a lot that givesthem like that little thing
they're missing. You had a CocaCola collection and now everyone
loves coke. Well, not everyonebut in front of them. They love
(09:37):
the Coca Cola aesthetic. Andit's that nostalgia that people
just want to hold on to and Ithink that's what makes like
stitch shops really stand outand the colors because I'm a
sucker for color.
Liz (09:50):
I can tell I love your color story today.
Miss Pinup Miami (09:53):
Thank you.
Yes, we
Liz (09:55):
definitely keep it colorful aside from maybe around like
Halloween Timing, we get alittle bit darker. But we do we
do have some some pretty brightpalettes and more coming. So
yes, I am a huge fan of color. Ialways say my favorite color is
rainbow because I could neverpick one. But yes, we definitely
(10:16):
like to play with fun colorpalettes and that will never
change about set shop. So
Miss Pinup Miami (10:21):
good. I love that. And I got I saw a lot of
my own pieces I don't really soI've done some commissioned
pieces. And one thing that Iappreciate, you know, coming
like looking on your Instagramon stitch, stitch shop and
loungefly is that you show avariety of all different types
of women and men. So it's notlike a guessing game, because
(10:42):
I've been to some websites thatlike you don't get to try them
on person in person, right? Andyou're like guessing like, okay,
does that look good on my bodyshape, you know, because I'm a
plus size woman. Or for myboyfriend, he's skinnier, but
you know. So it's like, I wantto see what it looks like. And
your page really shows a lot. Soyour brand, like I know you said
(11:02):
earlier, when your team getstogether and creates, you know,
you look at the silhouette. Whatimportance is that because I
know everybody is different.
It's so
Liz (11:11):
important, it's probably one of the most important
things. And when we starteddesigning this line that was
always in the forefront. So itwas always like, is this sleeve
going to be comfortable when wewere doing fittings we fit on
when we started the lineoriginally fit on a size large
and a size 2x. And that's how wedid our fittings. And it was
(11:32):
really important that like everysleeve was not going to pull. So
when we did fittings, I was likepretend like you're driving, I
don't want to I want to makesure it's not pulling on your
arm. And you know doing normaleveryday things because nicer
quality, you know, vintageinspired apparel can still be
super comfortable, and it needsto be comfortable for any size.
(11:53):
So that was a big part of likethe ramp up to our launch was
many, many, many fittings. Andnot just that is anyone that's
followed our journey from thebeginning knows that after our
first collection launched, welistened to all the feedback,
all of it, and we adjusted somelength, we added some elastic
(12:18):
into some of the skirts to makethe fit a little bit easier. So
we definitely listen to whateverybody said we've had a lot
of people requesting a shortsleeved dress because they
wanted a sleeve. We had this onebut later, we did more
sleeveless dresses. And so we'vedeveloped to two or three new
short sleeve styles that will becoming out this year based on
(12:40):
just listening to the to the fanreaction because loungefly
answer job if anything, likewe're here to make things that
people love. So it's superimportant to me to hear all that
and, and in the beginning, um,we didn't have like a Social
Media Manager during COVID. So Iactually did it, which was
great. Even though it was a lotof work, it was great because I
(13:02):
got to talk to a lot of fans ofstitch shop and hear their
feedback. And I used to even,like, try on dresses before
launch and show people like hey,my waist is a 36 right now and
this is how this size fits on meand my partner would be like,
what are you doing? Why are yousending them pictures of
yourself. But it's important,right and you know, the tough
(13:22):
part about COVID was that wecouldn't we didn't have access
to a ton of people to show thegarments on even now when we do
our photo shoots we can onlyshoot one person at a time we
don't do hair and makeup, wehave a lot of restrictions just
to keep people safe. So in thefuture Our goal is to have lives
with multiple shorter models,taller models, all different
(13:46):
body types so that people cansee before a launch Oh, okay,
that person has a body similarto mine cool because we do try
to see to as many a really widevariety of influencers and and
models so I'm glad you see thatso that people can can relate to
one of them and see how it fitthem. But we'd like to take it
(14:08):
further as soon as it's a littlebit safer to do that.
Miss Pinup Miami (14:12):
Oh I like that because even a video is even
better because then you see theway it flows because I know for
me when I see like a pencilskirt online, let's say and it
says stretchy and then you lookat the model Yeah, they
Photoshop are really nice. Butyou know we're all well at least
women that are bigger. We allhave curves in places we don't
really want to we don't want tomake any weight these curves. So
(14:35):
it's nice some video too becauseyou get to see how the fabric
flows. It fits it's smooth. Ilike
Liz (14:42):
some of the some of our some of our influencers or
collaborators that we used, werereally great this last year, and
they would do stories and livesand go on and really show people
you know I typically wear thissize and this is how this fits.
