Dear friends and customers throughout the years: Herringbone is moving and transferring the business to Sweden. You will in the future be able to find us and contact us at Herringbone.se – of course we would love to keep serving you in the future. Thanks to Skype, Facetime, and digital communication – you would not notice the difference.

See you in the next chapter from/on the other side.

All the best for the future,

Johanna C. Nilsson

Sergey Brin, Google Co-Founder and Ivy Ross, Head of Google Glass, visit the Seebright booth in Eureka Park at #CES2015 Photo: Johanna Nilsson

The world of augmented and virtual reality is booming. The number of AR/VR headsets are large, and the question will be who survives the race…

At CES Seebright announced the new AR/VR HMD optical technology and the upcoming Seebright Wave System. They have been working on an innovative new multi-mirror technology that bounces the image through complex curved optics to create a stunning virtual image or overlay for VR & AR. They are also showing the newest remote prototype featuring 3D tracking and 9 DOF motion control.

Come visit them in booth #75408 in Eureka Park on the 2nd Floor of the Sands Expo Center.

Update:

The TechCrunch video crew was there and interviewed the Seebright CEO Dirk Kanngiesser and provided a demo by Wayne Torres-Rivera, our Developer Community Manager.

The Google co-founder Sergey Brin visited the Seebright booth for a an augmented reality demo.

I just #spotted “@SeebrightR” via @spot_io with Sergey Brin founder of Google! #ces2015 http://t.co/VHM2RXgln4 pic.twitter.com/g7STFsUKYT

— Trace Cohen (@Trace_Cohen) January 8, 2015

The proposal was offered at Small Business Saturday. November 30, 2013. The American shopping holiday the Saturday after Thanksgiving focusing on the small local businesses, run by moms and pops in our neighborhoods.

The School of Traditional and Medical Thai Massage, an excellent thai massage location around the corner, had gotten one of their original massage therapists as a new owner. She had already worked with two different “web designers”, and yet the presence that was created in the “current website” above did not make her justice at all. At all.

The need was evident. The budget was limited. The intention was to make it work. The Swedish saying from the legendary chef Caja Warg “you take what you have”, was put in action.

The Small Business Make Over was accepted. Traditional Thai Massage with website www.BayAreaThaiMassage.com got changed to Marina Thai Massage. Photo shoot with no-one less than Steven Gregory behind the camera, and signed as posing customer. Website redesigned with a responsive and hence mobile device friendly wordpress theme. Blog set up with first blog post. Newsletter tool selected and website sign-up created. Social media properties secured, updated and website integrated. Social share functionality installed. Yelp business account applied for – still in process. Google+ listing claimed, and to be verified and updated. We are getting there.

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

In San Francisco the combination of Fashion and Tech is in the spotlight.  In Sweden, the combination is motor and art, and the artist in the spotlight is Catrine Näsmark.

The newest piece of art by the Swedish portrait painter and entertainer Catrine Näsmark – known for her artistic talent and playful expression is this state of the art Monster 1200 Ducati.  The miniature portraits on the Ducati bike represent the original paintings exhibited at Strand Hotel, Öland. The exhibition is called “VICTORY”, and is showing portraits of a selection of “Victoriastipendie”- awarded Swedish athletes throughout the years.

The Victoria Award is given away during the traditional celebration of the Victoria Day – the birthday of the Swedish Crown Princess – and Öland’s National Day, Sunday the 14th of july. This year was the 35th Anniversary – HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY Victoria! It just happen to be the 35th anniversary for Ducati as well, and monster tales were collected.

Catrine Näsmark, in the lead of a group of a few other females, inaugurated the big day and the art exhibition by Strand Hotel with a parade on MC’s, dressed in white.

VICTORY!

Hope you can enjoy the exhibition.
Johanna

The Swedish artist, Catrine Näsmark, is famous for her personal and story telling portraits, reflecting her personality combining playful humour and thoughtful depth. The break-through in her carrer was when the Queen Silvia of Sweden bought Catrine’s portrait of the King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, now decorating the wall of the Jubilee Room, in the Royal Palace  in Stockholm next to a portrait of the Queen herself.

Catrine has a new project that is about to take off ground. Cool factor: HIGH. Art factor: WORLD CLASS. Fun factor: CATRINE NÄSMARK. Scan this painted QR code above – art that works!

Or take the short cut… and click here.

Catrine visited San Francisco in February a year ago, at the same time as President Obama. See her portrait of him, and a number of other individuals that you may or may not recognize, in our introduction post “Meet the Artist”  from the time. If you want to commission a portrait by Catrine Näsmark – inquire about it here http://bit.ly/contactNasmark. 

If you are in Stockholm at the end of May – June this year – don’t miss her installation at Bromma Airport. In either case, I am sure you would find it interesting to follow this artist.

Enjoy,

Johanna

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