And to think it all started with a no.

There are a few lessons to learn from today’s story, but before we get into that, let’s start with the story itself. It all started back in late 2016 with this tunic. Maybe that’s the first lesson – buy the darn tunic [believe me, it’s good]. It was my first piece of Gibson Clothing, a brand that is sold at that one store you may have heard me mention a time or two..thousand, Nordstrom. I wore that tunic and wore that tunic and shared it with my readers [that’s you, see YOU are in this story! In fact,  you’re probably the biggest part of this story] an obnoxious amount of times, mostly over on Facebook, the home of all kitchen mirror selfie outfit pics [keepin’ it classy since 1986]. Well, it turned out that a few of you took my word on just how good the tunic was and purchased it for yourself. From there, I continued to buy a piece or three of Gibson clothing, sealing the deal that this was a brand I wanted to wear and wear often. I blame the cozy fleece – it’s always the comfy stuff that sucks me in. While I knew nothing about the brand itself, I did know that I liked the clothes and for this simple girl, that’s all I really needed to know. Or so I thought…

Fast forward to June 2017, when the team and I receive an email from a gentleman on Stylebuy’s behalf [cliff notes: Stylebuy is the company that owns Gibson + a few other incredible brands ie: Olivia Moon and Harlowe + Graham] asking if we would be interested in a doing a blog post collaboration for this blazer. Here’s where the no comes into play. I don’t know if the email caught me at the forefront of that little womanly monthly visitor or if our office was too hot and I was sweating my head off and most likely hungry or if I was just genuinely going delusional [this is most likely the winner] but whatever the case, I said no. Not because I didn’t love the blazer, gosh I love that blazer, but because I had every other excuse oozing out of me, my favorite go-to being the “we’re too busy!” one. It turned out that this gentleman was a persistent awesome employee and asked to jump on a call so we could talk it out. Five minutes later the blazer was on its way to Indiana and within a few days, the blog post was up. Fast forward a week or two later and the same gentleman emailed asking if we could hop on a call to talk to his boss, Suzie. I had no clue why but because I had already learned to never say no to him again, I said yes.

Here’s where things get exciting — Suzie turned out to be this incredible superwoman who possesses all of those things that we want to be: brilliant, creative, hilarious, kind and a dreamer. I like dreamers.

It was during this phone call that Suzie explained how she started a company, Stylebuy, which now has the three brands I mentioned above under its umbrella. I confessed my love for all things Gibson and was so inspired by her accomplishments of starting her own brands that I very [very] nervously decided to ask the question — “I know this is going to sound ridiculous and I know it would never actually happen, but if I ever wanted to look into starting a clothing line, is that something you could help with?!” And then I waited for her to laugh in my face, but the laughing never happened. So then I started sweating. Within a few seconds, Suzie had rattled off something about potentially trying a Gibson and Living In Yellow collaboration. It was at this moment in time where I tried to play it cool  [like I have these types of conversations every day…] instead of blurting out “ARE YOU CRAZY? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? JUST FOUR MONTHS AGO I WAS STILL STAPLING MY FALLEN OUT HEMS ON MY WORK PANTS AND COLORING THEM WITH A SHARPIE MARKER TO BLEND IN AND NOW YOU THINK I SHOULD DO A COLLABORATION ON A COLLECTION WITH YOU? YOU ARE INSANE WOMAN?” but instead quietly fist pumped and played the air guitar while listening to what else she had to say. During this conversation, she had mentioned that Becca [LIY Creative Director] and I should come out to her showroom in LA sometime. Lucky for her, California is my favorite state in the U S of A so yeah, I agreed that would be a good idea 😉

In August, we walked into that showroom. The only other time I had been in a showroom was when I went to my local car dealership to get an oil change, so you could imagine my excitement when this one had adorable clothes that didn’t smell like grease. It was here we started really talking about if we could make this happen and what we would want it to look like if it did come to fruition. I left LA thinking one thing “this crazy dream might actually come true….”

Over the next couple of months, the team and I got busy putting together ideas for pieces that we would want to create with Gibson. We looked through spring color trends, patterns that were making us excited, materials that we felt good in and of course — listened really closely to what our readers were asking for.Between countless back and forth of CAD drawings, FaceTime calls, overnight FedEx packages for fit trials, a trip out west and many, many emails the line was born. 

Gibson x Living In Yellow is a capsule collection made up of the best everyday basics in feel-good fabrics that will easily take you from work to play. I truly believe that the pieces in this collection will be your most worn items in your wardrobe. It was SO important to me to develop a collection that the busy mom on the go, 8-5 working woman and that the everyday girl could feel confident in. While we will have the classic color offerings, I believe in the power of wearing positive vibrant colors and you’ll see that played out in this line. In addition, we wanted everybody to wear our line – with inclusive sizing this will be possible. Gibson x Living In Yellow will be available in petites and a range of XXS-3X. 

We were fortunate enough to have the beloved retailer I mentioned above, Nordstrom, pick up our collection and it will be sold exclusively at launch on their website starting Thursday, March 8th with a second collection launching Marching 22nd.

Yes, I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that in exactly one week from now Living In Yellow will have its name on pieces of clothing being sold at Nordstrom.com. Dreams do come true my friends, I mean that with all of my heart. I am living proof.

So what has life been like the past month and what can you expect from here? February consisted of getting all of the pieces photographed which took place in sunny San Diego with the most amazing photographer, Ashley Strong, who captured the line perfectly. This week we’ve been writing descriptions for Nordstrom’s website, putting the final pieces on our “marketing plan” [which reminds me – be sure to RSVP to our Facebook Live premiere party!] and are preparing for our launch party which is happening Thursday evening at the Nordstrom store on Michigan Ave in Chicago.

It has been a whirlwind of the past four months, but this labor of love is the most exciting [and nerve wrecking] thing I’ve ever brought to this space. I am praying that you will fall in love with a piece or twelve the same way that I have. Without you, this line wouldn’t exist. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting Living In Yellow and allowing this small town Indiana girl to do things beyond her wildest dreams. The relationships that we have built here will always be my greatest and most valued achievement.

Gibson x Living In Yellow, comin’ in hot. Shop the line Thursday, March 8th [International Women’s Day — how cool is that?] at 8 am PST at nordstrom.com.