And I could have sighs down orwhatever. And they gave like a
(15:02):
lot of great information. So Imean, we were super grateful for
all of them, because they gaveus all that extra info that we,
you know, we couldn't do inhouse or in a studio to share
with everyone. So that was superhelpful.
Miss Pinup Miami (15:16):
I like it.
It's amazing how social media, Iknow that a pandemic has really
turned everyone's life upsidedown. But it really has shown us
new ways of doing things. Andyou saw the positive, you know,
you were involved in thebeginning of your social media.
And I it's amazing that you tookinitiative and did you know the
social media and really got toknow like, the people on there
(15:37):
and help them out and yourpartner just telling you why he
taking video.
Liz (15:45):
Yeah, we finally have like, we have an amazing social
director now that joined us,just before the beginning of
this year. So it's new for us.
But I still when we launchproducts, go on and read every
single comment. I have a lot ofpeople that you know, will reach
out to me on my personalInstagram and ask questions
about the product. And they'llalways be like, I don't want to
(16:06):
bother you. I know you're busy.
And I'm like, No, bother me.
Like, I want to know what youguys think I want to hear
feedback, even if it's good, ifit's bad. Our products only get
better from all of the feedbackthat we get. So yeah, I love
that people still reach out tome, even though I'm not running
the social anymore, and get thatinfo. And then I just I just
(16:26):
take it upon myself. And Iscroll and I read all the
comments, and it's the bestinformation. So for me social
media is great, it's awesome.
Miss Pinup Miami (16:36):
And then you get to, um, what's the word I'm
looking for? You just get a oneon one relationship. And you
take that just like with myevents, like I always have a
survey at the end if somebodyenters one of my contests just
to know how I can make itbetter, or with the person that
hired me so I can improve for mynext event. And it just helps
(16:56):
you grow and just be stronger atwhat your craft is and be able
to you're not you know, nextcollection, you'll be like, oh,
a lot of people like you saidwith your short sleeves. You
know, we need to get the sleevesor stretch. And little details
like the driving thing. Youdon't think about that. But
you're everyone drives. Yes.
Liz (17:14):
Well, I've had dresses, I think when when we were starting
this, I just took everythingthat always drove me crazy about
dresses that I bought over theyears and I tried to fix them I
tried to think about, you know,certain sleeves that always cut
in or just didn't feelflattering. You know, certain
types of waistband zippersbreaking constantly on me that
(17:35):
was one of my biggest things isI refuse to make a line with
cheap zippers. Because I had somany styles I had to if I had
time so so a new zipper inmyself or take to having a car.
Yes. And I was like, I don'twant that. So we have like these
gorgeous beefy zippers that youcan you can zip up yourself and
(17:56):
and they shouldn't snag on you.
So um, so yeah, I just took alot of my history of wearing,
you know, vintage inspiredclothes and all the things that
kind of drove me crazy. Likethis dress, for example, has
buttons closer together over thebus, so that you don't get that
pole. You know, all those thosetype of things that you just
wish when you got the dress andyou really love it, but you're
(18:18):
like, Oh, I wish it had this. Wetried to take as many of those
things into account and evenwhen we thought we took so many
in, we've taken we've gotten somuch feedback from people that
have made things that muchbetter. So I think, you know,
stitch shop in in 2022 I mean,we'll probably be, you know,
another level. Yeah, a wholenother level of, we just want to
(18:38):
make things more comfortable. Iwant you to be able to go to
Disneyland for the day, wear iton rides, eat all the snacks and
still be comfortable.
Miss Pinup Miami (18:48):
That's the important part. Especially if we
go to the parks you know, youwant to be cute for Instagram.
But they wanna
Liz (18:56):
be I can't help you with your heels but I can definitely
try and get you a comfortabledress.
Miss Pinup Miami (19:01):
I think it's funny when I go to dapper day in
Florida and people take theirheels and put them in a bag in a
lounge fly bag.
Liz (19:10):
Perfect.
