A couple of years ago, I was hired as the
visual merchandise consultant by the
Four Seasons- Westlake Village and California Wellness Institute. The job was to help put together four distinctly different retail stores from the ground up. Fun! The catch? All within an insanely inordinate time schedule-- during the Thanksgiving holiday season no less (a busy time for my own retail store).
Mr David Murdoch, owner of this amazing resort, wanted the facility to open by December 1 and wanted to welcome the first group by January 1. IT WAS CRAZY! In the midst of all the contractors and designers trying to finish the hotel lobby, hotel rooms, spa, pool areas, culinary department and so on...we had to schlep countless boxes of merchandise from the basement storage to the various areas of retail, figure out merchandise displays, put together mannequins, order missing arms to said mannequins, steam out wrinkles of clothing, arrange a healthy granola grab n' go section, meet with high end jewelers displaying their wares, and so and so on....all the while sharing the freight elevators with the dozens upon dozens of contractors and the like. As this was Mr. Murdoch, jeans and tennis shoes were not allowed. 20 hour days, getting home at 4am, ripped pants and scuffed shoes, and so on....it was also a time filled with enormous laughs! It's an experience I will never forget and one of the best experiences of my retail work life. We finished without a wrinkle (or any that was noticeable anyway!) You must visit
Four Seasons Westlake and Health Institute --it's an incredible experience to take a healthy cooking class here!
Since then, Vintageweave is HONORED to be on the "go to" list when high-end gift baskets are needed by the many high-caliber guest groups hosting their company retreats or board meetings at The Four Seasons Westlake. It keeps us HOPPING as sometimes the requests are quite last minute. The more pressure, the better we thrive!
A recent group hailed from the upper East Coast, so we put together something they would typically not have access to: A Hollywood Glam Package!
I just had to share this book with you--brand spankin' new to the market:
HIGH STYLE (available through Vintageweave, Amazon or Chronicle Books). It's chock full of Old Hollywood glam all the way, mixed in with interesting sleek modernity. It's authored by the EXTREMELY talented Los Angeles design duo:
Ron Woodson and Jaime Rummerfield (pictured below).
At the very least, check it out the next time you're at your favorite bookstore. It's a fun ride!
{Holiday Bounty Trunk as created by my darling mother}
