DISPATCHES FROM PARIS: A Line's Karmen Berentsen and Designer Crystal Lee
Dispatches is a new column in the magazine, taking readers behind the scenes to international destinations all around the world with well known personalities from Denver and beyond. They share personal photos and experiences from their work trips and vacation spots.
Name: Karmen Berentsen
Occupation: Owner, A Line Boutiques
Destination: Paris, France
When: While our official trip dates were from Friday, September 27th through Sunday, September 29th, when our team successfully secured tickets for two runway shows, all of our clients managed to make it to Paris a day early! After landing in Paris Thursday morning and getting settled, clients Jacci Bainbridge, Cindy Classen, and Melissa Stevenson all met with me for a quick meal before heading to catch Ann Demeulemeester and Off-White Spring/Summer collections on the runway!
Why: We travel to Paris to do our seasonal buy four times a year. I have personally been to Paris 67 times and as long as I can recall, it had been my dream to bring clients along for the experience. As our June trip wrapped up, it was in the works. With just three months to plan and execute our first experiential trip, we set out to invite our clients to join us for A Line's Spring/Summer 2020 buying trip.
At the Iro Showroom
My Experience in Paris: A Line is not a retail company. We are a hospitality company with inventory. This is something you will hear me saying over and over, whether it’s in internal team meetings, to clients in the store, or to designers in Paris. If cool product is what you’re looking for, we have the brands to attract the fashionistas, however, our core client comes to A Line for a sense of community, a home-away-from-home, and a fashion playground. Our first experiential trip was a natural extension of our mission and the company’s sense of cultivating lasting value beyond product.
After an unbelievable day of runway shows, the clients and I set off Friday to fight jet-lag and acclimate to the city doing what we all love: shopping the streets of Paris. The rest of the team arrived from buying appointments in Milan that evening and we enjoyed a fabulous welcome dinner!
We hit the ground running Saturday morning, with a visit to the Ba&sh showroom – a formerly wholesale-only Parisian label that used A Line as their model for opening up a retail distribution channel. We all met up for a hosted breakfast of French pastries, croissants, and espresso as the clients went to work pulling their favorite pieces from the showroom, seeing their choices on the models, and providing invaluable real-time feedback to our team. And, of course, placing personal orders straight from the showrooms. The clients then had a chance to repeat the buying experience at the Avant Toi and IRO showrooms, meeting designers, learning brand history and product knowledge, and getting a preview of upcoming trends across the industry. Our clients enjoyed even more personalized shopping opportunities at pop-ups and launch events hosted by Pedro Garcia and Yves Salomon Army.
At the ba&sh showroom
Beyond the glimpse into our buying process, we, of course, set out to introduce the clients to our favorite local art galleries, restaurants and bars. An extravagant French lunch equipped with escargot and frites at Hôtel Costes and dinner in front of the sparkling Eiffel Tower at Girafe were among our favorites—not to mention the annual Avant Toi street party with dancing, homemade pasta and street-made pizza.
The truly one-of-a-kind trip was as special to our team as the fabulous ladies who trusted us to shape their experience abroad. As the clients left Monday morning and the team finished up our remaining buying appointments, we unanimously agreed that we would love to do it all over again. We have already garnered a lot of hype for a second experience trip. Stay tuned for details to come!
Favorite trends spotted on the streets of Paris: “Cigarette” Straight-leg jeans, Cropped trousers and the Paper Bag Waist, The chunky fashion sneaker and The timeless Chloe Susanna boot.
At Hotel Costes
Name: Crystal Lee
Occupation: Designer/Owner CR LEE
Destination: Paris, France
When: Paris Fashion Week SS20
Why: To show my collection during fashion week. The show was held at the Hotel Ritz.
The CR LEE runway show in Paris
My Experience in Paris: : Traveling to Paris for my first international fashion show was surreal. These are the moments in your career you dream about and when it’s real you have to ask yourself is this really happening multiple times. I think about 30 of my closest family and friends also shared in the experience with me including my 4 year old son Rhyme, so the trip was extra special. The international exposure has already been beneficial from a business standpoint as I have already received an invite to London and Milan! I have also received quite few order inquiries. My team and I also took the chance to shoot a fashion film while we were there, so all in all I would say the trip was a success both personally and professionally.
Shooting the fashion film
Show day was great but I was a little out of the norm as I recently lost my mentor, great friend and CR LEE hairdresser Ed Gillespie two weeks before my show. He has been with me since day one of my design career so I felt a little emotional and like I was forgetting some detail at times. My favorite part was meeting designers from different countries. We had one small mishap when a size 8 shoe went missing so I had to give up my heels shoes so the model was comfortable. I showed 10 looks with 10 models and the vibe I was going for was a strong capable woman who embodied her sexuality but wasn’t defined by it. All of the other models for the other designers were escorted down the stairs by a handsome male escort. Not the CR LEE models! We wanted the models to project a real sense of power so all of my models except my finale model were escorted down and that was simply because she had a gown to maneuver. In addition the hats by Encounter Co just really brought that extra boss lady vibe I was going for.