Miss Pinup Miami (19:11):
And then they just take the photo and put it
back
Liz (19:14):
there smart though because I have limped out of a dapper
day before I have almost had tobe carried so they are smarter
than make. Yeah, I didn't think
Miss Pinup Miami (19:24):
I will I always wear flats or like some
cute flats. But when I saw thatI saw a couple of girls just pop
out heels from their bag. I waslike wow, that's
Liz (19:33):
brilliant. I can't well I can't wait until the parks open
here and I can see I've got aDowntown Disney a couple of
times and I seen people institch shop I actually took a
day off of work last week andwent to Downtown Disney because
I'm not a big fan of beingaround a lot of people during
COVID just, you know just wantto be safe and so I took a day
(19:57):
off of work to go and it wasless crowded and I was sitting
down and it envoy to VISTAStreet and a girl was walking by
and she was head to toe and saysshop with her Ewok outfit. And
then she had a loungefly Endorbackpack. And I just like my
friend was talking to me and Iwas just like, oh, jumped up ran
(20:18):
into this tree. How do you takea picture of her she just looked
amazing. And I can't wait to seemore people like getting a
chance to wear their dresseswhen the world is a little bit
more open.
Miss Pinup Miami (20:28):
Oh my god, that must feel so amazing.
seeing somebody with your likeeverything that you've worked
for so long all together,especially when she like,
coordinated it all cute.
Liz (20:37):
He was head to toe it's like exactly what I envisioned
when we're making the theapparel and to see people just
walking around in real life isphenomenal.
Miss Pinup Miami (20:48):
So talking about people, I have questions
that I got sent in on Instagram.
Sure. And via text. The firstone is what's your most popular
design?
Liz (21:01):
I think, um, from what I know from looking at sales, I
think from the beginning, ourmost popular design was the
original yellow Sandy skirt,which had the big Minnie Mouse
balloon on the front. Oh, kindof Yes, yes, I'm pretty sure
that that was our best sellerand that style in general, the
(21:23):
sandy skirt, which is like alittle bit longer length skirt
that we've now added elastic tothe back so it's even more
comfortable. That's where it'sso versatile. And it's it's
super comfortable. And it's agreat Canvas for beautiful art.
We released one today with theNeverland Peter Pan mermaids.
And it just it's a beautifulCanvas for either an all over
(21:45):
print or a scene. So I'm prettysure it was that yellow polka
dot Minnie Mouse skirt from thevery first collection has just
been everybody's favorite. So Iwill tell you that it's not a
mini skirt, but we havesomething inspired by that
coming later this year.
Miss Pinup Miami (22:04):
And it's yellow. What do you have any
like favorite designs or doesyour favorite change every time
a new one comes out?
Liz (22:13):
You know what I like? It does change kind of depending on
the time of year. This is one ofmy favorite dresses. It's just
this like Desi diner dress. It'ssuper comfortable. So I wear
this a lot. But I think in termsof designs, I absolutely loved
our princess books collectionthat we did, which it had no
(22:36):
princess faces, it was just allof their storybooks and like
secondary items from theirstory. And then we had this
amazing stitch up bag that wasshaped like five books on a
shelf and the innovation in thatline. And the things that our
team did just came together sobeautifully. And that was very
unique. And so I think I thinkthat one's probably my favorite
(22:59):
from a design standpoint,
Miss Pinup Miami (23:01):
because the designs are not only overall
good when you really look atit's very detailed.
Liz (23:06):
Yes, we are all about the details.
Miss Pinup Miami (23:09):
Yeah, like this celerina story.
Liz (23:12):
This collection. For example, when we did the trims,
we made them like a little moreoversize. So instead of doing
like a small scallop trim, wewanted to make it feel like a
little more cartoony, so it's alittle bigger and more
oversized. Like it was actuallylike Minnie Mouse's dress. And
that's the type of stuff I love.
I love it.
Miss Pinup Miami (23:29):
What is the most exciting part about working
with stitch shop.
Liz (23:34):
Um, I get I mean, to be honest, probably just now being
able to see people and thehappiness it brings them like I
love waking up in the morningand saying like, I'm gonna pull
together a look even when we'renot going anywhere during COVID
I love just putting myself in agood mood with a great outfit.
And I love seeing people onsocial media excited about their
(23:57):
stitch shop. I love seeingpeople of all different sizes,
all ethnicities wearing it, it'sjust it's absolutely beautiful.
definitely my favorite part
Miss Pinup Miami (24:08):
and then taking selfies with them like
hey,
Liz (24:12):
I hope I get to like I feel like I've become you know,
social media friends with somany people I've never met I
hope to start bumping intopeople in the parks in the next
couple years and and be able tomeet people in person because
there's been so many lovelypeople that have supported sit
shop from the beginning thatwere complete strangers to me
that are just really reallysweet people. So
Miss Pinup Miami (24:34):
who and I hope to make it out to California to
check out Disneyland I've neverbeen
Liz (24:39):
Yes, well we go we go to Florida quite a bit the
loungefly team when it's safe.
