At work on great designs!

Ever wonder what it looks like in our studio when we are at work?
Well wonder no longer here is a visual tour. Enjoy!

Custom-made bits'n'pieces

Lately we've been getting a lot of custom-requests in our menswear shop for some reason...
(could be this new custom-listing beta-test we were participating in come to think of it)

Did you know this about PopLove?

Hey Dudes,

So going over our blog lately, I noticed we forgot to mention one little thing.

Did you know we have 2 separate shops? For real! 

First of all, we've got an awesome-tastic menswear shop, which you can see here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PopLoveHis

And then we've got a girlie-liscious womenswear shop over here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PopLoveHers

So yeah. Now you know where to go. 

**BONUS**
Here's a picture of a kitten dressed up as a banana!

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Andrea

Patchwork-chic

Hey, so have you seen some of the new items up in our ladies' shop lately?

I've been obsessed with the whole "gypsy patchwork" thing lately - sort of a bohemian chaos chic thing. Take a look!

  

I really can't get enough of this lately...

♥

Andrea

How expensive is your discount sweater - REALLY?

The recent factory collapses in Bangladesh and Cambodia should really be setting off warning signals in every Western consumers' minds, but from the looks of things, no one's ready to change their spending habits any time soon.

Here's the problem in a nutshell:

• International chains are constantly on the hunt for high profit-margins (not that I blame them for that, it's their prerogative)
• Consumers have become used to ever-cheaper prices available on the markets at their favorite high-street shops
• The economy's recent nosedive has made consumers even more penny-pinching in their spending habits
• No one is very happy to start consuming less, so the demand is that the chain retailers offer the same products at ever-dropping prices

So here's what we have as a result - over 900 dead factory-workers in Bangladesh and Cambodia, all within 1 month.

In all honesty, I think there's something inherently wrong with this setup. What we're basically saying is that the value of a life in the West is higher than the value of a life in the East. Now I have a problem with that, and when you think about it, you ought to as well.

So what's the solution? Well it's definitely not a simple one. We've all grown used to spending less and getting more, but this is an absolutely toxic and certainly non-sustainable cycle here.

The solution lies in Western consumers' habits. We need to stop consuming and start investing. Your grandmother didn't buy herself a new dress every week, did she? Quite frankly, she wore her dresses for years and mended them when something wore out. Now, what exactly is wrong with that?

Frankly, I think most of our grandparents had much more style than you or I do today. So how can you start changing your habits? Granted, it's probably something that's going to take a while for you to adjust to, but there are a couple of steps you can take to put yourself on a healthier shopping-path:

1. BUY LESS STUFF. Seriously, you'll be able to save yourself more money and it's actually not that difficult. Go through your closet and really take a look at what's there. Do you honestly need another tank-top, skirt, pair of jeans, whatever? Probably not. 
2. Spoil Yourself. Allow yourself an indulgent purchase once per season - an expensive belt, purse, shoes, sweater, whatever. Just make sure that it's made from quality materials (take a look at our 8 Steps to Discovering Your Own Sense of Style article for more tips here) and preferably, not made in a 3rd-world country
3. Learn how to fix it yourself. If you have an article of clothing that you're happy with, but suddenly gets a tear, stain, whatever, learn how to fix it! There are tons of articles out there on the Interwebs that can show you exactly what you need to know.
4. Buy Local. Chances are, when you do go shopping, your local designer isn't making their goods overseas, but actually in your own neighborhood. While prices may be marginally more expensive than your favorite chain, you can feel all warm&fuzzy about supporting your local economy and usually, local designers pay a little more attention to detail which means - better quality!

Now obviously, there's a lot more to these issues than just what we see on the surface. What your goal ought to be is to send a message to these chain-store retailers - if they know that consumers are willing to spend a little more on their clothes, it makes it a lot easier for them to be able to invest in better working-conditions for their factories. 

We've brought the shredded shirts back! They are so much fun to wear and look amazing with any pair of pants and with any kind of tank top underneath.

Here's what the process of making one looks like:

Check 'em out in our Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/47896627/sale-post-apocalyptic-punk-white

We've added lots of new mens designs to our shop and more in the works!

In the meantime we put two awesome shirts on sale with a 25% discount.

Check them out!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/112485789/sale-mens-futuristic-urban-button-down

https://www.etsy.com/listing/109977530/sale-mens-futuristic-urban-button-down

Isn't Instagram great? We just really got into it recently and it's a great way for us to share all of our designer-y adventures in and around our studio. Here are just a few samples of our pics and you can follow us as well on Instagram here: http://instagram.com/andreahughes82

Recently we decided to get into a bit of vintage. We are going to sell only the most stylish and classy items that we hand pick to be in perfect condition. Some of them we will sell exactly as they are with minor touchups to make sure they are in mint condition, while others we will modify to suit our style. Check out the first two items in our women's shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PopLoveHers?section_id=12942171

We're also starting to work on a custom order for a custom black spiderman costume, aka symbiote spiderman! We'll post along the process...

We've been busy lately making new men's and women's items. It's very exciting!

We separated the two shops that we have on Etsy and we now ave one for womens items http://www.etsy.com/shop/PopLoveHers and another one for the mens clothes http://www.etsy.com/shop/PopLoveHis

There are a couple of avant garde mens dress shirts in basic blue-gray-black color schemes and with interesting geometric designs. In the women's department we made a new funky and unique skirt and a black and silver evening dress. Check out the photos below and the links to the items in our shops!

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/119853547/post-apocalyptic-romantic-steam-punk

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/120763812/post-apocalyptic-steam-punk-goth

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/121054688/mens-cyber-futuristic-button-down-shirt

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/119753982/mens-cyber-futuristic-button-down-shirt

Wedding!

We're back from a long hiatus!

We took nearly two months away from our designs to devote time to planning and enjoying our wedding. We had relatives come all the way from Canada to celebrate with us. We rented a villa and did the wedding in Sunny Eilat. The ceremony was on the beach, by the water, complete with acrobats, Chinese lanterns and followed by great food and drinks!

It was a great party. Now we're back into designing full speed and have already posted a couple of new items in our new Etsy shops:

Men's clothes:
www.etsy.com/shop/PopLoveHis
Women's clothes:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PopLoveHers

Here are some photos from our wedding: