Designing with Jillian Harris

Jillian Harris of The Bachelorette fame visited our Chicago Store last night with several girlfriends. She recently relocated to Chicago to be with her fiance, Ed Swiderski, and has been finding her way around the city. She was introduced to 1154 LILL by a friend and was excited to come in and try her hand at designing.

She was a natural! With her innate sense of style and interior design background, she quickly chose three styles to design. She then selected classic textiles for the exteriors of each of the 3 bags so she could "wear them as much as possible." She chose bolder prints - our fresh green and white Southern Charm pattern for her Hadley interior and our graphic black and white Moroccan Tiles for her Erinn interior. She kept her Carolina wallet smart and classic by combining our Black Ink Linen and Charcoal woven grid - the perfect every day wallet to compliment any bag she carries.

Her girlfriends jumped in and designed as well - each one helping the other find something that suited them. After a couple hours of laughter and designing, they left the store and headed to dinner... They'll be back in a few weeks to pick up their bags were all too excited to start carrying them!

They were a really sweet group of friends. As they left, I thought about my own group of girlfriends and how nice it is to get together, have a little wine, a little design and a little dinner. Laughter inevitably fills the space and you relax into your best self every time. I'm looking forward to some good girlfriend time myself this fall..... right after trick or treating tomorrow!

-Jen Velarde