We were going you know two threetimes a year to meet with our
Disney Parks team out there. Sowe love coming to Florida and
seeing what's new at the parksover there.
Miss Pinup Miami (24:52):
Where can somebody in Florida buy stitch
in the Disney Springs or
Liz (24:56):
so right so right now, stitch shop is unique to
loungefly.com. And also, ifyou're in LA, you can get it at
the Funko Hollywood store wherethey have the actual garments,
or you can try them on. But foreveryone else outside of La
loungefly.com is where we launchall the collections right now.
(25:18):
And that may change in thefuture. We're working on some
things, but for right now,that's where you can find it.
Miss Pinup Miami (25:26):
How do you choose the next collection?
Liz (25:30):
So, um, so just like loungefly, we look at a lot of
different things we look at, youknow, anniversaries that are
happening, we look at, you know,seasons and holidays and all
different things. So we alwayswant to make sure you know, say
if it's Disney, for example, wewant to make sure that we're
giving enough love to our Disneyclassic friends. Our princess
(25:54):
friends are Pixar friends. Soone is about balance. Two is
about just what's going onwhat's trending. What are people
loving? You know, last year,there were big anniversaries for
Fantasia and Toy Story. So wedefinitely had to cover those.
So I can give you like a littlesneak peek of what's to come.
(26:15):
Winnie the Pooh for example hasan anniversary this year. So
you'll see something Winnie thePooh from us as well as Dumbo.
So that's kind of how it'sreally like what's going on in
the world. What what makes sensethat year and also sometimes
it's just fan favorites from youknow if we had a bag for
(26:37):
loungefly that sold really welland we get a lot of feedback
from fans like hey I love youknow I love this Tiana bag wish
there was more Tiana product andthat's something we would take
into consideration if we hear itenough. So definitely we listen
on
Miss Pinup Miami (26:53):
social media matching dress for my bag.
Liz (26:57):
So yeah, actually like a lot a lot of times people will
write like, I love thiscollection. I wish there was a
stitch up best to go with it orsomething like that. And again,
I read everything that Ipossibly can so some of it does
really come from fan feedback.
Miss Pinup Miami (27:11):
What is your favorite fandom
Liz (27:14):
so anyone that knows me who has been to my house or my
office that I've created hereknows that I am a hardcore
Disney fan. I have a pinkguestroom that is all Disney
theme. So if you if you ever seeat my house you can choose
there's a Star Wars and HarryPotter themed guestroom, and
then there's a Disney themeguestroom and I am a massive
(27:38):
Minnie Mouse fan. I just feellike she's such an iconic
fashionista and she just has alook that has stayed classic
throughout time. I grew upcompletely obsessed with Snow
White and Cinderella. Butnowadays, you know some of the
new princesses have have snuckinto my heart so I have a pretty
(27:59):
large collection of vintageDisney products. So yes, I'm
definitely my big my. I'm aDisney girl. I also love a lot
of other things but if thebiggest is by far Disney
Miss Pinup Miami (28:16):
nice. I love making a Minnie Mouse would make
this would make a great panellike who's the best fashionista
menu or Miss Piggy? I feel likethat would be like a great
debate.
Liz (28:27):
Yeah, I've been trying to like drop hints to Disney and
our partner to Disney for a longtime that you know I could
retire and be happy if theywould let me design a stitch
shop dress for many. One day.
That would just be like thecoolest thing that I could ever
imagine to do.
Miss Pinup Miami (28:43):
That would be amazing. You dress like many and
then you have no
Unknown (28:47):
wearing the dress.
Miss Pinup Miami (28:50):
That would be amazing. I believe that will
happen for you.
Liz (28:52):
I hope so let's all put it out there.
Miss Pinup Miami (28:56):
What is your favorite lounge by bag?
Liz (28:59):
Oh, that's hard. I feel like somebody asked me this the
other day on social too. So wedid a Cinderella collection.
