My Mother's Day, A Day with My Son.

Atticus and I on Mother's Day.

 

My son is beautiful. He is smart, handsome, and incredibly charming.  His giggles are contagious and his cuddles are irresistible. And whenever he’s says “ma ma” to me my heart just melts.

Since having my son, much of my life has become a balancing act. With owning my own business and having a family, my average day tends to be a hustle. I am constantly trying to keep everything on track and keep our lives moving forward.

But I remind myself to slow down sometimes, and truly enjoy the moments with my son. He will be turning 18 months tomorrow. And it feels like only yesterday he was born. How time flies.

Just a few days ago on Mother's Day, we spent the entire day with my family. And when we returned home, my son and I cuddled on the couch watching Wall-E, while my husband cooked dinner for us. As he snuggled next to me with his sippy cup giggling at the tv screen, I reminded myself to savor these precious moments. As many moms have told me, moments like this will pass by so quickly.

Though a relaxing and chill Sunday with my family, I couldn't think of a better way to spend this Mother's Day.

Though a few days late, Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies! And of course, a special Happy Mother's Day to my own beautiful mom.

♥ Virginia

Mis Amores: Rain, Mood, & Warmth.

Can you tell how the weather affects our mood?

Photo From: http://pinterest.com/pin/210754457532605681/

Photo From: http://pinterest.com/pin/114630752987830906/

Photo From: http://pinterest.com/pin/140948663308382829/

Photo From: http://pinterest.com/pin/210754457532689983/

DeNada DIY: Glass Potted Plants!

DeNada is still going strong with our showroom redesign. Our DIY projects have been going so well, that we couldn't resist sharing with you our next project! Those of you who have a green thumb will love this one, and even for those of you who prefer plastic plants will enjoy it too!

We all agreed that we wanted to create a glass series of potted plants for the showroom. But we wanted cool potted plants that would reflect our style and help us remain thrifty. So we went ahead and made the potted plants ourselves. We were so happy with how they came out that we wanted to show our readers how to do it too!

What you'll need:
1. top soil/potting mix
2. small to medium sized pebbles,
3. plants (we purchased ours from IKEA)
4. glass containers (we also purchased ours at IKEA)

Our project at square one. This is everything you will need.

Step 1. Begin by filling each pot a third of the way up with small to medium sized pebbles.

  

Step 2: Next, fill a third of each pot with top soil.

Step 3. Then transfer the plants into your pots and fill them up with more soil.

Step 4. You're done! Our plants need medium to little light. And so, we put our plants on reclaimed wooden shelves just above our custom built bar counter. You can also experiment with different shapes and sizes like we did.

Stay tuned as we show you more projects we've been working on, and happy planting!

Mis Amores: Bulbs, Wood, & Lack of Conversation.

Just a few photos we're inspired by. 

Photo From: http://pinterest.com/pin/181269953722269759/

Photo From: http://pinterest.com/pin/300474606359009747/

Photo From:
 http://pinterest.com/pin/19210735882874097/

Photo From:http://pinterest.com/pin/96757091964096014/

DeNada DIY: Hanging Planters!

The DeNada team has been all hands on deck with redesigning the showroom. While it's been keeping us busy, it's also given us an amazing opportunity to experiment and flex our interior design muscles. When an opportunity to be crafty presented itself, we promptly took it. One of our most recent DIY projects were some seriously cool hanging planters. We thought it'd be fun to share the process with our fans, so check it out and try it for yourselves.

                       

We have a skylight in our showroom that looks a lot like this one. And like this skylight we've tried to fill ours with beautiful, thriving plants. The only issue? Our skylight reaches some unseemly level of heat and every plant we've subjected to it has ended up neither beautiful nor thriving. We had a really awesome idea to hang plants from up there, but it wouldn't be possible if every plant we sent up there withered. The solution? We bought fake plants. It turned out to be a good call as the fake plants were both easy to work with and can't be killed by the heat.

What you"ll need: 
1. Hot glue gun
2. artificial potted Ivy plant (found at IKEA)
3. pair of pliers.

Happy planting!

Step 1: We started by buying some fake plants on a circular trellis. Begin by using scissors and pliers to remove the plants in segments.

Step 2: Use pliers to cut the trellis into a U-shape. Then begin hot-gluing the segments of the plant to the trellis piece. Try to establish a nice overlay with the pieces. 

Step 3: Use hot-glue to overlap the more pieces. Make sure to give the plants the amount of length you want! 

Step 4: Give the glue plenty of time to harden. (These are our plants after they solidified.) 

Step 5: Hang them. Make sure that if you have a spotter if you're using a ladder! 

