In these economically tough times, it is appropriate for one to consider being spend-savvy with their fall wardrobe. It might not be the time to splurge on trendy pieces or unnecessary decadence’s – but that doesn’t mean we should shy away from picking up a few fall staples.
This October consider investing in the economy by choosing a few statement pieces that will be worn over and over and over!
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Shop the Looks: Privilege Coat, Half Past Cardi, Break it Up Dress
She starts the trends – she unabashedly mixes prints (snakeskin and plaid, anyone?) – she piles on the accessories with ease. One minute she is sporting body-conscious dresses.. the next she “grunge-ing” it up 90’s style.
Her shoe closet is one to envy, but she doesn’t shy away from being “recession-savy” with low-end brands and vintage scores from thrift shops. She is one to watch.. she is our Quiksilver Woman of the Week.. Lulu!
This season is all about being an all out GIRL.. and when I say GIRL.. I mean a woman who isn’t afraid of mixing her femininity with a little punch. There is adventure in her spirit and a craving to hit the road.
Cravings to hit the road stir up images from classic films such as Thelma & Louise and The Motorcycle Diaries, each with a distintive “road-like-style”. Essential items include leather trimmed jackets, biker bombers, metal-studded anything and a great pair denim to endure a lot of wear-and-tear.
This season grab a duffel, stock up on the essentials and hit the road!
On September 10th, in conjunction with Fashion’s Night Out and to kick off fashion week, Quiksilver women’s held an event in Grand Central Station at ultra-hip retail shop Tia’s Place. Tia’s Place invited Quiksilver Women’s and the DIY maven, Erica Domesek from psimadethis.com, an online DIY site, for a day and evening of programming centered around our favorite collection- Quiksilver Women’s.Fashion’s Night Out is the brainchild of Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief of Vogue and the city of New York. The premise is simple: invite fashion retailers across the five boroughs to create programming, events and/or windows to invite and stimulate shoppers— to make fashion fun again—flagships, tiny boutiques, massive department stores, young designers, mainstream chains, and niche luxury names alike all participated by keeping their doors open late on the evening of September 10 and implementing creative customer experiences welcoming all. And boy, did Quiksilver welcome them all!!!
In the morning we invited editors from Teen Vogue, Refiney29, Shape, Nylon, Real Simple, Vogue and many other for DIY and Donuts. Fashion editors came down and tie dyed their women’s blank eco-friendly tee’s, studded their custom Sperry Topsiders and stenciled on Goody headbands. After the DIY and Donuts we opened up the shop to the public and that’s when the crowds started to come. With all the traffic and all the creating the windows began to serve as their own art installations as customers hung their tie dyed and studded Quik women’s tee’s to dry. Passerby’s would take pictures and the commotion in the store was great. Camera Crews came through from Fashions Night Out and we even filmed a short segment for Erica’s weekly segments on I love to Create, an online outlet.
It was a blast! See you next year!
Fall is all about that tough – urban – edgy girl who wakes up, rolls out of bed and the minute her feet hit the floor she exudes style.
She tousles her locks, jumps around in tight and sexy skinnies, pulls on a lacey tank and grabs her biker-inspired jacket as she runs out the door.
The sweet tunes of rock-and-roll play in her mind, she grabs her morning coffee from around the corner and begins a day that will be filled with color, creativity and inspiration. She is passionate and works hard to make things happen.
She is the rock-goddess inside us all. Live it up in Quiksilver Women’s Fall 2009 collection!
The Tanzania Adventure was an incredible experience for our three E.P.I.C women and here are some of their final thoughts and highlights from the experience.
After we drill each well, we like to give hygiene and sanitation talks to the kids in the school, and to some of the women in the village. The kids at Mangalali Primary responded so well to it this year, which made it really enjoyable! We play games with them, teaching them about good and bad hygiene and sanitation practices, germ transmission, and the importance of washing hands, and brushing teeth.
