YUMI KIM STORE OPENING PARTY!

I can't believe this is really happening. I have a store in New York City! OMG! It hasn't hit me yet! I keep pinching myself and saying-

"Is this for reals? We actually made it happen?!"

It's been a crazy roller coaster ride the past few weeks.  I can't believe I actually made it happen!  I have so many people to thank.  I owe my staff and friends BIG time for being there for me.  Thank you so much for staying all those late nights and working those long days.  You guys seriously are the best! I can't thank all of you enough for help making my dream come true! I am truly blessed to have such an amazing team and friends! I LOVE you guys!

Now onto the BIG night!  Check out the pix....

September 17th, 2008: 

8PM 105 Stanton Street   NY, NY 10002

YUMI KIM STORE GRAND OPENING PARTY!!!

THANK YOU FOR AN AMAAAAZING AND MEMORABLE NIGHT!!!

24hrs till YUMI KIM Opening Party...

The last 24hrs before my Opening Party will go down in history in my books.  I seriously pulled an ALL nighter...NO SLEEP...NO MAKE UP and NO SHOWER= HOT MESS! I've been living off of RED BULL & lots of coffee the past 48hours. Oh my, I can't wait to get more than 3hrs of sleep. I'm in desperate need of a mini vacation!

I spent the entire day working in the new shop.  I got home around midnight and went straight to work on YUMI KIM line sheets.  I have to finish them before tomorrow's show. Urgggh!
We left my apt around 6am to Kinkos to print my line sheets.  Arrived at the show to set up around 7:30AM.  Thank goodness Jen arrived there early to take care of the big stuff for me. Thanks, JEN-you're the best!

By 9:30Am we were pretty much done merchandising the line. Now it's time to teach my sales reps the line!  Awww....my booth at COTERIE 2008!

Me and my team! Thank you ladies for covering the show for me. I can't believe this will be the first Coterie show that I will not be working my booth. I have a store to open! Oh my, gotta run back to make sure everything is on time for the opening party tomorrow! I look sooo tired!

Stopped by Janet's booth to check our her Spring 09 Collection....

Gotta get back to work.  Here I am at UPS trying to pick up 21 boxes of candles and goods for the new shop.  How am I going to make it all fit in my jeep? I look so dirty...ha!
We spent the entire day preparing for the opening.  My entire team, contractor, friends (moosh and janet--I can't thank you guys enough!) stayed late to make it happen!
I stayed back with ISI to merchandise the windows and the store.  We finished around 3:30am. Isi, thank you...thank you...thank you!  I finally made it to bed around 4am, and back up around 6:45AM. Yup, less than 3hrs of zzzzz's!
SEPTEMBER 17th, 2008

7AM- Met up with my contractors at the shop to go over things they need to finish

8AM- Met up with ISI at the flower district to buy plants and flowers for the shop

9AM- Picked up more rolling racks for the shop

10:30AM- Arrived back to the store to clean up and finish setting the store up.

11AM- My sign arrived....OMG!!! YUMI KIM has arrived to the LES baby! Sniff....snifff...sniff!
11:30AM: Looking over last minute details....
11:55AM....we're finished and ready for the opening! Whoooohoooo! Yaaaay YUMI, we did it! 
CHEERS GUYS!  Thanks sooooo much....you guy helped made this happen!  Now it's time to PARTAAAAY!

Autumn Moon Festival Dinner

Since I was a child, each Fall I would go to the Buddhist temple with my family and celebrate the Autumn Moon Festival. It is a date that parallels the autumn and spring Equinoxes of the solar calendar. In most parts of Asia, family and friends gather together to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, eat moon cakes and carry beautiful lanterns. Now that I'm all grown up, this year my friend Calvin and I decided to keep up with the tradition and throw an Autumn Moon Festival Dinner with our friends. Here are the highlights from our dinner that lasted for over 6 hours....WOW!

My outfit for the dinner party....

The party was hosted at TET, our friend Steven's Vietnamese restaurant in Alphabet City.

Check out Janet's and my lanterns! Yes, we made lanterns for the dinner party!  Gotta keep up with tradition, right?

Our guests were asked to bring homemade lanterns too!
Hmmm....at least you tried Elaine.  I give you an A for effort =)!
Whoooohoooo!  Moosh is an official New Yorker now! No longer a visitor =).
Calvin was silly and hilarious as always.  We had a poetry reading at the dinner party. Hmmm, don't ask me why....it was Calvin's idea...LOL! Well, I have to admit...your FISH SAUCE poem was classic! Oh fish sauce...oh fish sauce...how I love my fish sauce...LOL!
This is what Calvin calls Cock Head...hahaaha.  You're so silly! 
Yaaaay, Janet was in town to hang, help me with the new shop and prepare for Coterie. I always love it when she's in town.  It's never a dull moment with this hot mama!
We had such a blast, our dinner lasted for over 6hours!  We seriously shut the place down!
Thanks for a fab time guys! I definitely need a break from running around all week preparing for the show and the new store. Can't wait till next year's dinner party!

Hell Week!

I feel like the past 2weeks I have been going through HELL WEEK all over again. I barely slept, barely ate, and barely did anything except live at the new shop, and run around town taking care of all the things we needed for the shop. In the midst of renovating the store and preparing for Coterie, I still have to make important creative decisions for my Summer 09 collections. Urrrghhh, my workload seriously tripled the past few weeks. I have to say, I've never been this tired in my entire life. I looked like a HOT MESS majority of the time. You know what's the worst part of when you're tired, feeling ugly, looking so unfashionable, and stressing out? It's running into old friends, ex-boyfriends, and people you have secret crushes on in the streets...HA!  Oh my, I seriously was a HOT MESS and felt too embarrassed and tired to explain why I was looking this way. Oh well, sighhhh.... Hey, I deserve a free pass once in a while to look like a homeless person, right?

Check out snippets of my life and my crazy schedule.  

So much to do....so little time...sighhhh....

My outfit for the day...
SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2008

I have less than a week till my Grand Opening party and there is still so much to do! I showed up to my store today and my contractor has a cast on his foot.  Oh my goodness, please no more delays!!! The walls still need wallpaper, floors needs to be done, dressing rooms are not all up....urgh!!!! I'm freaking out!!!

With all the craziness going on with the new store, I still have to take care of production and finalize decisions for Summer 09 prints.  I'm so exhausted!  I hate making decisions when I'm out of it, because when I get them back I end up asking myself-"What were you thinking, woman?!"
Thanks, Allan, for making me laugh to relieve some stress!
We used Allan's office to have lunch and work on production.  
After my meeting with Allan, I had to run to New Jersey to pick up mannequins for the new YUMI KIM shop.  Oh my goodness, check out all the mannequins they have there.  It's so crazy! I got lucky and met a nice guy there =)! Check him out.....

Oh my, so many to choose from!
Oh, ISI! What a coincidence that you happen to find this mannequin....LOL! Nope, this is not the direction I want to go with for YUMI KIM shop...HA!

On to the next thing on our list- GET SUPPLIES FOR THE NEW STORE.  I LOOOOVE Target! This one is not just a regular Target....it's TARGET GREATLAND....oh my, oh my =)!

After Target, I have to run back to the shop to check out how much they finished. Word of advice when doing renovation- Always stay on top of your contractors or they will LAG big time!  
Oh my, I've been up since 7am this morning. I need a break and some good food. A glass of red wine looks so good right now!

Ok, I have to put my head down for a few minutes to rest. When is this day ending? 

SEPTEMBER 10TH, 2008-ONE WEEK TILL OPENING PARTY!

My IKEA trip!  Gotta go check out what they have there to add to the shop. Baller on a budget baby!

Ok, give me a few minutes to gather my thoughts....

ooooh, cool cute & cheap idea for the walls.

We always try to have fun where ever we go.  Gotta make the most of everything. Thanks, Isi, for coming along and help me carry all the heavy stuff.  You're the only guy on my staff....LOL!

DRU NEW YORK & YUMI KIM FALL KICK OFF EVENT!

Ohhhhhh my goodness! My life has been soooo crazy the past few weeks. I promise I will start blogging again this week. So much has happened in 2 weeks! I have so much to share with all of you guys! Trust me, for me to not blog means work has been INSANE! I promise to update it all this week. It's worth the wait! Lots of a great pix!

Ok, onto the great news! I'm hosting my first event tomorrow at the new YUMI KIM SHOP! Yes, we opened it!!!! WOW! How crazy right?! YUMI KIM has a home now in the Lower Eastside! I LOOOOOVE the new shop and can't wait to show the pix to all of you! If you're in NY, please come out tomorrow night and celebrate with us! We're opening the new store with a BIG FALL KICK OFF PARTY w/ DRU NEW YORK! It's going to be a HUUUUUGE sale! We're giving all our customers 1 DAY only 40% off ALL YUMI KIM goodies, 25% off everything else in the shop! DRU NEW YORK is also offering HUGE discounts on all their goodies too! Don't miss out on this big event!

DRU NEW YORK & YUMI KIM
FALL KICK OFF PARTY!

WHEN: Wednesday, September 24th
6-9PM

WHERE: YUMI KIM STORE
105 Stanton Street (corner of Ludlow)

Hope to see all of you guys there!

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK- SPRING 2009: 9/8

I'm sorry for the delay on NYC Fashion Week report. You guys know it's been pretty crazy trying to balance everything in my life with the opening of my new shop. It's been sooooo hectic. I get a free pass the next 2 weeks ok?

Onto the shows!

Check out the items I'm coveting from Monday's shows....

PETER SOM-"Did you make this for me?"

I would rock this outfit all the time. It's sooo cute! Love the belt addition to it!

PROENZA SCHOULER, I'm really feelin all the leather looks you guys are using for Spring. 

MARC JACOBS, I've been drooling over your Spring 09 collection. After breaking down the pieces individually and dissecting them one by one, I have to say I'm in LOVE with the fabrics you're using. Oh my, LOVE LOVE LOVE...and I haven't even gotten to the shoes yet.  I think I might be purchasing my first pair of MARC JACOBS heels in Spring 09. Sighh.....

THAKOON, at first I thought-"Am I looking at the right collection?"  This was a bit of a departure for you since we're all so used to the pretty girl look.  Your girl for spring 09 seems like she's been hanging around Downtown NY w/ Alexander Wang's girls a bit =).  Love that she's gotten a bit tougher! Oh, and the shoes--LOVE!  I still want the yellow shoes from your Fall 08 runway show...so HOT!
CATHERINE MALANDRINO- you never let us down! LOVE the details on this top!

CAROLINA HERRARA, this dress is so freakin GORGEOUS! Now this is what you call an OSCAR dress!