I am a planner. I have my “to do list” for work and my personal list. Every night before I go to sleep I check everything off. You can only imagine how I have felt over the past 72 hours as we scrambled to set up our pop-up shop. One word describes it “chaos,” not organized chaos, pure and simple CHAOS.
When I walked into 810 Aliceanna on Wednesday afternoon all I saw was a mess – half painted walls, dirty concrete floors, ladders, tools, trashcans, construction workers, and electrical wires. I thought to myself “Gita are you crazy, there is no way this is going to be opening on Saturday.” I have worked for Gita for just over two weeks. In those two weeks I have learned two things. First, Gita always has a vision. Second, Gita will always execute that vision, no matter what!
I had no idea what was ahead of us, and quite honestly no amount of planning could have prepared us for this week…
First, we had no phone line. Now that might not seem like a big deal since everyone over the age of nine carries a cell phone, but when you are in a concrete building surrounded by concrete walls it is a VERY big deal. Cell phones and particularly the “can do everything” iPhone would have full bars in one spot and zero bars two feet to the left. Not only did we not have a working landline this week, we couldn’t call anyone to get us one.
Second, no Internet. Thanks to the wonders of technology the Internet and the phone line are the same thing. No phone = No Internet. Thankfully Chris Janian came to our rescue and convinced our sweet neighbors, Haagen Dazs, to share their Internet with us. Yay for Internet and ice cream!
Next, the fire marshal refused to approve the space because of a curtain that separated the showroom from the office. Instead of subjecting our customers to a view of drywall and steel while they tried on that beautiful diamond necklace, we built a wall…in a day. This wasn’t just any old wall it is a 14 ft X 27ft wall. This wall threw a wrench in our design concept, so we went back to the drawing board. We decided to put our logo on the blank wall. This of course created a new set of problems, we needed to find someone to make the logo and we needed to put up shelving, fast. Who knows how to measure, space, and draw shelves for Carlos to follow? Why me of course, ahhh that architecture degree does come in handy after all. With the wall up, we now needed the mirrors to go up as well. Gita and I came up with this great concept, or so we thought-hang the mirror from the ceiling in the corner to make it appear as if it was floating off the wall. Carlos quickly brought us back to reality and instead hung all the mirrors staggered across the wall in record time. It was not the original concept, but it looks fantastic next to Neil’s amazing life size graphite sketch. To add more pressure to the party we had a conga line of onlookers and visitors coming in and out of the door as we quickly ran from one project to the next.
Rome might not have been built in a day, but our pop-up shop was. We kept are cool and best of all we finished at the 11th hour! It is truly amazing that we started with “blah” and now we have a full showroom with everything in its perfect place. I can finally breathe and I have time to write a sentence. We still have a few things to finish up, but we are open, clad in our chic black outfits and ready for business. The finishing touches will be completed over the next week, just in time for the party! Although it was fun to live in the moment for the past 72 hours, I think all continue my planning ways. Thank you to everyone for the support and amazing help!
XOXO
Lauren