That was a pink mini backpackcosplayer her pink dress and the
details that the team put intoit were just beautiful. And then
there was a there was acrossbody. A blue quilted
(29:21):
crossbody that also loved butthat was my favorite until we
did the princess bookscollection and that bag is just
perfection so I think I wouldhave to say that that the
princess books collection is byfar my favorite bag.
Miss Pinup Miami (29:36):
Because I've never seen anything like it
literally a little bookshelf onthe go.
Liz (29:41):
Yeah, I just I love it. I carry it quite often. It's
definitely just one of myfavorites because it's so
unique.
Miss Pinup Miami (29:50):
What inspires the silhouette and your designs?
Unknown (29:55):
Um,
Miss Pinup Miami (29:56):
so you're saying, Are you Vince that you
look into vintage repro or Yeah100%
Liz (30:01):
so we look at vintage styles, myself and Deseret, our
senior designer, we definitelywe look at actual vintage
silhouettes. And then it comesdown to like making sure making
versions that are comfortableand versatile. So I always think
like, if you're gonna have adress in your closet that you
(30:22):
spend around $100 for you wantto be able to style it different
ways. You want to be able towear it to different events. So
it's really important to me tomake something that I feel like
one can be worn in differentways. So we have like our tank
Olivia dress that you can wear,you can like layer a cardigan
over it, you can layer a blouseunder it, you can wear it many
(30:42):
different ways, and to
Miss Pinup Miami (30:45):
fit on your socials because I saw a girl
that you guys posted her sleeve,like a long sleeve underneath
one of your dresses. Yeah, to dothat.
Liz (30:53):
Yes, exactly. So we like things to be versatile, so that
all our fans have an opportunityto wear them. And then I also
wanted to make sure that thepieces, you know, they could be
dressed up or down so that youcould throw on a pair of heels
with them and wear them out on adate. Or you could throw in a
denim jacket and a pair ofConverse and wear them to the
park and they work either way.
So just try to make them superversatile. Make them so that you
(31:14):
can pair them with, you know,different belts, different
accessories. So kind of kind ofclassic pieces that you know,
whatever you're a fan of canlive in your closet for a long
time. And more than anythingquality quality fabrics, that,
you know that are easy to wearquality materials and trims that
aren't going to give out on you.
Miss Pinup Miami (31:39):
Have you found it difficult in the pandemic to
source out any materials.
Liz (31:44):
So sourcing not too difficult. But just in general,
the pandemic has just caused alot of delays for everyone. So
whether, you know people gettingCOVID or, you know, just
shipping delays because ofCOVID. So many things went wrong
(32:05):
this year because of COVID. Butagain, we have amazing fans and
people were extremely patient attimes. You know, we we couldn't
launch things until maybe amonth late, sometimes more.
People were amazing. People wereunderstanding. I mean, there was
a point at which I'm sureeverybody remembers like you
couldn't, nothing was shippingon time. Like if you placed an
(32:28):
order, it was sometimes takinglike three, four weeks for for
ups or the post office to get itto you. And that's frustrating,
especially when, you know,people are out of work or
they're choosing to spend theirhard earned money on your
products and to see them, youknow, frustrated and waiting for
stuff but not to have anycontrol over that. So the
pandemic was challenging ourteam was a large chunk of our
(32:50):
team was furloughed for asignificant amount of times I
think my creative team was downto five people at one point,
which is not a lot for all theamazing stuff we came out with.
So yeah, it was definitely achallenging time. But I think
we're very lucky. I think bouncelight is extremely grateful and
(33:14):
all of the team for where we'reat and the fans that continue to
support us through 2020 isamazing. Oh,
Miss Pinup Miami (33:22):
I we usually where I work with manufacturing
plants and it's been such adelay on everything. Even a
snowstorm that just happens.
There's always
Liz (33:31):
something new there's always a new reason everything's
delayed. Yeah,
Miss Pinup Miami (33:35):
just add on and people are now becoming
understanding because everyone'sgoing through it. So that's
like, I guess the plus size two?
Yeah. Is your closet full of allyour designs? Hmm,
Liz (33:47):
yes. So. So my closet is ridiculous. I call it Liz land.
And I actually bought a housewith it. I bought this house
specifically because it had thisreally weird extra bedroom
upstairs it's like really longand skinny. And I don't know
(34:08):
what anybody would use it forbut I turned it into my closet
and it's amazing and everythingis in its pink and everything is
in rainbow order. So yes, I dohave it full of stitch shop. I
also prior to joining labs Iused to make a lot of my own
clothes. So I have a lot ofthings I made in the past and
(34:29):
just you know favorite dressesand I'll never let go of so I
have a rainbow of apparel upthere and shoes. I have a lot of
shoes.
