This season was the very first collection at CZH that was a true collaboration between myself our new DESIGN helpers! I started my business in my painting studio making each block printed throw by hand. I was absolutely NOT thinking about scale when I started. I didn't even know I would sell more that 10, and in fact when I sold my first order of 30 units to Of a Kind that was my largest "production run."
long story short, we've grown! and in the process we've have added two magical humans to our team, both of which happen to be designers!!! I've never hired a designer for CZH, I've always thought that it was redundant or lazy of me. but I was a wrong. Lea manages our wholesale and trade accounts but also has her own art and design practice outside of our world. Everyone needs to know about the beauty of lea's work. Its SO special and thoughtful. Lea stumbled into our showroom one day and we liked her vibe so we asked her to be a sales gal right away, which led to Lea taking over when Stephanie (my full time gal) went on maternity leave, which led to me keeping Lea even after Steph returned with her baby.
Carolina applied to be a design intern, and typically I don't hire design interns. It always felt more complicated to figure out how to use a design helper. I preferred to do it all myself and keep my weird and complicated systems of hand drawn spec sheets intact. but I decided to try Carolina out because over the phone she felt right. anyway!! Carolina swooped in a made designing SO much more fun. She has taken over so much of the stuff that I am just simply not good at. It has been super enlightening and so now we're keeping her on board at CZH too. ALSO carolina, like lea, also has her own practice outside of CZH with stunning work!
When it came to designing this new collection I looked at our team and couldn't help but include the talented designers sitting in our little studio. So we all contributed this season. I am excited to see the projects we can tackle with these two new beauties!
