My First Trunk Show!! 

My first trunk show was this past week and, let me tell you, it was SO much fun!! Jackie came up and helped me out and we had the best time ever. Meeting so many new girls on campus, telling them about Emma Graham and watching girls ooh and ahh over all the amazing clothes were certainly a few of the highlights from my day. The best part about the day though, was going live on Rollins Radio and talking about Emma Graham!

 Jackie and I in the Campus Center at Rollins College pre- trunk show! I paired the “Leah” dress with a Lilly Pulitzer necklace, pearls and metallic Jack Rogers!

 The set up!! I loved the balloons and all of the colors!

Amazing Emma Graham cupcakes that my roommate, Rachel, made especially for the trunk show!! They were a huge hit! Any goodies attract people!

Amazing new EG purchases!!! Rachel (in the middle), EG Valentine’s Day Contest Winner, can’t wait to wear her Berekely skirt for Easter!! Alex (far right) couldn’t get over the adorable pearl button on the “Sammi” skirt! She said that it was the selling point!

 I cannot wait for my next trunk show! I am hoping to do it at one of the boutiques on Park Avenue in Winter Park!! I hope everyone has a wonderful week! It’s finally warming up across the country so I’m sure everyone is rocking their EG skirts and/or dresses!!

Expanding Emma Graham: Tallahassee’s Narcissus loves EG!

After a weekend of trunk shows, I’m a little burnt out but even more excited than before about the future of Emma Graham Designs! Talk of EG around campus is building, and with it, a lot of excitement about the chic and trendy new spring line. FSU Chi O’s for whom I just hosted a trunk show at their house fell in love with the Jenn and Jordan dresses- almost every girl had to try them on!

 My recent trunk show at the Chi Omega house provided a unique experience for me, being that four other vendors were also present for their Mom’s Weekend festivities. I was able to speak to the other women selling jewelry, totes and clothing, and discuss the brands from a selling standpoint with them. What worked for them? What didn’t? What challenges have they faced in expanding their brands? Their feedback was extremely helpful, considering my main goal for EG this semester is to get the name out there and encourage girls to really look into what Emma Graham has to offer them!

One particular vendor was a girl from Narcissus, a chic boutique here in Tallahassee where a lot of girls shop to find unique, one-of-a-kind pieces for cocktail parties or a night on the town. Narcissus boasts a wide array of styles, from floor-length evening dresses to flirty swimsuits to flowy sundresses. One of my favorite pieces showcased at their event was a teal blue and white strapless romper. Simple and sweet, it could be dressed up for a dinner date with a chunky necklace and wedges or worn over a bathing suit to the beach. Both she and I envisioned Emma Graham Designs being a best seller in their store. The FSU campus collection debuting in August would be off the racks in no time! All of EG’s pieces fit in perfectly with the styles at Narcissus and the shoppers that this boutique attracts. Who knows, maybe we will be seeing Emma Graham amongst the fashion-forward pieces of Narcissus in no time!

I had a great time hosting my first EG trunk show! It was almost as much fun preparing for the show as it was to actually have all the girls over to try on the cute clothes.

Seven of my girl friends who live in my dorm came over on the night before the show, to help set up and to get a sneak peak at the great new EG items. Not only did we have a lot of fun, and create a great set up for the show, it also really helped to mentally prepare me for the next day. When the girls came over, we went to the grocery store to pick up snacks, came back and made cookies, and had a few tastings along the way. They gave me their input on how to make the best lay out of the room so that the center of attention would be on the fantastic clothes! But the best part of the night was when all the girls tried on the clothes. It was great to see which colors looked the best on brunettes, blondes, tan, fair skinned, etc. The coloring, along with seeing which styles worked for certain body types, really prepared me to give advice to the trunk show guests the next day. But most importantly, the night’s activities gave me a huge confidence boost for my trunk show! Of course as a design consultant, I know that EG has amazing styles, but it’s always great to hear other girls point out their favorite qualities in the pieces. My friends gave me even more material to use in promoting EG pieces the following day.  I recommend that all design consultants have their friends over to get them psyched up on the night before a trunk show! And I also suggest trying these delicious chocolate pretzel treats! They’re easy and quick!

Just lay out as many pretzels as will fit on a cookie sheet and place a Hershey kiss on each one. Set the oven to 350, and pop the tray in for about 2 minutes, or until the tips of the kisses start to droop (white chocolate Hugs melt a lot faster- so keep an eye on those!). Then take them out and put an m and m on each pretzel right away. You can leave them to cool for a few hours on the counter, or if you’re in a rush you can stick them in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Approaching my first trunk show I was both nervous and excited.  I was nervous because I wanted to make sure I represented the brand to its fullest potential.  On the same token, I was also excited to talk to shoppers and show them how awesome Emma Graham is!  All in all, I must admit that my first trunk show was a great success!

I received my inventory on the Friday before my trunk show.  I immediately tried on all the dresses to make sure that I knew information about the dresses and how they fit.  I compared my inventory to the online website so I knew exactly what dresses I had and what other options Emma Graham had to offer.

After I gained knowledge about the clothes, I ran through a “practice sale”.  I pretended like I was ordering a dress online and put the item in my shopping bag, and proceeded to checkout.  This way I knew the information a transaction required.

An hour before the show I began hanging up the clothes on a rack and setting up the raffle tickets! Shortly after my trunk show began I had my first sale.  This boosted my confidence because it happened so quickly and the customer bought two items!

By the end of the night I ended up selling three items and passing out a lot of business cards for customers to purchase items online!  I had a great turn out, but with that under my belt, my next goal is to make my upcoming trunk shows even bigger and better!

I finally had the opportunity to host my first Emma Graham trunk show last weekend and could not be more eager to host more. I was definitely nervous at first to be in charge of such an exciting event but I was able to host this first trunk show in my sorority house during out mom’s weekend brunch. Getting to see the new spring line and all of our promotional products for the first time in person was like Christmas morning, I couldn’t wait to show everyone the products. I learned a lot of information about the products during this first trunk show that I wanted to share with you all!

The most important issue that I wanted to figure out right away was the fit of the clothes. The dress and skirt that I have from Emma Graham fit very true to size but I wasn’t sure if that is how everything always fit or if my body type just worked in my favor this time. So during the trunk show I was thrilled to have girls of different body types and sizes try the clothes on so I could get a better understanding and be able to help everyone make a better decision when shopping, especially online, which can be tricky.

What I found is that the pieces truly do fit true to size, which was a very helpful finding. The only issue girls tended to run into would be with the strapless dresses if their waist and bust proportions didn’t go along perfectly with the dress, but I found that if you just go with the size that fits your waist the best the bust can be adjusted easily. That being the only issue I ran into, I felt that the day was definitely a home run.

Also, girls if you are looking for the most popular up and coming looks for spring definitely look into the Griffin dress, the Lauren dress, the Leah dress, and the Sammi skirt. Girls could not stop saying enough good things about the new linen material. I see these pieces doing very well this spring season! Along with the pieces made with the linen material the most popular piece of the whole trunk show was the Jordan dress! This came as no surprise because who wouldn’t love this simple and figure flattering dress with the added trim detail along the bottom.

I can’t wait to have my next trunk show and continue to introduce Emma Graham to Indiana Univerysity!