LLXLLQ shoes Arabella was featured in a new music video, recorded during New York Fashion Week 2013.

Bullet Media described it as: Sex, Music, Fashion, and Art Collide in The Bushwick Hotel’s ‘Graffiti of the Young Man’s Mind’ – video made by director and fashion photographer Cathrine Andrea Westergaard.

Read the full article here.

What shoes you wear matters.

Johanna

About a year ago I met graphic designer and illustrator Kimberle Schwede, at Internations San Francisco. We recently reconnected and she sent me a message over facebook, sharing that she was starting a new local chapter of CRAVE, and asked if I would be interested in being a speaker at the first event?  CRAVE is a member organization with a collection of innovative shops and businesses created by women. The CRAVEfuel event would have the title Freakout Moments – inspired by Halloween.

My immediate response was: “Yes! Which freakout moment should I shoes?” – associated misspelling, having all the shoe stories from the last years entrepreneurial journey in my mind.

The event last night was in a small intimate setting at NextSpace Portrero Hill in San Francisco.  We were three speakers covering the topic, and all 12 participants got a chance to share what is going on in their life, what they could need help with, and receive feedback and support from all.

The three ‘freakout moments’  leading to the key lessons learnt that I had chosen to share during my 10 minutes were:

1. Taking over running a shoe business without even a shoe string budget
2. Spending the time of the photo shoot at the police office
3. Shoe theft makes it to the media 

The bottom line take away was to turn things around and disconnect from the fear of failure. A topic I could easily expand to a much longer presentation.

And as a successful entrepreneur and investor told me in a conversation last week-end:

“You always realize once you have gone through something, that you needed the experience.”
Calum Smeaton, CEO TV Squared

I do know, that all of this have served me in many ways, and prepared me for what will come. Would I do it again, had I known what it would entail? Probably not. Do I regret it? Absolutely not.

When putting together the slides for the CRAVE fuel presentation, I smiled, as I suddenly realized what I could use the photos from the last photo shoot to. Half a year ago photographer Steven Gregory  reached out to me and said: “Johanna, I have this vision of a photo of you covered with shoes.” As I was pairing up all the 110 shoes and boxes in my living room after the One Year Anniversary Shoe Exhibition and pop-up store at Dolce Amore Art Gallery and Cafe, I took a photo of the scene and sent him with the message: “If you still want to take that photo – now is the time!”.

Later that afternoon the boxes were neatly put together, and Steven came over with all his gear for the shoot. It was inspired by the photo of Whoopi Goldberg, peering out of a bathtub filled with milk by Annie Leibovitz . We were playing around and Steven asked for different expressions and actions, and all the time when doing it, I was thinking “and what can I possibly use this for? Appropriately.” This was the time.

AND… now I just learnt that Whoopi herself has size 11 in shoes! There might be another reason… If you know Whoopi, or anyone with hard to find size 10-12 in shoes: please let them know about www.llxllq.com – larger size Italian handmade shoes! It is a shoe heaven for women who have had difficulties finding shoes. And it has been created with love by Lucia Lucka Klansek, and launched with determination no-matter what by signed, and supported by wonderful co-creators and collaborators to make them known and available for those who do need them.

To all of our successes and confident filling of big shoes – literarily and metaphorically!  

Johanna

Can it be a better finale of the one-year anniversary celebration, than showing off the LLXLLQ shoe line in New York City, during New York Fashion Week? New York, the city where the founder Lucia Lucka Klansek lived a couple of years ago, when she went in and out of every store and couldn’t find shoes in her size 12. That is when she decided to create the shoe line of Italian handmade shoes in larger sizes.

What two months ago was supposed to be ‘one fashion show in New York’, rapidly turned into something much larger. Not only did we get featured on the Plitz New York City Fashion Show runway with GreenBlackDress (see video below). We also had our very own feature in Runway The Real Way, fashion brunch at Yotel, curated by fashion icon Catherine Schuller.Both  shows at the same time, Sunday, September 8, 2013!

Not only were we a featured brand at Runway The Real Way, we also contributed with the poster for the event, painted by San Francisco resident artist Donna Marchesano, currently exhibiting “Courage to Create” at Dolce Amore Miniature Art Cafe, where we had just finished the LLXLLQ one-year anniversary shoe exhibition/pop-up store.

We also attended the one-year anniversary of Project Runway winner Christian Siriano’s store and witnessed Eden Miller make history as the very first plus-size fashion designer presenting her line under the tents at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. We had a photo shoot with Valencia Shanté, our Bay Area model and ex basketball pro (size 11), who just moved to NYC to pursue her studies and model career – read the latest feature of her here. Our photographer throughout the week was Pete F. Hopkins, also from the Bay Area, who was also representing San Francisco Fashion Merchant Alliance Inc and FashionTech PR.

