Holiday Potluck

This is probably my 100th post about LILL's infamous potlucks, but I can't help myself. Once a month our entire production staff brings in a dish and we all dine together.This tradition started as a way to recognize birthdays of staffers born in the respective month, and we've been adding some other traditions along the way. Staff past and present visit with their children, and this month our newest addition at only 2 weeks old, paid us a visit. We also shared gifts and some fun crafts with eachother (made from scrap fabrics of course!) and designed a bag from our LINKS collection. As always, it was a great time and a sweet way to celebrate the holidays with co-workers.

We wish everyone a Happy Holiday! Enjoy creating new memories while celebrating some of your own traditions this holiday season!

Spring 2011 Trends

Spring may be a fading memory at this point, but it's never too early to be thinking about how you'll refresh your wardrobe come March. Everyone is still talking about major trends that evolved from fashion week, and Refinery 29 has highlighted ten of their favorites. Halter necklines, floor length frocks, wide legged trousers and full skirts are some top style trends, and in terms of color, neutral, orange and chartreuse reigned the runways.

According to Pantone the color of 2011 is Honeysuckle, a reddish pink that we think will bode well with LILL fans. We're keeping all these color trends in mind during our spring buy (see below), but we promise some fun surprises in there to mix things up a bit!

Spring is in the air! Here's why...

With Christmas around the corner (and snow on the ground here in Chicago) there's no denying the fact that winter is here, but we're already thinking spring. We're currently searching for our top choices for LILL's spring fabric collection, so our desks are filled with cheerful colors and fun florals...which is a nice view compared to the gray skies outside. It's quite a process, but always loads of fun!

After collecting samples throughout the year we take a look at our current selection of fabrics and decide which fabrics need to go because they're out of season and which ones we're not quite ready to part with. We make stacks and stacks of our favorites, our not so favorites and fabrics that aren't right for now, but may be for later. We consider what the "it" colors are for the season and get input from our fellow staffers, and a few weeks later they're available to you, dying to be designed with! Here are a few of our current favorites...

Current fall/winter fabrics are in limited supply, so if there's something you love, now's the time to treat yourself!

LILL's Elves

This time of year is always exciting here at LILL's headquarters because it's so evident that the holidays are here. Production is bustling with orders, our web store is flooded with phone calls and shoppers are loving their time spent at our stores. Here's a look at some holiday fun
around our production space...

A flurry of cut parts waiting to be assembled and handed off to sewing...

Imelda, from our Quality Dept.,

giving the bags

their final inspection...

& Vanessa prepping boxes for

shipping, from floor to ceiling.

As you can see, we're quite busy this time of year, but we'd have it no other way. Thank you all for your continued support and for giving the gift of creativity this holiday season!

Sneak Peek!

As many of you would assume, working for a custom handbag company has its perks, and one of them is having the opportunity to test drive a new style before it's officially released. This month everyone is clamoring for the chance to try out the Roxy, a new everyday style that debuts on January 3, 2011. Since you have to wait a couple more weeks to see it for yourself, we thought we'd give you a LILL holiday treat and share a sneak peek...

Maybe someone special will give you a LILL gift certificate this holiday season, and you'll be able to get yourself a Roxy to kick off the new year!