We got to try out the song that Alexi and I made up about brushing teeth as well (we learned to sing it in Swahili after Amani translated it for us) so that was a lot of fun too! The kids LOVED it, and it was so much fun to act it out with our “Good Teeth” and “Bad Teeth” puppets!
If only one child understands the importance of washing their hands before they eat, or after they use the bathroom, and if that child teaches what they have learned to their children, and then they in turn do the same, we have begun to improve on a culture.
When Alexi and I come to each new village, we don’t come with the intention to change things, we come with the intention to share, and again, we are given so much more from the people than we could ever give to them, so if we are able to teach them anything of value at all, we feel we have done what we have set out to do.
Each day I spent in Tanzania was incredible, but my experience on the last night was critical to my understanding of the water crisis there and the perception of water. Bibi had helped to gather several women from around Kawe to meet with us and discuss the issue of water and the impact of E.P.I.C.’s first well. The meeting didn’t go as we expected.
Many of the women in Kawe have access to pipes. Even though they are aware that people cut into the pipes to steal the water (which in turn contaminates the water), they see the water as clean. Even though 100% of the women in our meeting had family members experience diarrhea and cholera on a regular basis, they see the water as clean.
In addition to the lack of access to clean water, a large part of the problem is the lack of education regarding water, hygiene, and sanitation. Bibi explained to us that in the 20 years she has lived in Kawe, E.P.I.C. is the first group of people to come and teach them about hygiene and sanitation. It’s overwhelming to think how much work there is to do, but completely inspiring at the same time to be a part of something that is so critical to so many people’s lives. There are some areas that we visited where people dig into the ground in search of water because they have no other choice. We set out to help support young women who are making a difference in the world. When we decided to help support E.P.I.C., we didn’t realize how many lives we could change, and that we’d be empowering women on the other side of the world.
Witnessing the pride the villagers of Mangalali took in the well we provided them by building a protective wall around it in order to ensure it’s safety!
Playing with my African brother Gordon…quite possibly the CUTEST kid in the whole world!
Watching the kids we’ve known for 4 years now grow up.
And as always, meeting some amazing new friends.
In my time here there were so many things that made this trip what it was. The people. The communities. That unwavering spirit and hope that each individual we meet carries with them. It will all come home with me and last a lifetime.
P.S.- I want to thank all of you personally for being a part E.P.I.C.! Whether you’re a QSW customer or just a reader of the blog, you’ve helped immensely. Thank you for initiating a positive change in our world! 
Alexi, Tennille and Jen gave up ten days of their summer to bring life to a small town in Tanzania and in return their lives were impacted greatly. Here is their story!
Over the years, Tennille and I have seen a share of hardships that the people in Tanzania live with; from drinking from a swamp like hole in the ground, to walking HOURS for water from a filthy river, but today paled in comparison.
Today we saw a group of women, all with their buckets in line, gathered around a hole no more than 6 or 7 feet deep, waiting. As we got closer, that hole contained inside of it a small “spring” of water about 12 inches in diameter. Now when I say “spring” please don’t confuse it with the “spring” water that all of our fancy bottled waters come from. And it’s certainly not flowing as you would expect a spring to flow. It was a measly little puddle, and a muddy one at that. THIS was their water source. When we got there it was about 1:30pm, and we found out that the woman who just put the last cup’s worth of water into her bucket had been filling that single bucket since 7:30am!
The average African FAMILY uses five 20L buckets of water PER DAY. The AVERAGE AMERICAN (that means ONE person, people!) uses the equivalent of 400 20L buckets per day! WOW. (I bet if we had to walk for our water and carry it back on our heads bucket by buckets we wouldn’t use as much!)