The highlights are not over. The LLXLLQ shoes were also part of chosen outfit by stylist for a music video to be launched in October. The very last show we attended was on Broadway. Kinky Boots. The musical with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper based on a true story of a struggling shoe manufacturing family business in the UK, changing direction and creating shoes that are needed and wanted, with their new drag queen business partner. The musical inspired the photo choice above – because “sex is in the heel”.  The story is really about being true to your self, and it has won the Best Musical Tony Award 2013 and many more. Warmly recommended.

And what else is knew? Have you seen the new mobile friendly website? Lucia Lucka Klansek just met our partnering designer Daniele Ancarani at MICAM in Milano, who’s shoe design LEXI, was the featured one in New York.  Last, but not least: thank you all who came and attended the one-year anniversary shoe exhibition opening at Dolce Amore. The miniature art cafe got featured as a San Francisco hot spot in SF Chronicle, who is also in the process of writing about LLXLLQ.Photos from the reception can be seen on Facebook – and videos will be shared as soon as possible. Here are the photos that made Lucia Lucka Klansek say: “Those are the most beautiful photos taken of the LLXLLQ shoes“.

Please follow the journey of this start-up on social media to get the updates real time: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google+. You can also find other goodies on YouTube.

New York, New York – keep spreading the news about LLXLLQ. Who do you know with size 10 and up in shoes? Are you aware if they have difficulties finding shoes? Would you be willing to find out? Share with us what your discoveries are. 

Johanna C. Nilsson

LLXLLQ is having a Shoe Closet Move Sale – find the details here: www.llxll.com/specials

San Francisco Chronicle Hot Spot Dolce Amore Article Framed

What can happen when you reach out directly to the right journalist and express your wish that everyone in San Francisco should know about this cafe. Dolce Amore Miniature Art Cafe.

What: Boy meets girl. Boy pursues girl. Boy and girl fall in love and open gelato and miniature-art cafe. That’s how it went for Kevin Cooper and Chi Cooper, who fell in love at first taste over a cone of gelato.

Kevin left his jobs as a real estate appraiser and car technician in October to open this quirky cafe, gallery and romantic homage to his muse. “I talked to a lot of other business owners, and their advice was ‘Go big. Just go for it.’ And that’s what we did,” he says.

Dolce Amore offers gourmet sweet treats, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and wine and beer. Coffee beverages are made from Illy beans, and signature drinks, such as Lavender Chi Tea Latte and Spicy Maya Hot Chocolate, have gained a cult following.

The one area where Dolce Amore decided to keep it small was art. Chi, who studied fashion design at the Academy of Art, curates and exhibits miniature art in resourceful fashion. Clear acrylic cubes protrude from the wall presenting Champagne muselets twisted into elegant chairs small enough to rock in the palm of your hand. Glass bubbles suspend from the ceiling, cradling handmade Italian shoes; and tiny figurines delight customers beneath custom-made glass-top tables and counters. Magnifying glasses are scattered throughout the cafe so the hyperopic don’t miss any minuscule details. “It’s an experience rather than just a cafe,” Chi says.

Who’s there: Situated on the cusp of Lower Pacific Heights and the Tenderloin, the customers are as idiosyncratic as the neighborhoods the cafe straddles: business types meeting with clients, eccentric locals, and European tourists lured from nearby hotels by the Illy coffee.

Details: Dolce Amore, 1477 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday.

See the online article here.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

There are two things that Green Black Dress and LLXLLQ  shoes have in common that make them unique.

1)  Both brands provide fashion with a purpose

Green Black Dress is an eco-friendly line clothing line contributing to the creation of a sustainable fashion industry – coco chanel style.

LLXLLQ provides size 10-12 Italian handmade shoes – stylish, comfortable, and quality shoes in sizes previously very difficult to find.

2) Both designers come from an entrepreneurial drive

Both designers, Anna Lindell and Lucia Lucka Klansek, clearly have the eye and talent for design. However, the creation of both of their lines came from a need to solve a problem and make a difference, which called their entrepreneurial spirits.

We find ourselves grateful and inspired for those two reasons alone, to have the pleasure to work with Green Black Dress and LLXLLQ and their founders. Below you can see the live stream from the showcase at the Vancouver Fashion Week 2013.

