EMAIL US AT CLAUDINE@CARAVANSTYLISTSTUDIO TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE STUDIO CONCEPT
BRING YOUR IDEAS TO LIFE
MOBILE TOURS
IN STORE EVENTS
POP UP STORES
SAMPLING TOURS
INTERACTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA TOURS
EVENTS THAT ENGAGE INFLUENCERS - ACTORS, MUSICIANS & OTHER CREATIVES
SETTING THE TREND FOR MOBILE, INTERACTIVE & EMBRACING SOCIAL EXPERIENCES & SOCIAL MEDIA
Launched June 2005 in New York City, Caravan began as a clothing store on wheels. Claudine DeSola refurbished a RV and made it into a clothing store. It would visit apartment buildings, hotels, offices and charity events. On certain days it would park in highly trafficked areas such as the West Village and the Meatpacking District.
The name Caravan was chosen because it lends itself to an eclectic evolving experience, a platform that will always transform with new products and ideas. Every visit to Caravan will offer a fun and unique experience. Caravan will always change and morph into something new. Inside Caravan you will find racks, shelving units, a place to sit, a plasma screen to show video content, counterspace, a refrigator and more. It is great for branding, special events, sampling and touring product around the country.
In 2006, Caravan opened the first brick and mortar location at 2 Great Jones Street in Noho. Caravan on Great Jones was a social shopping space. It was a place where people would shop, learn about new designers as well as listen to some fun music. More then a retail store, instead a showroom of sorts with a lounge area, DJ booth, and designer showcase. It was a temporary space again lending to the name - as an experiment and always moving and changing. Many memories were created with some amazing such as the great events from the ELLE STYLE LOUNGE with hosts like Josh Madden, Salt N Pepa and the Project Runway wrap party to the dj mix off to Gift Bags for Good to a FASHION NIGHT OUT event in 2009.
While Great Jones was open, Claudine decided she wanted to do an opposite experiment. While downtown was constantly filled filled with the downtown crowd she decided to venture uptown and create a quiet oasis in Carnegie Hill. She wanted to see what the difference is between a space that has a dj, magazines to read, sofas that encouraged large groups of people to come in and hang out and then the uptown store that would be "by appointment" ideally with one customer at a time getting individualized attention. Caravan91 was opened in 2007 and was located in Carnegie Hill at 128 East 91st Street between Lexington & Park. This area is called the Carnegie Hill area. Again, this store hosted many great events from the Keep A Child Event to Lauren Bush's Earth Day party for her FEED BAGS.
Caravan has gone through many evolutions and the main goal of it all was to create business as well as a new way to sell product and to have FUN in the retail arena. By Claudine starting the first ever store out of RV she started a trend - businesses saw that and developed some of their own RV events. Companies like Cosmopolitan and Womans Day rented out Caravan for events and sampling programs. It was a fun way to see how people interacted in a RV parked on the street. Then Great Jones was a way to see how people reacted to a concept store - a place that encouraged guests not to just come in and shop but to hang out and use it as a meeting place for friends. The Upper East Side store was totally the reverse narrowing the "guest list" and conducting more one on one service with that let the sales staff really get to know their customer - talk to them about designers and really have time with the customer to style looks and talk about fashion.
So RETAIL is tricky - if you don't come from a retail operations standpoint and you are running two businesses like Claudine was - it is very tough. So Claudine decided to close the "retail aspects' full time and focus on concepts and things that were 'SOCIAL' and worked but didn't require constant inventory and a full time staff. She took away certain things from Caravan:
a. Sampling and Customer Interaction was awesome - in a day you can see over a thousand people and educate them about product, trend, innovation and start a conversation with those guests - all of this was different from the RV, social space and then the intimate environment ( where this occurred with less people but on a deeper level).
b. Retail / Environments should be FUN. Claudine definitely became an expert in a way in what a space could look like and feel like from the music to the fixtures to the product - she learned a lot from these programs
c. Celebrities / influencers loved the spaces - since 2005 over 300 actors/ musicians / other influencers visited the space and really enjoyed their time
d. Education - Claudine loved educating guests about new beverages she sampled such as FUSE and new clothing designers - it was a two way conversation and it was great
e. Events - Caravan organized a lot of events from charity to dj spin offs to fashion week events
f. MOBILITY is cool and SOCIAL MEDIA is even cooler so Claudine now works on programming linking mobility + social media and creates huge campaigns and programs for companies
Today, Caravan creates a collection at least once a year that is for "THE SHOW" - Style 360 has invited Caravan to participate in four shows over the last four years. Originally, Claudine DeSola curated the show - the first show consisted of 100 looks from over 15 designers including Edun, Walter, Fred Perry, J Lindeberg and more - she showed about five looks from every designer and the show was attended by 500+ members of the press and fashion community. The 2nd year, Claudine worked with several "machine washable" collections for TIDE's new detergent. She worked with 6 other designers and then created her own collection of machine washable items for STYLE 360. Last year, Oral B sponsored a fashion show which spoke to getting up in the morning to party dresses at night - so your whole day - you start your day with a toothbrush and you end your day with one and she showed how important it is to smile and have fun! In September of 2010 she worked with Starbucks Frappuccino on an EXPRESS YOUR LOVE fashion show where she showed a collection of a dozen pieces along with two of her other favorite collections - bobi & boy meets girl. That show boosted an audience of 800+ people and was featured in newspapers + blogs from around the world. She had amazing models from Shontelle to Dania Ramirez model in the show and the NEON TREES performed right before the show began.
Beyond the fashion shows Claudine helps produce once a year she also created her own wardrobe studio where she continues to dress over 100 actors/musicians a year in cool contemporary fashions. Lately, she has been dressing a lot of people in Lipsy and Moods of Norway - two really great brands that make everyone look awesome. She is growing this side of her business and reach so she can help those that can influence learn about cool new designers while looking great. She loves to incorporate new trends and accessorize!
Claudine is always looking to colloborate and come up with new ideas - she is a partner at THINK and has created over twenty successful pop up stores and over 100 experiences around the world. Her passion is creative programming and trying to really create buzz and staying power. Email Claudine@caravanstyliststudio.com
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