Miss Pinup Miami (34:40):
I think I've seen you post on your on your on
your Instagram in the pink room.
You know your outfits. Yeah.
Yeah, so
Liz (34:49):
the more the pink room that's like where my office is.
So I have two pink rooms Iguess. My guest room which is my
office now due to COVID and thenmy closet is upstairs. And
that's also it's also pink. Soit's, yes, I'm pretty much
always in a pink area.
Miss Pinup Miami (35:07):
So the last question I have is what designer
inspires you?
Liz (35:12):
Oh, that's a really good question. Um, I don't know that
I've ever had like one fashiondesigner that I really
gravitated towards, I thinkprobably more artists, to be
honest. Because I do I look atsilhouettes and things like
(35:32):
that. But especially stitch upis very, very driven by the art
that's on the dresses and thecolors. So like a lot of Disney
fans, I've always been a hugeMary Blair fan. I'm an artist,
that maybe some people knowMatisse he did. He's amazing.
Cut out beautiful paper cut out.
I'm polish. And there's a typeof paper, a very colorful paper
(35:58):
cut artwork in Poland that Ilove. So I think I've always
been a little bit more inspiredby prints and art than actual,
like fashion designers.
Unknown (36:12):
Oh,
Miss Pinup Miami (36:12):
I can see that. And then especially it's
all been stitched by. It'sperfect, because then it just
blends. I'm curious. Well, howdid what how did you come up
with the name stitch stitchshop. Um,
Liz (36:23):
so one coming up with a name for a brand is really hard
now because everything's taken.
So I wish everybody thatstarting new brands a lot a lot,
because I think you have to justmake up words. Because it's
really hard. We had a lot ofreally cute names. And they were
already taken. And if they'retaken in the country that you
plan to ship to one day, youdon't want to like go into that,
(36:44):
that area. So it was reallyimportant that we kind of
focused on the quality and Iwanted people to know that this
isn't like fast fashion, you'renot buying like a blank t shirt
that you can buy and justscreenprint you know, it's
actual cut and sew fashion. Sowe wanted to have some element
of that cut and sew piece so andthen shop sh o p p e just made
(37:09):
me feel like a vintage like icecream shop or candy shop. So So
yeah, so it kind of just combinethose the kind of just the
aesthetic of stitch shop andthen that cut and sew component.
Miss Pinup Miami (37:26):
Oh, nice. I was just, I just thought about I
was like, I wonder how she gotthem.
Liz (37:30):
That was probably like the eighth name we came up with. And
it was the first one to getapproved by legal so it was
really exciting.
Miss Pinup Miami (37:39):
There you go.
He only took a trip. Yep. Do youhave any questions or anything
you'd like to say? add on.
Liz (37:47):
I just I mean, for anybody watching that has been following
our brand. Just thank you somuch for myself and the whole
team. It is not an ideal time tolaunch a new brand and we always
envisioned you know launching ina time when people could wear it
to dapper day and and wear itout into the world. So the
people that have supported itand chose worn it at home. We
(38:10):
love you. And you know it lookslike hopefully we'll all be
getting back to some type ofnormal here soon. And to all the
new people that are justdiscovering said shop. You know,
we're always on social. We'realways here to answer questions.
You can hit up my personalInstagram and ask me questions.
I don't mind you're notbothering me. So yeah, more than
(38:33):
anything, just thank you toeveryone that has supported
stick shop parties participatedwith the brand either on social
media or by purchasing andanyone that is willing to check
it out and see what we havecoming this year.
Miss Pinup Miami (38:48):
Thank you, Liz so much for being on my show.
Unknown (38:51):
Of course.
Miss Pinup Miami (38:53):
I'm gonna put her on her Connect connections
down into the description youcan follow her on Instagram is
this Oba designs, you can followloungefly and stitch shop by
loungefly on Instagram,everything will be in the
description. Next week. I haveDeanna cat Deanna Khan, from
(39:14):
Blondie beauty salon in FortLauderdale. She's all about
bright hair color, which that'swhat I'm all about. I'm excited
to talk to her and how thepandemic has affected her salon.
So make sure to come next weekto listen in. And if you want to
help me a free way to help meout is by signing up at the
podcast. If you're watching onYouTube, subscribe and hit that
(39:36):
like button and notificationbell I would greatly appreciate
it and until next time, have abeautiful day.
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