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Today we went to Mangalali, the village where the well was built last summer with donations from Quiksilver Women’s eco-friendly product revenue, as well as private donations raised by E.P.I.C. We began the morning by meeting some local women at the well. They brought us buckets and took us to the Ruaha River where they used to gather water before the well was dug. It was a beautiful walk due to the natural untouched landscape; however, this walk can be very dangerous for women and children walking alone. Many have been raped along this route. After about 45 minutes, we arrived at the river with our buckets in hand. The water was so dirty it look brown and very cloudy. We picked up the buckets we had filled with water from the river and placed them on top of our heads. My bucket was the same size most children carry, holding 10 liters of water, half the size the mamas carry! It was so heavy that I needed help placing it on my head.
This walk was an eye-opening experience to say the least. My neck was hurting, my shoulders and the top center of my head. At one point, I was holding the bucket with one hand and the back of my neck with the other. I heard a giggle from one of the mamas because she saw me holding my neck. I wanted to give up to stop the pain, but I knew I had to complete the walk without putting the bucket down. If these women did this every day 3-4 times a day, I had to do it at least once.
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One of the most memorable experiences of the trip for me was going to Mangalali, a very rural village in Iringa, about eight hours away by bus from where we were staying in Kawe. Mangalali is where we drilled our second well, with the help of the royalties from QSW.
The well at Mangalali was incredible to see, especially after knowing how much it is needed there! The people in the village have taken such pride in it too, and have already built a wall around it in order to protect it, and were digging a drainage system for it as well while we were there. We are so proud of everything they have been doing in order to properly maintain both the hand-pump, and the well itself, so we feel very confident that it will provide the people with all of their water needs for many years to come!
It is impossible to come here without realizing how necessary it is to keep doing what we have been doing, in order to provide as many villages as we possibly can with sustainable access to safe, clean water. Water here really is more important than gold, it is life, and to be able to give life to people who truly cherish it, is the greatest gift of all.
Our girls, Alexi and Tennille of E.P.I.C. (Everyday People Initiating Change) recently set out on an adventure to continue their mission to drill clean, sustainable water wells in communities that don’t have access to clean water. Inspired by our E.P.I.C women, Jen Barrios of Quiksilver, felt a desire to join in on the efforts and booked a ticket to join them in Africa.
Three women willing to give up their free time and comforts of home to make a difference – AMAZING! Over the next few days we will get to hear some of their stories and find out what they were feeling on this E.P.I.C. adventure.
Let’s tune in to their initial thoughts as they began their quest.
“Our fourth year in Tanzania… I can’t believe that we’re here again. It seems every year times goes a little faster, and the days in between trips grow shorter and shorter. I have mixed feelings as we enter our “Africa home” in Kawe, Tanzania: anxious, excited, tired and (always) hungry.
We have a lot to do this trip: drill a well at Kibebe Village and hopefully one in Kibaha Village (if the hydro-geological test says we can find water!), conduct our hygiene and sanitation program with both the kids and adults of Mangalali Village (the site of our water well from last summer) AND scope out some new villages for next year! (And I must add, I’m quite excited to bust out the “good teeth” – “bad teeth” sock puppets Tennille and I made during our hygiene program!)”
“When we pulled into Kawe, feelings of excitement filled me as I anticipated seeing everyone again! First there was Babu, sitting outside his shop, awaiting our arrival. The children in the neighborhood all greeted us with enthusiastic cries of, “Wazungu! Wazungu!” which means, “white people” in Swahili!
In Tanzania, life is about love, and respect for the community. It is about fulfilling basic needs, and coming together in order to survive. We come here to help in whatever small ways we can, but each time we come, we remember that they do so much more for us than we could ever do for them. I am forever indebted to them for opening my eyes up to what really matters in life, and I hope that I will never forget!”
In this neck of the woods.. it sure ain’t fall! The heat is melting our fall closet dreams, and who knows when it will end.
Ok.. let’s look at the bright side.. there are a few ways to channel our favorite fall looks without causing heat stroke.
Case in point – the statement tee! While it swelters keep it simple and if you are one of the lucky ones who feels a chill in the air – by all means, layer it up. Either way you will razzle and dazzle!
Shop the Looks: Lashes Tee and Je’Taime Tee
