Thursday, February 9, 2017

New exclusive fabric collection // Brick and mortar pre-opening // Makerskwartier Den Haag

For some of you this might not come as big news, we have been posting some of our renovations and process on our Instagram and Facebook already but it is in fact pretty good news. Behind the scenes we have been working hard to move the studio to our super fine brand new location in the old heart of The hague. And we have been working on setting up our own production for the past few months.

Located in the old heart of The hague we are joining forces with other creative makers and creators in our street. We became part of the new Makerskwartier in the Boekhorststraat and old shopping street that needed a proper lift. The past year this area has been under the microscope to turn it into a new area for creative peeps to sell their handmade and up cycled items.



Makerskwartier
One of the first shops relocating in this street was Loft and Sound, run by our super cool (seriously be aware of his awesomeness!) neighbor Ard Regenboog. In his shop he sells the most beautiful vintage pieces: restored lamps, old industrial furniture and he is always polite enough to offer his customers a proper coffee.

Next to Loft and Sound you can find the small workspace Cecile, who makes leather handbags and accessories. Pop in and see how she creates these wonderful pieces.
Accross the street you can find Studio Joske, she is currently renovating her space but it is turning in to something mighty fine. She knows how to work her tools. She creates the most gorgeous pieces of furniture. Chairs, tables, pillows, all with her very own unique colorful style. Of you love color to enter your home, pop in!

Two doors down there is another very colorful shop that is part of our Makers. Liries Conceptstore run by Richelle has some bright and colorful paintings and other pieces of art, interior items and vintage. I love Richelles style, she mixes color with current themes and mixes different techniques creating stories with her artwork. This concept store is a mix of her personal work and some whimsical pieces made by others.

Pre-opening
At the end of the street you can find our brand new shop. We relocated last month and our space is divided into a shop and work space area. Since our pre-opening we have been welcoming lot’s of people into our tiny shop. I never expected it to be so much fun. We are not ready and working full swing yet, and we will still need to have the grand opening but we planned on opening the shop to clear out all of our samples and do a little testrun first, clearly we are pretty much doing this for the first time so yes, setting up an entire production and brick and mortar shop takes a whole lot of time, patience and effort. The shop has been pre-open for a month now and I never expected to get so many awesome customers in there, giving us the sweetest compliments and some very useful feedback.

We now sell our sample fabric, designs we ordered at our GOTS certifies producers the past few months. We have some fun boy prints, designs for girls and some cool gender neutrals and abstracts if you would also like to create something a little less kiddie-like. We are working hard to find the perfect match for our first collection. Hopefully within two months we can stock up and our shop both brick and mortar and online will be up and running by then. While we are already working in our new space we are also setting up our own production. This spring we will launch our very own exclusive range of designs that will only be available via our official Little Smilemakers Shop channels. But we are definitely not ready yet. We are waiting for our fabric, working on our visual communication and so much more. You’ll be the first to know once we have ur new collection available. Stay tuned!



Workshops & Sewing classes
My new business partner Anouck has been working her ass off (she pretty much forgets all about her lunch most of the time) on some sample pieces for our fashion collection. With her sewing skills she has proven to be a real sewing magician. We now have some new born fashion accessories, home decoration such as pillows and blankets, and of course a small collection of new born baby, toddler and kids clothes. If you visit our shop you can now handpick your fave fabric & product and Anouck can turn it into something custom made for you or your little one. But you can also attend one of her weekly sewing classes on Tuesdays. You can just join the class, sign up via Facebook or email and create your own Little Smilemakers pieces. Anouck has also planned some workshops on Sundays you can join her and make something from scratch and finish the same day. Usually she works around a theme; make a baby romper, or harem pants. You’ll be working on the same project with 5 other people and go home with a finished item at the end of the workshop. You can find more info on her Facebook page, check it out and sign up!

For now Little Smilemakers Shop is open from thursdays to saturdays 12:00 / 17:00 - Boekhorststraat 191 Den Haag - Netherlands