THE PINEAPPLE SLIPS:
THOUGHTS AND NOTES FROM A CLUTTERED ANABELLE BAG
Larissa Weinstein

June 28, 2010

Tonight was without a doubt the highlight of my trip. All of the sights were amazing, but tonight was an incredibly unique experience that no one else had. I arrived to Hong Kong today, where I met Can Chan, the agent from our factory in China. I had been emailing her for months and we met on Facebook, but we hadn't met in person until tonight. She picked me up at my hotel at about seven o'clock. For the first time in two weeks, I did my hair and put in my contacts. Finally feeling like my normal self again, I left the group dinner and went to the lobby to meet Can. I identified her right away, not only from Facebook pictures but because she was carrying a sample of the black Lena in the Fifth Avenue Series.

We went to the hotel restaurant and had a wonderful dinner. We chatted about my trip, Marcia's antics, and of course purses. She's sending me fabric swatches so we can look into turquoise and brown for the Fifth Avenue bags. We also talked about shoes. Matching shoes, velvet shoes, shoes with pineapples, shoes with crystals. She's going to talk to her friend in the shoe business to see about making Anabelle shoes! After dinner we went shopping on the nearby streets. She showed me where to find all the best stuff and she was tremendously helpful in her ability to speak Cantonese, the local dialect. I found a couple more gifts to bring back. We also found an abundance of fake purses, but I didn't buy any. I suppose we'll know we hit it big when there are fake Anabelle bags on the black market.

It was getting late, so we went back to the hotel and took a video in the lobby on my Flip camcorder. It'll be posted on the website soon! We said our goodbyes, and I headed up to my room. Tonight I think is when I really realized how much I love business and working with this company. I was in my element having dinner with a business associate. I can see myself in the future running companies, especially in the fashion world. I see myself going to events at night mingling and interacting with people. During the day I'll have meetings and work on managing the business and coordinating shipments. This is what I want to do with my life. It's the perfect mix of serious work and being with people, and it's always a new challenge. Plus, I can use my power as a business executive to help charities and make a difference.

My plans for the rest of the summer are to work from home on everything Anabelle. There is a lot to be done with press and the website, not to mention getting the philanthropic initiative for breast cancer up and running. If all goes as planned, the Carry for the Cure website can launch in October!

May 14, 2010
"The difference between the girls today and models of the past is that we are not only interested in fashion: we are going in so many different directions at once. We work harder - at night and on weekends."-Claudia Schiffer
This quote is the perfect way to explain how crazy and exciting Anabelle by Marcia Sherrill has become. All through April I worked on product pages and descriptions, and we finalized our orders for the inventory. Things are really picking up as we gear up to launch the product line on June 15th! As Claudia Schiffer said, it's not just the fashion. I am going every which way and loving every minute of it. Granted, I'm not a model, but it still applied. Increasingly I find myself working away at my computer or my Blackberry, days, nights, weekends, you name it. I'm doing web design, press, philanthropy, administration, and writing it all down. This past Tuesday evening was our first big charity event as a company; the Posh dinner for Lighthouse International. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to New York to attend, but I was definitely there in spirit. In fact, I worked on organizing product images on Tuesday from the minute school let out until after dinner. And loved every minute of it. There's a certain thrill to overnighting a package to New York, or having an urgent email come in. Posh was the first of many fashion charity galas to come, and I'll be there for the next ones. I can't give away any details now, but I'm going to be in charge of our very own philanthropic initiative, targeted to launch Fall 2010. Every day is something new, a new problem to tackle and solve, a new bit of success. The fashion is only one facet of this purse company. We believe in maintaining social connections, giving back to the community, and doing it all with class and elegance.