Enjoy,

Johanna

Green Black Dress clothing can be bought online: www.greenblackdress.com
LLXLLQ Size 10-12 shoes handmade in Italy: www.llxllq.com 

Although it is no news that there are quite a few technology companies from the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, I didn’t know that there are so many focused on fashion.

At the SF Fashion+Tech event during fashion week I had the opportunity to discover some fashion start-ups and here are a few of my favorites:

On Copious you can sell those Jimmy Choo stilettos you never wear or all your handbags that just sit in your closet. You can also discover all the items other fashionistas are listing — both used and new. Copious is using social tools, and users can love each others’ listings, tweet items and follow people they like. Of course LLXLLQ is on Copious.

Vishal and his team at raf9 have a platform coming up that lets everybody create their own fashion channel. Keep an eye out for upcoming fashion and style channels from models, designers and fashion people.

SNOBSWAP makes high-end designer items available to everyone. By using their platform you can buy, sell, and/or swap luxury clothing, handbags, shoes and accessories. Feeling guilty after all your glamorous shopping? Put your conscience at ease by donating a thing or two to charity through SNOBSWAP.

Stay stylish!

Anna
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It’s been a busy summer; not only with the Euro Cup 2012, the Olympics and Paralympics, and the Mars landing, but also here around the office. It’s been a summer full of shoes as we started working with wonderful Lucia and her stylish shoe brand LLXLLQ. If you haven’t already, check them out here or read my blog post on them.

Now with the change of the season, I decided to make a new Spotify playlist. For a smoother transition I tried not to make it too dark and dusky. Don’t miss out on some colorful songs and access it now. No risk of fall melancholia!

According to Billboard, the No. 1 song of the summer of 2012 is “Call Me Maybe” by Canadian Carly Rae Jepsen. Thinking that you probably have heard it over and over this summer, it is not in the playlist (You’re welcome!). Instead, here are some fun covers and parodies for you:

Harvard Baseball (16,048,367 views):

Laina Walker a.k.a. the Overly Attached Girlfriend (17,221,174 views):

Pomona High School Staff (7,835 views):

Romney and Obama (530,341 views):

Happy Fall!

Anna
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  Every marketing girl’s biggest dream recently came true at our office – our new client is a shoe brand! Not only are they stylish and offers high quality – they also serve a niche market of women that have been neglected both beautiful and comfortable shoes in their sizes.

We’re all very excited to promote and work with LLXLLQ, which is a new shoe brand with it’s own online store, www.llxllq.com, offering fashionable, Italian-crafted women’s shoes sized 10-12. The launch collection of 48 unique models are made by the same manufacturers that have created shoes for brands such as Prada, Gucci and Versace.

Lucia holding a “Violet” in Suede Avio & Blue

Founder and designer Lucia Lucka Klansek, who herself wears size 12 shoes, had struggled her whole life to find both beautiful and comfortable shoes in her size. Discovering that it was nearly impossible to find a wide selection of fashionable footwear in one place, she was inspired to travel to Italy—the Mecca of high quality and well-designed shoes—to find a solution to her problem and help other women in her situation. It is Lucia’s goal to make her shoes widely available to women all over the world.

Lucia, a beautiful woman who is often mistaken for Meryl Streep, comes from a family of entrepreneurs and has started successful companies, such as Nektar and E4B, in both the US and her home country Slovenia. LLXLLQ is her newest venture and stands for the following:

LL  LUCIA LUCKA
X    BIGGER SIZES
Q    GREATER EXTENDED QUALITY

Seven shoe models in the launch collection are designed by Daniele Ancarani, and made in Spain. Daniele Ancarani is an Italian women’s shoe designer, famous for his blend of sophisticated simplicity and fundamental balance. He has several boutiques in Italy carrying his own brand of gorgeous shoes.

The other day the Herringbone team went to the LLXLLQ storage in Palo Alto to check out the summer 2012 collection consisting of flats, heels, and sandals. For a size 7½ girl like me it was rather shoe hell than heaven to be surrounded by so many beautiful and chic shoes and not be able to try them on. Johanna, a proud size 10, confirms that they are not only pleasing to the eye but comfortable. “Wow, anyone who gets the chance to try these shoes on will be a lifetime customer” said Johanna and left with a pair of “Mai” in bright orange – the top trend color of summer 2012. If you want to be as fashionable as her, get yours here.

Johanna’s orange “Mai” to the left

To celebrate the launch and honor women with larger feet LLXLLQ is offering 20% off on all shoes. Don’t wait too long to give yourself a beautiful summer treat – the offer is only valid until the end of August 2012. Use the promo code SUMMER12 at checkout. Did I mention that shipping within the US is free?

Ladies, Stand Tall, in Style!

Anna
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