Monday, June 2, 2008

Showing at Atelier



Today we have another trip report from Marguerite Swope, designer and owner of Ivy Reed who's writing of her experiences showing at Atelier. By the way, Atelier is based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. And people say there's no fashion industry here. Thanks Marguerite (also a fellow New Mexican)!

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The Atelier Designers Show is a hotel show in New York (Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square), and I showed in it for the first time just this past 4th -6th of May. These are my experiences pre-show, during the show, and post-show.



I first applied for the February show. There are several steps to getting accepted into Atelier. The first step is to fill in the contact form on the website, and then they contact you. If you have a website, they look at that before they contact you. They liked what they saw on my website and encouraged my application. In the application you have to list other designers you hang with in stores and other shows you’ve been in. I’m not sure the weight these have in the decision, but I was confident about this part of my application.



The next step -if they like what they see so far- is to send a sample box. I made it this far and sent a box of samples. I was surprised not to be accepted, but they wrote a very thoughtful and helpful rejection and told me they wanted to keep my application on file because they knew my line was young and they thought I could be a fit later. So, I called and asked if I could walk the February show.



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