March 22, 2010
Anabelle Shoes?
Marcia was very excited when she found out that I am learning Mandarin and began referring to me as the "secret weapon" she can use with the factory agents in Hong Kong. By this, she means that I will be the one to convince them to make special samples and other such things. One day she mentioned that she would love it if they would make just one shoe for us. She wanted velvet and belts and other things too, but that one shoe left a footprint of sorts in my mind. What would we do with just one shoe? Not even a pair, but just one. Discussing fashion trends with friends, the topic came up of matching purses and shoes. It got me thinking; how crazy would it be if we convinced the factory to use excess material to make us ballet flats? More than one, of course. Pairs of them. A few limited edition pairs, to be available to select friends and family. It sounds crazy, but lots of things sound crazy. The waxed canvas from the Palm Beach series wouldn't work so well, but the nylon from Fifth Avenue and London would be perfect! The solids of the Fifth Avenue series can make any outfit pop, and gone would be any issues with finding something to wear with the colorful London patterns. Matching London shoes could pull the look together and make everything seem polished and coherent. Of course, this is all just speculation. But if Marcia is game for designing some ballet slippers with me, I'm game for learning how to ask for them in Chinese!

February 12, 2010
Turquoise
Anabelle by Marcia Sherrill is always on my brain. As I walk through purse sections of department stores I find myself comparing all of the other designer bags to ours. (Ours, of course, are always superior.) I was walking through a major department store in Miami the other night when I saw a display proclaiming the new color of handbags for the spring season: turquoise. A catalog arrived in the mail shortly thereafter with the same message splashed across the purse pages. All of the high end designers are releasing turquoise and other blue bags. A few days later, I was in a little purse boutique and saw new bags from another purse line with turquoise patterns on them. All of those events and messages came together in an instant as everything clicked and I saw the next Anabelle color scheme. I whipped out my Blackberry and started emailing pictures to Marcia of these other blue bags, excitedly chattering about the endless possibilities under each image. Naturally, I had to make sure we jumped on the turquoise bandwagon. If turquoise is the hot new color, and Anabelle bags are going to be the hot new fashion must have, then I can't think of a more perfect marriage of ideas.

When this flash of inspiration struck, I had just finished designing the Fabrications page of the website and exploring all the colors our patterns come in. Marcia and I even named all the London prints, with fun names that seemed to go with the colors, like Cocoa, Pink Toffee, and Tooty Frooty. Within a few emails volleys, a new Carnaby Street color combination was born. I am proud to announce Carnaby Street: Sassafras. Sassafras is the signature Carnaby Street pattern in white with brown swirls, and turquoise and lime green pineapples. I've always liked turquoise with chocolate brown; my bat mitzvah thank you cards from three years ago sported stripes with blues and browns. The white seemed like a nice, clean background for a spring color combination, and lime green is so much fun that I couldn't resist when Marcia suggested it. Appealing to those who aren't the girly girls, this new combination is going to be spunky, sassy and bold. It could rein in a whole new group of handbag reluctant tomboys! I may be getting slightly carried away, I know; girls who hate anything and everything girly are not going to revolutionize their opinions because of some pretty turquoise fabric. However, I know that there are those on-the-fence girls who may be pushed toward fashionista-land by something not quite so, well, pink and girly. And what is more perfect for that than blues and greens?

January 20, 2010
Inspiration and Motivation: Personal Reflections
Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I, at this moment, making to do lists and deadlines for myself for product pages? Why am I sitting here, putting off everything else I need to do, and writing this? There are, of course, the obvious answers. I am making deadlines for myself because the product pages need to get done. I am writing this right now because the inspiration came and I figured I'd better get it out before the fleeting idea disappeared. This piece is going to be more personal than in the past. I could make this about how some of my samples arrived recently, how I am shamelessly promoting them to anyone who will listen, and how my beautiful business cards are done and in my very possession. I could talk about how I've renamed the different types of Anabelle bags, giving the three series hip new names. I'm not going to, though, at least not any more than I already have. This is about the more holistic answers to those questions. When I am already committed to so much else, why I am I placing my heart and soul into Anabelle by Marcia Sherrill?

Ironically enough, helping to run this company is an escape. "Working" and "escape" don't usually make it into the same sentence, but this is different. This has the potential to be huge, and I want to be a part of it. I suppose it's who I am. I have always had an intense drive to get things done, and I jumped at this opportunity to get things done on a much larger scale than ever before. I have found that I have a passion for business, specifically this one. I am acquiring skills that will see me through all of my future projects, and I am receiving a hands on education to complement my academic classes. I have a lot of ambition, and it makes so much sense for me to participate in a revolutionary new concept such as the Teen Board. Many companies have a Board of Directors, composed of adults who help make decisions about the company. Marcia has created a Teen Board, composed of fashionable teens who will see this company through. With my natural need to lead, the role of President of this board is perfect for me.

