although...i'd prefer not to use the word "entrepreneur", because it conjures up images of wearing a suit and stiffly articulating obsequious business proposals to venture capitalists. no, no, the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that i'm thinking of is nothing like that. it's totally within reach and knows no compromises - you just have to have a vision and a desire to do your own thing. this is a new aspect to my blog that i'd like to undertake in the coming months, where i want to recognize the self-made people who have inspired me. i'll start here with one new and one old.
when i first noticed nicole warne on weardrobe, i was immediately drawn to her well-styled and early 90's-inspired outfits of cropped tops, blazers, lace, minidresses and a feminine color palette. imagine how pleased i was to discover that the blog linked to her weardrobe account was much more than a personal style blog, but a showcase for her vintage store, through which her personal brand is strongly projected - nicole buys, styles, models, photographs and lists everything herself.
gary pepper vintage is less than a year old, but nicole has already worked on a collaboration with solestruck, hosted a bunch of generous giveaways, put some of her own designs into production and is now listing new items by the hundreds. the gary pepper vintage brand is a lifestyle - one that stemmed from a girl who simply stayed true to her own creative vision and let her business grow from there - "the gary pepper girl is a japanese popstar. famous in her own right, admired by all."
pick*y cosmetics
thinking about pick*y cosmetics is like recalling a first. first time driving car, first time cooking a meal, first time feeling completely intrigued by a self-made inspiration. i discovered pick*y cosmetics through an online forum that i used to peruse when i was 14 or 15 (this was 2000/2001. pre-facebook, pre-myspace, even pre-friendster). the online forum was full of progressive-minded girls and actually paved the way for a lot of my own self-development, but i digress. pick*y was the name of the all-natural, homemade cosmetics company run by one of the forum members - i think her name was tasha. tasha formulated, produced, designed and packaged everything herself, in her own home, using few all-natural ingredients.
tasha was an active poster on the forum, so it didn't take long before her products spread virally across the community (an earlier form of social media marketing? maybe.)...and i started obsessively scouring her web site everyday and enviously reading the rave reviews of her products by other forum members. i watched as her business grew, as she re-designed and re-packaged and introduced new products. i remember admiring tasha's alternative, raver-ish style and her bright eye makeup, and then watching as she unleashed a line of brightly-hued eye colors.
i didn't have a credit card or checking account back then, so it took a bit of time and polite begging before my mom (also quite skeptical of online ordering at the time) finally allowed me to make a purchase. i greedily got one of each kind of product on pick*y - two solid perfumes, a shimmery lip gloss, a pot of lip balm, a lotion on a stick, and eye dust...and waited so eagerly for them to arrive. and they were very much worth it - i remember heavenly smells of strawberry, cucumber and grass, all carefully packaged together with a personal touch. i was so proud of my pick*y products - no one else had them. im sad to say, however, that one day, without warning, pick*y was gone. while i considered it a very successful business, we were all much younger back then, and perhaps tasha wanted to move onto other things. there's hardly a trace of pick*y cosmetics on the internet anymore, but i'll always remember how inspired i felt at the thought of how far one person could really carry out an idea.
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