Our New LINKS Collection!

This month we launched the first pieces in our new LINKS Collection. What is LINKS, you may ask? Well, its a new twist on designing with our products. From LILL's beginnings, we have focused on designing our handbags by choosing from one of our set silhouettes and selecting fabrics for various parts of the bag. Ten years in, we are ready to offer something new - a way to build your own silhouette by choosing components that "link" together to create unique looks - thus our new "LINKS Collection." Our first few pieces include a large tote body (LILLI), a medium rectangular pouch (ISABEL), a small wallet sized pouch (NANCY), and 2 strap choices (2 short straps, or one long adjustable strap). With these 5 pieces you can do so many things. And, what's great about it is that the individual pieces all work together. So, you can start with one bag and as you add more pieces, you'll be adding to your design possibilities. The more pieces you have the more looks you can create! And, there are more on the horizon... we are currently working on the next body piece that will be introduced later this spring. Its a look you'll love now and for seasons to come!

I attached a few of my favorite looks here, but check out our website to see more and peak at a video! The LINKS collection is currently available in stores and at parties through our LILL On Location program - be the first to start your "collection" by hosting a party or visiting one of our stores!

LILLI with short straps worn full....LILLI with short straps worn cinched...LILLI with an ISABEL or NANCY as accent...LILLI with long adjustable strap....ISABEL with long adjustable strap....ISABEL with NANCY and long adjustable strap.... just to name a few combinations....

We can't wait to see what you all create!

-Jen Velarde

Winner # 3

Our week 3 winner of the Design a Bag Kit is Sara Armstrong! Sara hosted a party with our Indianapolis rep, Amy after learning about 1154 LILL from her sister-n-law. At the party she picked out an adorable Drea reversible handbag (pictured to left) and a fun spring Carolina wallet. Next she'll get to try her hand at designing a Maddie Jane with the Design a Bag Kit that is on its way to her. Can't wait to see what she picks out! Here are the answers to the questions we asked her about 1154 LILL:

How did you hear about 1154 LILL?

"My fabulous Sister-In-Law and all of her friends have 1154 Lill bags. We try to get together one night each month for a "Ladies Night". What better way to have fun with the girls than to design purses!"

What is the best part about hosting a party with 1154 LILL?

"Being able to have everyone together at my house and sharing ideas with each other."

What is your favorite bag style and why?

"My favorite style is the Drea because its two bags in one!"

What would you like to see 1154 LILL do in the future?

"Keep offering more designs!"

Enjoy your new bags Sara!

-Jen Velarde

For the month of January we are drawing the name of one lucky party hostess a week to win one of our new Design A Bag Kits. Our winner from week two is Leslie Smith! She hosted a party with Courtney, our Richmond, VA rep. Leslie ordered a Susan diaper bag in December after seeing her friend's bag. She loved her new diaper bag so much she hosted her own party where she designed a Hadley. Her design is pictured to the left - so cute! We asked Leslie to tell us a little about her experiences with LILL. Here are the answers to the questions we asked her:

How did you first hear about 1154 LILL?

"My friend attended and later hosted a party. I loved her diaper bag so much that I had to order one for myself!"

What is the best part about hosting a party with 1154 LILL?
"The best part about hosting the party is giving people the opportunity to experience 1154 Lill. The fabrics are amazing and you really don't get the full effect without seeing them in person. The opportunity to design an original bag is something I think everyone should experience!"

What is your favorite LILL style?
"My favorite bag, thus far, is the Susan -- It is the best diaper bag, ever!"

What would you like to see 1154 LILL do in the future?
"I love 1154 Lill -- There is no need to change!"

Thank you, Leslie, for hosting a party and sharing your love of LILL with your friends! We look forward to seeing what you design next!

Happy Designing!

Jen Velarde

Our first party hostess winner!

For the month of January we are drawing the name of one lucky party hostess a week to win one of our new Design A Bag Kits. Our winner from week one is Tara Lamboley who hosted a party in our Chicago Store on January 7th. She was very excited to hear that she won and is looking forward to designing her new bag! We asked her to tell us a little about her experiences with LILL. Here are the answers to the questions we asked her. She also sent a picture of her and some guests at her party. Many thanks to Tara and her guests for their business. We look forward to helping you design again sometime soon!

How did you first hear about 1154 LILL?

"I had heard about 1154 LILL a few years ago when when I was going to Optometry school and living in Chicago. I thought it sounded like such a fun idea, so when I got married a year and a half ago I decided to design LILL handbags for my bridesmaids."

What is the best part about hosting a party with 1154 LILL?