I need a little chaos in my life, and I prefer fun chaos. I started designing product pages recently. I like that I am doing it all: organizing the pictures, designing the layout, and writing the product descriptions. It gives me variety, and I love working on what may well be the most important section of this website. The company is nothing without the fabulous purses, of course. I have small goals for this company, more immediate ones, like finishing all of the product pages. However, as I get the hang of resizing the images and designing the layouts, my mind begins to wander to the future, and I am inspired by how widespread and successful other companies in the fashion industry have become. As I allow myself to dream, I see free standing Anabelle by Marcia Sherrill stores in Miami and New York, and billboards in Times Square. I see myself interviewing potential managers of the Miami store. I see characters on Gossip Girl carrying the purses, and girls across the country clamoring for them. I see myself in New York City, working from an office in the Fashion District. In the more immediate future, I see myself doing national television shows with Marcia, and the Anabelle bags being sold on the Home Shopping Network. Sometimes it seems like it's all happening very quickly, but that's how I like it. Here's to one AM email threads and sheer determination to bring Anabelle bags to the height of fashion!

December 28, 2009
Today I visited the Anabelle by Marcia Sherrill showroom in New York City for the first time! I had been running around Miami telling people how much I loved the fact that I have an office on Broadway in New York City that I had never seen. Well, I have officially seen it, and I loved it! The showroom is located on the eighth floor of a small building in the middle of the Fashion District, with a great little restaurant down the street. It was ridiculously cold today when I visited, but it didn't matter. I was too excited. Until this morning, I had only seen pictures of a few of the bags, and I had no idea what was in store for me. My uncle, Marcia's college friend Ron, was there before I arrived, preparing the showroom for me. Marcia was in Birmingham but had she been here, she would have, and I quote, "been vacuuming and sweeping in preparation for the President!" She had to settle for instructions sent at one in the morning to Ron, telling him how to spruce up the place. By the time I arrived, all the fabric samples were out in the hallway and all the lights inside the showroom were turned on. The first thing I saw was the door, with the logo on it. I took pictures all along the way, and have a great one of me shivering by the door in my coat, all bundled up. Then came the moment I had been waiting for. I opened the door, walked in, and saw pineapples everywhere I looked!

The purses were everything I expected and more. There were three main styles; printed softies, solid nylon softies, and waxed canvas (think Louis Vuitton but cuter). I was there on a mission: to pick out samples to bring home to Miami. My first instinct was to take them all! Alas, that was highly unrealistic, and I had to choose. The patterned softies are artfully designed with different sized pineapples and swirls, each with a different color scheme. The solid softies have little pineapples all across them, and the Larissa bag is included in this grouping. The Larissa is a small bag with patent leather handles, and a little closure across the top of the middle. The one in the showroom is pink, and I was in love when I saw it. The leather grouping is a highly sophisticated style, with small pineapples all across a black, brown, tan, or white background. The white ones are the coolest-they have pink and green on them too! I ran around the showroom picking them up and posing with them; I was completely in my element. I took nearly a hundred pictures, and slowly went along narrowing down my samples. Some I chose because I felt they were a good representation of a particular style. A select few of my favorites, I chose because I could not WAIT to get them home and show them off to anyone and everyone who would listen! I wound up with fifteen samples, which I proceeded to line up with numbered post-its and take pictures, so I could keep track of them. I would have to leave all but one there on the table to be shipped to me later; our luggage could not handle such an influx of merchandise. I chose to bring home a black Deenie, a solid softie with beautiful gold grommets and black patent leather handles.

Next, I took a video introducing myself and the Larissa bag, which will be posted soon. I also must mention that not only were there pineapples on all the bags, but there were drapes and even benches with pineapples on the fabric. Marcia had gone pineapple crazy, and I was in pineapple paradise! Then I saw the shopping bags. They are bright pink with pineapples on them, and I proudly carried one around Herald Square and New York City for the rest of the day. Before leaving the showroom/office, I sat down and wrote a little note to the woefully absent Marcia. I suppose short novel would be a better way to describe it; I was accused of rewriting War and Peace as I scribbled away on a post-it. I tearfully said goodbye to the showroom and my samples, and we went on our way. Marcia told me she wanted to impress her President; well, she most certainly did!

