Paris in the Spring brings lots of warm weather. Paris during Easter season also brings pilgrims from around the world to visit its iconic churches, the Sacré-Cœur…
and Notre Dame…
And then there’s another kind of pilgrimage that’s taken by many fashionistas, myself included, who hold Mademoiselle C close to their hearts (or maybe just Chanel handbags clutched to their sides):
So in today’s blog entry I’ll let the photos tell the story of how many CHANEL boutiques a devotee like me can visit to pay homage to a “simple” girl’s idea that became a fashion powerhouse.
First there’s the fine jewelry boutique at Place Vendôme:
Then a sprawling (and apparently still expanding) complex on the tony Avenue Montaigne…
And yet a few more locations throughout Paris, including the one on rue Royale and those inside the large department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps …
But no pilgrimage is complete until one reaches the mothership on rue Cambon…
where fantasies begin in the window…
and don’t stop especially after you enter its landmark front door…
or exit its sprawling space because as you stroll past the boutique, you wonder if perhaps you’re not also walking in the footsteps of Mademoiselle C who once walked down this same path, with visions of the next season’s collection percolating in her mind…
Tags: Avenue Montaigne, Chanel, Easter, Galeries Lafayette, Notre Dame, Paris, Place Vendôme, Printemps, rue Cambon, Sacre Coeur
Right before my trip to Europe a girlfriend of mine, Eileen, asked if I would review one of the dresses offered at her online store, Hautehangers, here at my blog. Pretty dress? I’m in! So by the time I arrived here, there was a package waiting for me a in royal blue sparkly number. It’s lined, well-made, embellished at the neckline, and much shorter than what I’d usually wear out of the house. But Paris makes you do crazy things, and I thought what a better way to feature a dress than in an action shot taken right here in Paris on an early Sunday morning? Well, if you are 20-something the picture should remind you of rushing home after a long night of partying. And if you are not, as in my case, well, what happens in Paris…let’s say my face is blurred for my own protection 
.
Anyway, since I had so much fun doing a recent interview with K a few entries ago, I thought I’d turn the table on E today and ask her about her new company. More on Paris in the next few entries.
Hi E, it’s been a real pleasure getting to know you since we first met at the Purse Forum. So tell us about this new venture you have going with your sisters.
Larkie, it has been 4 years since we met on TPF?! 
Thank you for giving me this platform to share about my life.
HauteHangers is a blogshop run by the 4 of us and so far it has been an exciting journey of learning and meeting women from all walks of life. Our store currently carries a mix of imported apparel as well as our own designs. We strive to bring to our customers timeless pieces with great workmanship at affordable prices. Quality and customers service is of utmost importance to us and every piece that we manufacture is carefully thought through. Every piece is lovingly made.
Have you always wanted to work in fashion or retail?
I have a full-time job managing my family’s limousine business together with my husband and second sister. But yes, it has been a dream of mine to get into fashion/retail. Now that my day job gives me more freedom, I have more time to pursue my interests.
What was your work background, and how did you get into this new business?
I have a Science degree and a diploma in Education and teaching was my first job. After I had my elder son, I decided to leave teaching to help my parents. While I enjoy what I am doing in limousine, a part of me felt unfulfilled. Since I can’t relive my life and choose my career path again, I decided I would do something about it and take small steps in achieving my dream. I always believe that the best days of our lives are ahead of us and that gives us hope and courage to do new things.
Are you involved in the actual design of the items at your store? Or is there a division of labor among your sisters?
I do not have any academic background in design and fashion except years and years of poring over fashion magazines and fashion sites. The first manufactured designs were really items from my personal collection which I love very much, while others are inspirations from what we see on runway/my favorite celebs. We tweak the design a little to make it more relevant, select the fabric to make sure we get the final effect before sending it to our suppliers to do a sample. Once we are satisfied with the the sample piece, the manufacturing process starts. For example, in the Bejeweled Dress* that we recently launched, the supplier told us that the stones were painstakingly sewn piece by piece by the manufacturer and they could only do a few pieces a day. In terms of quality, those that we design and manufacture are definitely better than those we get directly from from suppliers, i.e. from the wholesale. But we didn’t dive into manufacturing right away as the minimum quantity was huge and we didn’t have the customer base at the beginning.