Step 6: Make them your own. We wanted to give our plants a little something extra, so we took extra pieces, spray-painted them gold, and attached them. We're really happy with how they look. Give your plants their own, personal creative spin. 

The hanging plants turned out to be an awesome project and they were a ton of fun to make. But the plants are just the tip of the remodeling iceberg. Keep an eye out for more picks of the projects in our showroom. Stay tuned for more of our showroom DIY projects. 

Press: We're in Refinery29!

Have you read Refinery29 DC today? If you haven't, owner and designer of DeNada, Virginia Arrisueño, was included in today's article "The Coolest Fashion Jobs in Washington-& How to Land Them." The article features a handful of local successful business owners, and interviews them about how they got to the position they're at, and some advice for you!

We know that owning a small business isn't easy! A lot of long hours of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice goes into to starting up and maintaining a business. And so, we are so proud that Virginia was included in this article amongst other successful business owners in the DC area. The article included Karla Colletto - swimwear designer, Aba Kwawu - founder of The Aba Agency, Adam Hanin - founder of Skye Associates, and Michelle Thomas - associate fashion editor of the Washingtonian. 

We want to give a big thank you to Holly Thomas - editor of Refinery29 DC, Alina Gonzalez - writer, and Abby Jiu - photographer for including Virginia & DeNada. We couldn't be happier with the outcome of this article, and are stoked to be considered for it!

To read the article, please visit Refiner29.com

Showroom Redesign: Inspirations!

Here at DeNada, we have been working on the release of our A/W 2013 Collection. In prep of the release of our new line, we have been working on many new projects. And we're excited to share with you today our newest one!

To match DeNada's A/W 2013 Collection, we've decided to give our showroom a little facelift! But before we can unveil our new-and-improved office space, we thought we'd have some fun showing you where our great ideas originated from. Below, check out some of the images and design ideas that helped shape the DeNada's showroom!

The first thing the whole team agreed on was that we wanted the space to attain a very industrial yet natural feel. We started by pulling elements from pictures like this one. For example, we loved the worn wood on the table and knew right away that our new furniture would have a similar look. We noticed that the worn look of the metal added brilliantly to the feel and decided the showroom should mix that industrial metal and worn wood look too.

The next step was to make sure that we filled the room with the right decorations. We wanted the space to feel worked in, but we wanted it to retain a very personal creative element. While pieces like these are sort of what we had in mind, we wanted combine natural elements with industrial pieces. DeNada, is after all a brand that creates designs that combines its natural heritage with a contemporary translation, and we wanted the space to be a product of that.

To contribute to the openness of our showroom, we were inspired to utilize both plants and glass. We love the earthy elements the plants bring to a  modern and industrial environment. We thought the idea of seeing the roots of a growing plant is beautiful, and ties into the whole theme of our brand (coming from our roots).  The green plants also bring a nice contrast of color in our dark pallette showroom.

                           

If you've been in our showroom, or even seen pictures, you should know that we have an awesome skylight right in the middle of the space. We are obsessed with this gorgeous skylight because it brings so much natural light into the room. To tie in our skylight with our decor and space, we decided to line the skylight with plants like the picture above. This all also adds to the natural elements in our showroom.

The color pallet for our showroom was a no brainer, as we always go towards a darker pallette. Replacing the curtains was one of the last steps of the re-vamping of our showroom. We went through a few design concepts, including considering a patchwork design, before settling on luscious black velvet curtains. We think the color will help keep the feel of the room, and with white walls we all feel that the black and white contrast will be a beautiful touch. 

After a long process, we are excited to see our new project reaching the finish line. Keep up with the re-design of our showroom on our blog, as we will be posting sneak peaks and DIY projects we've been working on in the showroom. 

Also, get a chance to see our re-designed showroom in our upcoming Open Studios on May 18th-19th.  For more information, visit http://52ostreet.com/

Style: Coachella Street Style Favorites.

The DeNada team is bummed we didn't get to go to this years Coachella festival (and we're hoping we will be able to make it one year), but we are always excited to check out all the fashion Coachella has to offer. We're big on street style, and nothing breeds cool looks quite like a music festival. We spent some time sifting through countless pictures of festival style looking for a few really original looks and pieces. Here are a few of our favorites.

We wanted to start off with one of the coolest detail pieces from the festival this year. It just so happens that the shoes to rock this season has an uber-popular tribal print feel. We love the colors, especially when placed on these chelsea boots. The shoes make for the awesome stand out piece even when paired with a toned-down look.

Again, we are firm believers that little details can make the look. From the hair, to the sunglasses, to the awesome earrings, we absolutely love this look. The shaved sides are a pretty punk rock look, and we love how it's super long in the back. Did we mention how cool those earrings are? We love how she accessorized this punk rock look, but still kept it super feminine with pink lips.

