designer

We’re collecting all of my March Meet the Maker posts here on the blog for ease of reading and all of you who might not be on instagram or facebook. It was a great opportunity to share a bit more about our brand and hope it helps you get to know me and BTS a little better!

In the intimate apparel industry there are a number of large companies (like the one I previously worked for) that specialize in producing intimates collections for designer brand names that they license, mostly by contracting with overseas factories. These factories are responsible for sourcing materials and manufacturing the garments with the risk they would have to eat the cost of any overstock in materials and mistakes in production. Ultimately they made a very small percentage of the wholesale cost of goods, so you can imagine the reality of what that meant for the actual workers that made the goods.

“Fashion” is rooted in capitalism, classism, and has lost its roots in heritage, culture, and craft. It is an art to create a piece of clothing from disparate bolts of fabric and make it look like it has not been touched by human hands, but every garment you see has been sewn by hand. There is no machine that can knit/cut materials as fluid as fabric without an operator behind it..

My decision, to quit my job and look to produce a collection here in USA, was driven by my personal discomfort with the way that the garments I worked on were produced. As a designer I am driven to create, but that creation is not just in the design of the garment & selection of fabrics but the ethos behind it.

Even after I started my own company it took a few years of designing collections on a seasonal calendar & selling wholesale before I decided to opt out of the traditional model in favor of slow sustainable growth for myself and my company. I exited my wholesale business to focus on selling directly to my customers & became a certified Bcorp. In reinventing my business my long term goal is to change how we consume, our relation to consumption, to creation, and ultimately how that relates to ourselves. I truly hope we are on the brink of a shift in consumption.

Have any questions for me? Leave a question on this post or any of our March Meet the Maker posts!

inspire – Iceland Travel Tips

Iceland has become the place to see, and its not hard to understand why. The incredible natural landscapes are so inspiring, and since our trip we’ve gotten so many questions about our tips for travel as many others are making the voyage themselves, so we’ve collected travel photos and a breakdown of our tips. I spent hours reading travel blogs & looking up information since we traveled to Iceland for our Andromeda photoshoot – I needed to scout locations and we couldn’t spare even a moment to run around looking for things while there! Hopefully all that time and research will save you a bit of time and headache on your travels. To get straight to the tips scroll down, but if you want pictures & lists of sites we visited read on!

For behind the scenes of our photoshoot with Arden click here & if you’re interested in the Andromeda lookbook click here

Behind the scenes #BTSfireandice

Day 1 – Arrival & Blue Lagoon

early am arrival, pick up rental car, blue lagoon, check into airbnb in reykjavik, shop/cook, prep for shoot next day

Iceland Fire & Ice - Between the Sheets on the road — Landing at Keflavik, which is about an hour from Reykjavik by car. (Free luggage carts were appreciated as we discovered our luggage had its wheels broken on the flight.)

steam rising from blue lagoon - between the sheets iceland travel tips — Seriously, what is there to say about the Blue Lagoon that hasn’t already been gushed about on every travel blog? I was told it was overrated/overpriced, and honestly I disagree, it was serene, surreal, beautiful, and there is no wonder that a whopping 90 something percent of all visitors to Iceland stop here!

Lava at Blue Lagoon - between the sheets iceland travel tips — Lava Restaurant at the Blue Lagoon

Day 2 – Southern Iceland

road trip to Reynifsjara, stops at skogafoss. If we weren’t shooting we would’ve had more time to see more of vik, take a detour to search for the abandoned airplane, see a couple more waterfalls, or have driven a bit further east to glaciers at jokarlson

Day 3 – Reykjavik explorations

we rested up and took a break from shooting and explored Reykjavik sites, if we had another day or on a return visit we might’ve spent this day driving north or to the westfjords

josh layla and arden in downtown reykjavik — Selfie with Hallgrimskirkja

cute colored houses in downtown reykjavik iceland — colored houses in downtown Reykjavik

touristing at viking museum gift shop in reykjavik iceland — viking museum gift shop, near Aurora and down the street from the street art above

northern lights center in reykjavik iceland — aurora northern lights center

visitor map at northern lights center in reykjavik — visitors map at aurora reykjavik

Day 4 – Golden Circle

Highlights Pingvellir, Gulfoss, Geysir, and had we not been shooting we would’ve visited this greenhouse for a tour and lunch!

pingvellir on iceland golden circle roadtrip — Roadside cafe near the entrance to Pingvellir

Iceland Geysir Golden Circle — a few snaps of Geysir going off with crowd for scale

iceland geysir cafe on golden circle — the gift shop and cafe next to Geysir was really nice, the coffee and cheesecakes – lots of tour buses so this place was pretty packed

gulfoss waterfall on golden circle roadtrip in iceland — Gulfoss waterfalls was one of the most incredible sites we visited, with several viewing spots and a relatively short but wet walk up to be right on top of the waterfall. Only wish the cloud cover had not been so low that day!

layla l'obatti and josh verleun of between the sheets at gulfoss waterfall in iceland — Layla & Josh at Gulfoss waterfall

icelandic pony on golden circle road trip — We made friends with this icelandic pony, stay tuned for more photos & our behind the scenes teasers of the collection and photoshoot with Arden!