*this is the same dress I’m wearing in the first photo
So my job is mainly to work with the suppliers on the designs while my other sisters are involved in the invoicing, photography and photo-editing.
What everyone probably wants to know is whether working in fashion curbs your appetite for shopping…or is it the opposite?
I think I have become more selective in the things I buy. With less impulse buys, I think shopping has cut down but I do indulge in an exquisite piece every now and then when I see something I like. But gone are the days where I don’t give much thought to what really suits me and splurge on clothes and accessories just because they are on trend. I feel it also has to do with maturity. I took a long time finding out what works for me and then started this arduous process of purging my wardrobe of excess which did not correspond to my style and body type. It was both painful and therapeutic. But the pieces that I now have are cherished wardrobe staples that I know I will wear over and again. So I am less of a violent shopper these days…lol and I love this quote from Garance Dore, “Sometimes it takes me 10 years to own something. It’s like LOVE. You want to let things grow on you”
What top two pieces of advice do you have for other women who want to start their own companies?
If you ask me, its Prayer, Planning and Action.
How did you come up with the name of your company?
The challenge was to find an unused domain name to set up the blogshop’s url and email accounts. We were brainstorming one day and the name “HauteHangers” just clicked. They were all agreeable and the name was available. So we registered our company in May 2010!
How did you find your manufacturer?
The first thing I did was to pray because I didn’t have any idea how to start. Then I spent a lot of time researching and talking to suppliers. There are many manufacturers out there who can do a good job and ours are mainly from China.
We know about the advantages of outsourcing production to Asia. But what are the main pitfalls to look for, especially if you do not speak the local language?
If you don’t speak their language, find a trust worthy supplier who travels there and who can. They are many around. For us, the issues mainly arose during the festive season where we experienced delays and sub-standard quality. So you have to prepare your stocks way in advance and in the case of poor quality, a good supplier will take it all back.
If it’s not too personal to ask, how did you raise the capital to fund your new business? Was a lot of capital required to fund this new business?
Running a blogshop is much simpler than a brick and mortar store. There is no rent to pay if you host it on a free site and no overhead expenses. The initial start-up would be your model, photography and the actual stocks. If you are in great shape and have a reasonably good camera, you can even do the modelling on your own for a start.
What are your short and long-term goals for this company?
Short-term goal would be to get acquainted with more suppliers/manufacturers so that we know who can do the best job at the most competitive price. We have also just designed our label and it will be tagged onto the coming manufactured items. This May we celebrate our first year in business:)
In the long run, we hope to turn HauteHangers into an online store bringing good quality apparel in timeless designs to our customers. But to elaborate this further..currently, our blogshop uses the livejournal platform which may not be as user-friendly to customers who do not hold an account. So to make a purchase, they email us at hautehangers@gmail.com and we will reply with an invoice. While this gives us an opportunity to interact with our customers, some may prefer a more straight-forward check-out. So by moving to a full-fledged online store, it will definitely simplify processes.
Thanks for answering these questions, E! As a female entrepreneur, I wish you and your sisters great success on your endeavors. And as a fellow fashionaholic, tell me, what bag and what shoes are you wearing today?
Thank you for having me on your blog, Larkie. It’s a privilege as I have been so inspired by your life and passion. It was Chanel that made our paths meet so here’s me in our favourite label!
Tags: blogshop, Hautehangers, Paris
I bet you were guessing another French icon that starts with the letter C, ends with L, and has HANE in the middle when I left you last. But no, today I’m sharing photos of another Parisian obsession of mine. Yep, I’m definitely cuckoo for macarons! Specifically le délicieux macaron from Ladurée, a double-decker concoction that consists of a melt-in-your-mouth meringue sandwich encrusting magical fillings with names like griotte amande (cherry with almond) and cassis violette (Blackcurrant violet)…is it any wonder I lose my mind wandering from one location to the next?
There is a lovely tearoom on the Champs-Élysées…
And another sweet location on Rue Royale, where the original bakery began…
and where you can find all sorts of sinful things besides the macarons…
as well as other products to soften the sweetness…
Don’t worry about the sticker shock–just close your eyes, smell then taste the Pétales de rose macaron (which I think everyone should try at least once in a lifetime even if you are not big on sweets), savor the harmony in your head, and you won’t feel the pain in your pocketbook anymore. Believe me, it’s as good as it gets 
.