"The best part about hosting a party with 1154 LILL has to be the atmosphere to create with friends! The boutique is cozy and quaint with wonderful designers on hand to help out! I brought my staff here for their Christmas present this year and we all had such a great time. With purses, bags, and fabric swatches on every table and throughout the store we all truly enjoyed custom designing our very own handbags! I think 1154 LILL allows for such a fun and unique gift idea! "

What is your favorite LILL style?

"Being a new mom, my favorite bag style is Susan! I thought that was such a great idea because, not only do I have a trendy diaper bag, but eventually I will have a trendy overnight bag once I no longer need to use it for one of my children. It is large enough and has plenty of pockets for all of my baby needs! Best of all, it is one of a kind!"

What would you like to see 1154 LILL do in the future?

"Unfortunately (or fortunately), I do not have any future requests. I think you all are doing an outstanding job! Your stores and website are fantastic!"

We love hearing from our customers! It renews and inspires us to do more each day to make LILL the place to go for unique handbags and creative experiences. Happy Designing!

Jen Velarde

2010 - Off and Running!

Where did the month go? Its been a month since I posted - shame on me! And, I thought 2010 would be different....

I look forward to January each year for a fresh start, for a time of reflection after the holidays and for the optimism that comes from a new year full of possibilities. Its a month of planning at LILL - we're talking new styles, new fabrics, new sales strategies. We're taking what we learned in 2009 and applying it to our plans for 2010 and beyond. We're reaching out to other businesses and our customers for ideas and inspiration. And, we're coming up with some good stuff....

I'm excited about a few new bag styles coming out the beginning of February - the LILLI, the ISABEL and the NANCY. The LILLI is a versatile tote bag that can be worn large and boxy or clipped together to make a smaller trapezoid silhouette. It has removable straps so you can interchange them with various bag bodies or clip on an accessory piece like the NANCY wallet and add another pattern to your look. The ISABEL is a mini messenger bag with an adjustable strap that can be worn long or short. It can also be combined by clipping on the NANCY wallet to create a two tiered bag. Order them up in some of our new spring fabrics like Tazo, Malibu Rays and Lagoon Faux Suede and create a stylish new look for a new year! We are loving all the possibilities with these bags and can't wait to see what our customers will do with them. These bags will be launching first in stores and through our LILL on Location Parties at the beginning of February - so be the first to see and order these by planning a home party or a trip to one of our stores in February. Expect to see these styles on-line later in February. You won't be disappointed!

I am also very excited about a focus group we conducted a week ago at our Chicago Store with a group of college students. I was extremely impressed with the ideas that were generated by talking with this group. They had several new ideas on how to reach the college market and offered us valuable insight on what is important to them, why they buy and what they are looking for in a brand. I really enjoyed listening to their thoughts and hearing first hand what they would do to create more brand awareness for 1154 LILL. I expect we will utilize many of their ideas this year. We also plan to do more focus groups with various groups of our customer base. Look for information on our facebook page and in our email communication about upcoming focus group sessions!

Lastly, I want to mention some of the current "good stuff" we have going on in January. Our January promos are wrapping up on the 31st - so you still have a couple weeks left to take advantage and pick up that bag or accessory you didn't get for the holidays now AND at a great price to boot! Here are the current deals: 10% off all month online, 15% off at all home parties, and the add it up sale in stores (buy 1, get 10% off, buy 2 - get 15% off, buy 3 - get 20% off). More info available on our website. http://www.1154lill.com/

So, we are off and running with 2010. I hope you are as well and that the year of possibilities ahead brings you everything you're planning for!

Jen Velarde

Pay it Forward - Everyone Loves a Compliment!

This week I received a lovely letter from a customer in Indianapolis. Her experience with LILL began when a friend, sporting a LILL bag, told her about my business. She loved the bag and checked out our website. She found that we offered home parties in her area and contacted our Indianapolis rep, Amy, to set up a party. She had a wonderful party experience (I'll share her words later in this post) and then attended a second event Amy hosted at a local salon. She has quickly become a LILL lover. I personally love the story of how she came to find out about LILL - through a friend with a bag she loved - and, how she came to get a few of her own - through a rep who loves what she does. It speaks directly to the essence of LILL and thus I truly appreciated that this customer wrote in about her experience. Receiving letters like this really make my day.

While I obviously loved the letter, the point of my blogging about it is that it reminded me how important it is to compliment others for things that you appreciate. I often find myself pleasantly surprised by service or products and think to myself "what a great experience" or "I love this product." I don't, however, take the time to tell the person behind that experience or product how much I appreciate their help or their product. For example - just yesterday, I was going through my favorite drive thru. (Yes, I am a fast food junky)! It is my favorite drive thru, not because of the food or speed of service, but because every time I go there the staff is just really friendly and nice. Working in fast food is difficult - but this staff is always so pleasant and happy. I think about this every time I go there, but I never compliment the service. I will next time.