Also while in the city, I visited the apartment of Marcia herself. Naturally, it screamed Marcia. I feel that I must describe it. It's a one bedroom, one bath on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and upon walking in, I saw bright pink walls with shimmering gold stripes, done by Marcia of course, and beautifully tasteful to boot. You didn't think apartments came this fabulous, did you? That was the main room, and there was also a large daybed by the window. My uncle and tour guide, Ron, informed me that the best thinking and brainstorming occurs on that daybed, so I sat down to absorb the brilliance. The bedroom is, obviously, just as fabulous; my favorite part was the pink Versace scarves draped over the lamp shades. Unfortunately, Turtle Pie was in Birmingham with Marcia and Anabelle, so I did not get to meet the doggie-face of the line. One day soon I will go back and meet the adorable little thing, and I will go when Marcia is there!

In other news this month, I am learning web design and helping with the website, not in that order. Funnily enough, the taking over of the website happened first. The Web Master, Jeffrey Shotwell, Marcia’s childhood friend and the Addy Award winning-est Ad Man in Palm Springs is swamped with work so I volunteered to jump in. Upon my realization that being a self taught Photoshop whiz was not going to be enough to be a webmaster, my first cousin's husband, Lenny Simon, swooped in and has been my absolute savior. He works with computers for a living (check out www.lenernethosting.com) and knows all about web design! He is giving me a crash course in everything I will need to know, and I do not know what we would have done without him. I am quite excited to be in charge of the website! Between getting the site up and running, getting the word out about the collection, and tons of other things keeping me busy, the January ahead is shaping up to be one fun, whirlwind of a month! Marcia and I shall take the fashion industry by STORM, and I say, bring it!

November 27, 2009
Today was a beautiful day in Miami; it was cool outside by our standards, and the skies were a bright blue. An old camp friend of my dad’s was in town from California and we decided to go to lunch at Scotty’s Landing, a great outdoor restaurant right on the water. I looked around from our table and thought, “Now this would be a perfect place to bring an Anabelle bag.” Other women walked in carrying Louis Vuittons, and I had an adorable little Coach bag, but I really longed for my Anabelle. Alas, mine is in New York and I am here. We shall be united soon enough, I suppose.

I, to be specific, am Larissa Weinstein, Teen Board President of Anabelle by Marcia Sherrill. The offer came up for me to drop out of high school and move to New York, but since that wasn’t exactly an option, I’ll be working from here. I find it wildly entertaining that I now have an office on Broadway in New York City that I have never actually seen. My location, however, actually works out quite nicely because it will allow for quick expansion into the Miami market. I am plotting the takeover of the fashion world with the Anabelle Collection, you know. Being a very academically oriented person, something as fun and creative as the fashion industry never really occurred to me. But along came Marcia, a dear friend of my uncle’s and the family as a whole, and she and the Anabelle line got me excited. I really haven’t stopped thinking about it since my appointment to my official position, which happened earlier this week; my mind is constantly churning, and ideas pop into my head at all hours of the night. My organizational methods from school have spilled over into my Anabelle work, and I already have a binder full of concept maps and Post-Its, with to do lists galore.

One of the many things I’ll be working on is this, The Pineapple Slips. I wanted to find a project where I could write regularly for the Anabelle website, but still be able to be flexible in how often I wrote and what I wrote. This is the final product of much brainstorming and discussing with my parents. I have big things planned for The Pineapple Slips, ranging from surveys of women on the street to reflections on the work I’ll be doing, and much more. The name of this project is a play on the word “slip”. Not only does it refer to the slips of paper on which random thoughts and notes would be written down, but it is also a part of the anatomy of a pineapple. The slips are located at the bottom of the pineapple, framing the base before the fruit is picked. The slips are usually used to plant new pineapples, symbolic for me of the growth I will make sure the Anabelle Collection sees. As I said to Marcia the other night on the phone, “You’re going to be HUGE, darling!”