Tags: champs-elysees, Ladurée, macaron, Paris, Rue Royale
I’ve been to Paris enough times to not feel/get lost anymore, but no trip is the same until I’ve visited the 324-meters tall iron giraffe, the Eiffel Tower. Wonderful things play out here. I’ve seen guys get down on one knee under the tower’s immense umbrage to propose to their girlfriends…
as well as multigenerational families visiting the tower for the first time, with the same look of awe both on grandpa’s and his toddler grandchild’s faces…
I suspect that no many how many times you look at la Tour Eiffel, either from a great distance,
or sort of up close,
you’re awestruck every single time. Can the same be said about another certain French icon? Stick around and we’ll see in the next entry…
Tags: Eiffel Tower, Paris, Tour Eiffel
So the big 4/18 Club–and by big I mean we have 3 members from my clan alone: Lil A, my cousin Steven, and yours truly–is having its day today, but unfortunately we are not all together to celebrate it. However, the great thing about membership in a club is that even distance can’t keep us from coordinating our outfits!
My sister and I’d had a quick conversation about Lil A’s outfits for her bday party a few weeks ago, and as the event was French themed, I’d suggested something with navy stripes and red leggings, primarily because I was secretly hoping back then that I’d myself get to wake up in Paris for my own bday and had visualized wearing something similar (err, minus the leggings). So I was thrilled when she emailed me this picture of Lil A in her birthday outfit:
And while Lil A was killing it in NYC with her fashionista self (3 outfit changes if I’m not mistaken from the pics I received!), her aunt was celebrating a mellower day in Paris. All I’d really wanted to do this year was to spend 4/18 in Paris with zero agenda. No long shopping list, no new museum exhibits to chase down, no appointments to keep. Just a girl in the city with a camera.
But first things first…aren’t sweets always a prerequisite for birthdays? I’d walk on hot coal and through a blinding snowstorm for these Ladurée macaroons–my favorite flavors are definitely the Pétales de rose and café:
Is 9.50am too early for champagne? Perhaps…so with my morning loot of sweets in hand, I head over to the Chanel mothership on rue Cambon to see if I couldn’t find a dream jacket for a birthday pressie…
That’s the lovely La Madeleine, a church that looks more like a temple, looming behind me in the above picture. But let’s get back to the matching outfits…see what I mean by the striped top on me in these pictures?
I strike out at this boutique…lovely items as usual (store was packed even this early in the morning) but nothing different from what I’d already seen and bought in NYC. Plus the shoes I was hoping to find in Paris for less than in the US after VAT refund were not available. And no sign of that dream jacket, which is becoming more and more elusive by the day. I am, however, tempted by a pale, pale pink Chain Me flap–not released in the US–but I email my Chanel Anonymous sponsor and am promptly talked out of falling off the wagon. Boo, what fun is it to curb your binge on your bday!
But as all you addicts know, we usually trade one addiction for another. So by the time I get off the metro at the Père-Lachaise cemetery, I am dying to devour the macaroons…
And no, I don’t find it macabre or morbid to visit a cemetery on your birthday. Walking through large cemeteries filled with ornate tombstones is to me a great reminder not of the dead but the living. It’s actually quite peaceful in this parklike setting (more on this cemetery in another entry)…of course, until you get close to Jim Morrison’s gravesite, where there is always a lot of activity.
I grab lunch, followed by a blackcurrant violet macaroon (I really wish they made diabetes-friendly versions so that I could bring some home for my mom), and leisurely take one of my favorite walks in Paris that leads me to the Musée d’Orsay…
then the Tuileries Garden,
where my view is full of this:
and my belly is full of that:
Lil A told her parents that she would like to go to Paris in a helicopter. It’s funny and adorable what kids say at that age, but what I really wish for her on her second birthday is that she gets to hang on to that blissfully unguarded spirit, so wonderfully captured in the first photo of today’s entry, for as long as she can.
Tags: Chanel, La Madeleine, Ladurée macaroons, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Père-Lachaise cemetery, Pétales de rose, rue Cambon, Tuileries Garden