Day 5 – We had early flight to the UK, let me know in comments if you are interested in tips for London! We didn’t shoot there but it was nice to have the opportunity to continue onto London bc of Iceland Air’s free layover the portion of the trip to London only added a small price to each ticket.

I can’t wrap this up without recommending you pop on over to I heart Reykjavik, I’ve mentioned the blog on our periscope chats before and after the trip and it was a huge resource in planning our journey to Iceland!

Roundup of Tips for Planning Your Trip

Things to get in airport

before entering

Duty free food (mostly candy) or liquor that you can finish while in country – (we didn’t really see any liquor or wine shops in our travels around Reykjavik and if you’re like me you prefer to do something when its most convenient, so a little forethought saved us a trip out of our way for a bottle or two of wine which would’ve cut down on our sightseeing and relaxing time!)

Sim Card, they have limited brands at airport but this helped when we needed to find/reach our car rental that was located on other side of parking lot since there really weren’t a lot of staff or an info desk at airport when we arrived off the red eye. More details on brands we tried further in the post!

when leaving

If you’re traveling on via iceland air’s stopover remember whatever liquor you get will have to be checked on leg of your journey back (and with overweight bag fees be careful not to go over!). We got some Icelandic gin that is really good and definitely worth rearranging our luggage for.

Chocolate and Icelandic salts – we regretted not getting the salts! You will find these all over in gift shops all over reykjavik as well, but if you forget grab them on your way out!

Sim card- options

They didn’t have siminn when we went, this we found at the gas station but had to ask attentandent to help us with activating as the call in was in icelandic! Siminn worked well in/outside reykjavik but we didn’t go farther that vik/reynifsjara.

We picked up a Vodafone sim upon arrival at duty free and it worked well in Reykjavik, but didn’t have as much data as Siminn.

Culture

People are really friendly, things close rather early between 6pm-9pm. We stayed across from a grocery store that was open later, that helped on our first day running out to get groceries

No need to tip – this was surprising to me because we come from tipping culture but was good to know ahead of time.

Blue Lagoon & pool etiquette

This would never occur to me but before heading over I read this post, and there were definitely some stern pool attendants who enforced rules. Basically, shower before, get completely dry before re-entering locker room.

We got the premium package at the Blue Lagoon, which includes robe and slippers and a little gift pack of their toiletries, and a drink at the lagoon side bar. If it was summer and not as chilly you could probably make due without the robe, but you’d probably want to pack flip flops for showers.

We didn’t manage a visit to one of Reykjavik’s many geothermal pools – I guess we have a reason to go back now! Public pools are frequented year round in Reykjavik, because of the heated water it is possible even in the chill of winter to enjoy swimming (check this post for a roundup of reykjavik pools). If you have more time or decide to skip the Blue Lagoon, you might want to check some out!

Hotels vs Airbnb

This is a personal preference, to me the bonus of staying at an apartment with a kitchen is getting to shop and experience the daily life of local. Plus late night snacks and coffee on demand are pretty sweet too.

Rental cars

Reserve ahead to make sure that you get a non-stick shift if you don’t know how to use stick. My guess is that in the summer/high season this is more of an issue, but all the rental cars save a few are right off the exit from customs so you can easily book one there if you don’t have time or inclination to book ahead.

In general there was not a lot of traffic, there was a funny quirk when driving and getting directions they dont have 4 way stops that have traffic circles, my guess is because most people drive stick but if anyone knows why planners choose traffic circles vs 4 way stop let us know in the comments!

We found out gas was more expensive than stateside, a liter is much smaller than a gallon so if you’re operating on a tight budget add a line in, look up current rates, and maybe look for a fuel efficient rental car.

Language

We got around with english, if you are road tripping further afield I think basic Icelandic would help.

Food

We only snacked and had coffee while out, with the exception of blue lagoon’s Lava Restaurant which was our only full meal (and fantastic! dining in a spa robe, yes please!). A rundown on the places we ate below.

Joe & juice, Te Og Kaffi (Wish this was stateside!), Bistro at geysir (prettiest cake selection & great coffee), C is for cookie coffeeshop in Reykjavik, lava restaurant at blue lagoon.

I guess this is a good spot to mention getting the exchange rate in your head, Iceland Krona to USD is a bit confusing and while we found most things were not too expensive (again we may be bias here coming from a notoriously expensive city like NYC) but when incorrectly translated to USD this could lead to some overspending. Another money tip is to find a card that does not charge foreign transaction fees – your credit card company negotiates exchange rate and waves the foreign transaction fees. If you’re not careful this could add $$ to your trip that could be getting spent on great experiences.

Full Time or Part Time – Meet the Maker Day 6

How I Got Started – Meet the Maker Day 2

inspire – Iceland travel tips