Where Did You Get That Dress?

Currently our website’s homepage features the sweet, fresh face of Mandy – LILL’s Design Director. Mandy is prim and proper carrying her CHLOE and donning an adorable dress hand-made by LILL’s own - Jess Audey. Jess recently began her own design-your own dress venture. Her vintage inspired designs are truly a classic look. The best part about them is that, like LILL Bags, they are custom-tailored to fit you exactly as you are! Now you can design a dress to match your LILL Bag, or vice-versa!
Check out more of Jess’s custom dresses by visiting her website:
AUDEY.com.



-Lilly S.

Inspiration Behind the Simply Chic Collection

Each season our team evaluates our current collection of styles and makes decisions about new styles to incorporate in the upcoming seasons. For Spring 2009, we are introducing a new collection of styles to our line. We have titled them the "Simply Chic" collection. Our design goal for this collection was to introduce simple, yet stylish, silhouettes that won't break the bank. The result is the introduction of CHLOE, CHARLOTTE and CHARLIE. These styles offer our customers exciting new options for bridal, special occasion or everyday use. Pair your favorite new LILL style - CHLOE, CHARLOTTE or CHARLIE - with our fresh new spring fabrics for a chic look this season.



I know you’ll find a Simply Chic bag that is simply you. We hope you enjoy these new styles and we look forward to creating with you very soon.

Happy Spring!


Jen Velarde – Owner and Founder

Emily's Pick of the Week

Happy Friday! Spring is just around the corner, even though there's a huge snowstorm predicted for this weekend! This week, I'd like to focus on some of the new spring fabrics that have recently been added to the fabric palette at 1154 LILL Studio. It is so refreshing to see all of the bright, pretty florals. LILL customer Erin W. from Anchorage, Alaska recently designed a MOLLY bag. For the exterior, Erin chose the brand new Watercolor Pond, which has beautiful pinkish red flowers with green leaves and black detailing on a satiny cream background. The external stripe and strap compliment the exterior in the berry pink solid, Rhubarb Weave. On the interior, Erin chose to go green with the solid English Ivy and bright Key Lime Twill. It is so much fun to look at all of our new spring fabrics and to design a new spring bag. Thanks for reading and think spring! Emily R.

February Team HQ Team Member of the Month!

February's HQ Team Member of the Month is.....Donna C. from LILL' Parts and Pieces Department.

Donna is originally from Dayton, OH and has been with LILL almost 5 years now. She is a genuine person and is always willing to help. Her contagious laugh echoes throughout production and she brings a smile to everyone she meets.



Donna is always warm and welcoming! She is very helpful in finding easy solutions to sometimes challenging tasks and voluntarily makes herself available to help out whenever someone needs it. Kind, resourceful, giving, willing helper and friendly are good words to describe this month’s LILL person of the month, Donna!









Let's get to know more about Donna by learning of her favorite things!

Favorite LILL style? "MOLLY, SOPHIE, DENISE - so many to choose from!"

Top 3 fabric picks:
"Watercolor Pond, Hula Girl, Black Basketweave and all our new spring fabrics!"














What do you love most about working for LILL? "Oh my, working with all the great people at Lill everyday."

Do you have a nickname? "Doona Jane, LOL, BUT TRUE!"

Where did you last go on vacation? "Spent a week with me family in Ohio, Indiana."

Anything else fun you’d like to share? "I just love life :)"

Thanks Donna for being a bright spot in our days, you are truly a joy to work with.


-Lilly S.

2009... SO FAR...

I don't quite know where January went, but as February begins, I realized I haven't posted a blog yet in 2009. And,...as one of my New Year's resolutions was to get a bit more tech-savvy and participate more in the blogging community. I guess it's about time for me to get started. Here's a quick catch up on the highlights of my year so far....

New Year's Eve with Friends..... I toasted at midnight to being pregnant on New Years (again) and to a happy and health year ahead.

Family trip to Mexico...... My mother-in-law plans a trip for my husband and our kids each year. Usually it is in March, but with the pending arrival of her 3rd grandkid, she planned it earlier this year. What a wonderful getaway (and mother-in-law)!

Returning to sub-zero temps in Chicago was not fun, but our month of snow and frigid temps has provided for some cute shots of my "snow bunny" and some fun indoor projects for Joey....learning to bake cookies at Nana's, and several nights of "pirate ship building" in our living room.

January at LILL is full of planning for the year ahead. My favorite project for the month was our Spring/Summer fabric buy. At times this month Winter has seemed relentless, but with beautiful fabrics arriving daily at our production offices, Spring is definitely in the air at LILL! Look for them to arrive shortly on the web, in our stores and with our reps.

We've also been working on a number of new style introductions and the implementation of new technology systems aimed at enhancing the shopping experience for our customers as well as the management and marketing tools for our internal team. All of the projects have our team excited about the prospects for the year ahead.

Our team at LILL HQ watched the inauguration of President Obama together. No matter your politics, it was a historic moment and you couldn't help but feel proud to be an American. Witnessing such history with our team was something I won't soon forget.

We have a monthly potluck lunch at our LILL HQ offices. It is something everyone looks forward to. At our January potluck, we also announced the winners of our 2008 LILLies Awards for everything from Team Member of the Year to Most likely to end up with 7 kids. Our internal "social committee" makes these potlucks so much fun.

As January ends and February begins, I'm looking forward to being a month closer to better weather, longer hours of daylight, new spring fabrics, new spring styles and a new baby. I can't wait to spend more time outside (seriously suffering from cabin fever) and generally be renewed by a fresh new year and the forthcoming change in seasons. Happy February!

Jen Velarde

Founder / President, 1154 LILL Studio