And, as I think about it there are several other services and products that I love and this letter has inspired me to speak up about it. I plan to shoot off a few emails to other businesses that I love and hopefully make someone else's day. My little way of paying it forward...

Here is an excerpt from the letter I am writing about:

"The primary point of writing this letter is to tell you what an amazing team member you have in Amy (our Indy rep). She was wonderful to work with and helped me set up my party for about ten of my friends. When she came to my house she was professional and fun. She was wonderful in assisting all of the girls in finding what they truly wanted. The thing I liked most about Amy, was that she was the "anti" saleswoman. Never once did she try to force a bag on someone. She consistently said she wanted all of us to love what we designed and never forced anyone into a decision or a purchase. You could also tell that she loved what she was selling. She was able to show us so many examples of items that she had designed and used on a regular basis. My LILL purse party was one of the most fun things I have done with my friends and everyone was thrilled with their purchase. All in all, I want to thank you for creating LILL. I can not tell you enough how much I love your product and your staff. Not only have you created a wonderful product, but also a fun opportunity for people to get together and do something different. I have been to jewelry parties, Pampered Chef parties, Mary Kay parties and none of them come close to comparing with the fun my friends and I have had at the LILL parties."

Jen Velarde

How do you use today's technology?

I went to a holiday party this weekend where the conversation turned to how long we have been out of college and how much technology has changed how we live today. When I graduated in 1995, I had never sent an email, the internet was no where on my radar screen and all of my training for work in the world of interior design had been done with pencil in hand vs. on a CAD system. We have been talking about this at LILL lately as well and while I have since emersed myself into technology and it runs most of our operations today - I didn't "grow up" with it like those 10-15 years or so younger than me.

Technology for me is something I have to think about versus something that is ingrained in my daily routine. I have dabbled in blogging, lightly use facebook and have yet to personally twitter. I keep my blackberry close at hand most of the time, primarily for email. I just started to understand the purpose of texting - and actually really like it. All this is great, but it is December, 2009. And, so, you might say I am pretty far behind the times in terms of keeping pace with some of my more technologically savvy customers. I feel the technology gap each time we discuss ways to reach this portion of our demographic. With all of the options that social media provides it can be a bit overwhelming to decipher which methods are the best tools to stay in touch. I find myself probing anyone who seems "totally connected" for their ideas and what they are doing now to communicate to friends, find out about events, promotions and products etc.

One idea we recently tried that was successful for us was working with Groupon - a collective buying program - where we adverstised a special purchase opportunity to their mailing list. It generated a huge amount of buzz for us in the first two markets we tried - Chicago and KC. Since we participated, I am on the daily deal email list and it is one of my new favorite ways to find out about different businesses and specials around my city. (We are the deal of the day in the Boston market tomorrow - 12/15 - so if you missed an opportunity to get in on the deal earlier, you can join in the Boston deal as coupons are valid at any of our stores www.groupon.com/boston )

That is one example of a great new tool - there are many more out there that I am looking to learn about. So I am asking - where do you go to find out about new concepts, cool experiences, great sales, etc? Send me your ideas. Leave your comments here - for each one I get, I'll put your name in a drawing for one of my favorite bags of the season - Grace in Chateau de Lill.

Or - come tell us your thoughts in person - if you are currently attending a large midwestern university and will be in Chicago over the holidays, we will be hosting a focus group on Thursday, Jan 7th from 1pm to 4pm at our Chicago boutique at 904 W. Armitage in Lincoln Park. If you are interested in participating, please complete this questionnaire below no later than Wednesday, Dec 16th. https://app.e2ma.net/app2/survey/27318/16426/0f8892001a/

(If you are selected, you will be notified by Monday, Dec. 21st. Focus group participants will receive an 1154 LILL Design a Bag Kit in return for their participation in the focus group session).

Jen Velarde

Busy Holiday Season!

Is your calendar filling up this holiday season? Today alone we have 4 events going on at LILL. Two here in Chicago - we'll be at the Orland Park Country Club this afternoon and the Allerton Hotel tonight for NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owner's) for their holiday shopping parties. In our Boston and Kansas City Stores, we are hosting in-store holiday parties as well. Our custom order deadline is this Sunday so there are also parties going on all over the country with our LILL on Location Reps today and through the weekend.

It is our busiest time of the year - and one of our favorite times. We get to see and work with so many customers as they cross off their gift lists with thoughtful and creative orders. You see firsthand the spirit of the season. The act of choosing that perfect gift for someone special and the satisfaction that appears on a customer's face or in their voice when they find it. We love helping customers get there and look forward to the busy weeks ahead where we will do this more than any other time during the year. We only wish we could be there when the gifts are given!

I'll be at the NAWBO event tonight where I hope to help some existing customers as well as introduce our products to a new audience. Looking forward to it!

Jen Velarde