This outfit does an awesome job of mixing a few festival style staples. Everyone seems to rock the wedge-sneakers this season, and this outfit pulls them off perfectly. Mixing the pattern with the flowing, black frock front really makes this look standout. We love the flowy dress and wedge-sneaker combination, giving the look a hippy, but urban feel.

This skirt and top deserve some special attention. The two toned quality of the skirt is awesome, and we think the cut really helps it stand out. We love the lacy crop top everyone seems to be rocking this season at Coachella. The black helps it stay cool without being too delicate and adds a little rock and roll to the frilly piece. Paired with the boots and some simple jewelry this is another top street style look.

While the pattern of the dress is really cool, we want to give a shout out to the awesome hat and sunglasses pairing going on up top. Hats were a really popular piece at Coachella, and we noticed some huge array of styles and colors. This simple black one has a really vintage feel to it, and we're suckers for a classic look. We love how the hat stands its own ground against the dresses wild pattern and warrants its own attention. Pairing it with the sun glasses makes for a really awesome tone affect that makes the whole outfit shine.

Lookbook Video Inspiration.

As you know, this past weekend was DeNada's A/W 2013 Collection product and video shoot. The video shoot was a success, and we can't wait for you to see it later this summer. In the meantime, we want to share a few videos we really like, and has certain elements we found inspiring.

          SOPHOMORE — Dreams from The Town Pump on Vimeo.
This was one of our favorite videos we came across and probably the funniest. Is the video a little artsy? Sure, take a look at the use of continuity with different models, but it's also completely relatable. Instead of putting the models in some glamorous location, they take a moment to showcase their clothes and poke a little fun at themselves. That is what makes this video so intriguing, it's fun to watch.    A STUDY IN COLOR from celia rowlson-hall on Vimeo. Perhaps a bit artsier than the video before it, we can't get over the whimsy in Keller's lookbook video. Full of attention grabbing color and imagery, the video tells a story of the clothing without making it obvious. Some of the shots were absolutely gorgeous and the visuals had us blown away at times. But we all agreed that we like to see that they still didn't take a super serious approach, choosing to stick with creating something new rather than simply sell a product.    RUBY 'CAPITAL CITY' AW12 from veronica crockford-pound on Vimeo.

The video from Ruby Capital City is incredibly odd and off-beat in the best way possible. Short and simple and a little surprising, the video partially shows off the clothes and makes us all wonder what exactly we're watching. We loved that it got us thinking, not just about the video, but about the clothes. We also loved the oddness, because that's what makes this video so memorable, at the same time pertaining to the obvious aesthetic of the brand. The clothing is all beautiful, but the video brings it all down to earth and make it very approachable for the viewer. 

Stay tuned for DeNada's lookbook video to be released by the end of the summer! 

DeNada Behind the Scenes: Product Shoot AW2013

Just this past weekend we completed the product shoot and video for DeNada's 2013 Autumn/Winter Collection! The day was crazy, but incredibly fun, and we're beyond happy with how everything turned out. In anticipation for the big reveal, we'd like to give you a little look behind the scenes.



The day started with everyone piling into the DeNada studio bright and early. The crew got right to work as we put up the sets for our video shoot, which included unfurling and nailing up a huge cargo-sized parachute along our hallway and stringing up some really cool lights. Our video director, Raul De Leon, was simply amazing and we want to thank him for all of the awesome work he put in.




While the video shoot was rolling in the hallway, the product shoot geared up in DeNada's showroom. Our photographer Luis Aragon and his assistant Damion Miller were incredible to work with and their work really made being part of the shoot a fun experience. But there was more work to be done behind the camera. We had an awesome crew, including our friend Morgan Hungerford West, who was not only an amazing collaborator throughout the process, but a major player in the art direction and production of the shoot from the start. Morgan also styled and helped direct our amazing models, Shannon and Christopher. We also want to thank her assistant Stephanie Hernandez, who did an outstanding job in helping to design everything and make the shoot run so smoothly. Our hair and makeup artists Lauren Gildner and Rebekah Calo did an excellent job of executing the look we were going for; thick eyebrows, bed head, and even applying some rad fake tattoos.





We couldn't be happier to work with a more amazing crew for a smooth and successful shoot. We want to give a big thank you to everyone involved and for making this product and video shoot happen. We also want to thank local boutique, REDEEM, for outfitting our models with with the perfecting pieces. The whole DeNada team is proud of the the results and we want to thank our team member Sue and our interns Grant and Niana for all the hard work they put into the shoot.

This shot is just a little taste of what's to come and with all the work that was put in, we really hope you like it. Stay tuned for the rest of our product shots and the launch of our newest video. And make sure to keep an eye out for DeNada's Autumn/Winter '13 lookbook.

Cowl Mountains - Photo By Luis Aragon

Art Inspiration: Lesley Dill.

Here at DeNada, we are huge fans of art and anything related to creativity and design.  We admire a unique creative mind and are always fascinated by the tangible outcomes it produces. This week, we are highlighting one of our favorite artist, Lesley Dill. We admire her for her exuberant expression of art through a mix of sculptures, performance, photography, printmaking and drawing, and the message it conveys through these forms of mixed media. We are inspired by her vision transmitted through each form of media, the use of words, and the grim aesthetic of her work.

Lesley Dill is far from the common idea of an artist. Somewhat bookish and admittedly shy, she uses her wide range of works as a sounding board; perhaps this sheds some light on her fascination with words. A prolific creator, Dill has created pieces in every medium from sketches to Opera. It is Dill's unique, and irregular approach to creation and expression that has inspired the DeNada team.

Photo from http://www.lesleydill.net

A visual artist, her inspiration comes from the written word, often harkening back to the work of Emily Dickinson. But Dill works to take the written word beyond itself, and create a new type of experience for words away from the visual. Some of her most recent installations include dresses and clothing forms created by words. These pieces reform the discussion of the words, giving them new purpose, and at the same time giving the clothing a new meaning.

Photo from http://www.lesleydill.net

Much of Dill's approach to the use of words reminds us of the cultural influence in DeNada. It isn't meant to be pervasive, we look to build something new through our influence. An artist with a keen fascination for transformation, her work embodies a transcendent quality. Her work needs to be taken in from many angles, you must consider every layer of her pieces. Dill is a master of creating art that speaks to many ideas, in many forms, by creating many images.

Photo from http://www.lesleydill.net

Lesley Dill is one of those artists that inspires us to consider how we approach design. Not afraid to change how she wants to deliver her message, Dill has crafted a masterful ability to express her vision in any way she sees fit. By altering the medium, she has altered the narrative; Dill has created messages and visuals that exist within the surreal and common, and given universal lessons to her audience. 

Event: DeNada at DC MEETMarket!

DeNada will be participating in the opening of the DC MEETMarket this Saturday, April 6th! Swing by our booth for some great sales on DeNada merchandise!

We are also proud to announce that the DC MEETMarket is under new management by DeNada owner, Virginia Arrisuño and her husband, artist Kelly Towles. As artists and local business owners themselves, Virginia and Kelly couldn't be more excited to continue this community market to bring together and support fellow local artists and businesses.

DC MEETMarket, located in the heart of Logan Circle, will showcase local businesses, artists, and designers while highlighting what the DC Metropolitan area has to offer. The market aims to bring together 42 local vendors and the surrounding neighborhoods in a celebration of community and craftsmanship.

What: DC MEETMarket

When: Saturday, April 6th from 11am-5pm

Where: 15th & P St., NW DC (parking lot of St. Luke's Church)

New Press: DeNada's Work/Live Space in The Express!

We are so excited that our very own, Virginia Arrisueno's - owner and designer of DeNada - live/work space was included in last week's issue of the Washington Post Express in the Ready to Rent section.

The article titled, Inside the Crafter's Studio features a few small business owners with live/work spots in Washington, DC. The article interviews each small business owner on how they manage their business vs personal life, as well as advice for those are starting out in live/work spots.

Thank you to Amanda Erickson for including Virginia and DeNada in this awesome article! To read the full article, visit http://www.readexpress.com/2013/03/inside-the-crafters-studio/

Throwback Thursday: Our Past Lookbooks.

The DeNada team has been prepping (and hyping) our newest lookbook shoot for a while now. It's been keeping us plenty busy in the showroom, so we thought we'd take a moment to pause and dig through some of our past lookbooks. We gave into the throwback Thursday mood and compiled some of our favorite shots.

DeNada A/W09

 DeNada A/W09

 DeNada A/W11

 DeNada A/W11

DeNada A/W11

DeNada A/W11

DeNada A/W12

DeNada A/W12

We're proud to showcase some of our past lookbook shots, and it's a great to remember those past experiences. It's awesome to track the evolution of DeNada through our lookbooks.

Lookbook shoots always represent a new opportunity for us to highlight our collections, tell a story, and connect with our customers. We hope you enjoyed our trip down memory lane, and we can't wait for you all to get a look at our next Autumn/Winter lookbook. 

Photo Credits:

DeNada AW09 - Lise Metzger

DeNada AW10 - Lise Metzger

DeNada AW11 - Marshall Johnson

DeNada AW12 - Marshall Johnson