Woman & Fashion

Whatever happened to good old fashioned birthday parties with cake and back-yard games? My nine year daughter recently attended a birthday party which included a limousine ride to The Ritz hotel for tea, followed by manicures and pedicures at a posh shop. I think most of us were first picked up in limos for our wedding – not a child’s birthday party. Since when did birthday parties become such extravagant affairs?

CNN.com reported on a full service children’s birthday party planning company in California that is run by a team trained in child development. They take six weeks to plan and it costs as much as $10,000. Now that’s a party.

In our now “more is better” culture, parents and kids are having higher and higher expectations of birthday parties. As a result, parents are feeling the financial strain and stress and kids are overloaded and over-indulged.

So how do you create an inexpensive, yet memorable birthday party? Keep it simple. Have the party at home and invite eight friends – not 20. Plan a fun craft that can be used as the take home party favor – eliminating the over-stuffed throw-away goody bag. Play good old fashioned games that kids will love. An obstacle course or sack race is great for both boys and girls of all ages. For younger kids, you can’t go wrong with ‘Duck Duck Goose’ (or Princess, Princess, Frog). For older kids, a dress-up relay race is always fun. Just use a bunch of clothes from the closet such as ties, dress up shoes, party dresses, hats.

There are lots of great birthday party ideas sites online to find fun birthday party themes and party games ideas. One site to try is Amazing Moms. Readers from all over the country submit birthday party ideas. You can also check out your local crafts store such as Michaels or Ben Franklin crafts for your activity materials or if you’re short on time, go online and find craft packages available to you.

Remember that the birthday party is for your children. Pick something that every child can participate in and keep it simple. This will allow you too as their parents to enjoy the festivities, hold the video camera and simply share in the excitement of your child’s celebration! They will grow up too fast so relish in these exciting and developing years!

Direct sales and home party businesses are booming. Direct selling is definitely the wave of the future as the world goes the current economic restructuring. With party plan companies blooming on every street corner how do you pick the right home party plan company for you? Do you like jewelry? How about make-up? Perhaps food is your thing, no fashion! Skin-care, that’s it! Seems as long as there are products being made, there is a party plan company selling it. The following are the 7 Pillars & Tips For Direct Sales Home Party Consultants for the success to consider when selecting a party plan company.

1) You, The Home Party Consultant: As an independent direct sales home consultant you are the company representative. People will judge the company by how you conduct yourself and your direct selling business. If you find people are a little resistant to what you have to say, don’t take it personally. I can guarantee they had a bad experience with another direct sales consultant. Now is your chance to build a new relationship.
Home Parties Tip: A home party business is not about the party plan company. A home party business is about the home party consultant.

2). Home Party Plan Company Leadership: Does your company of choice have proven MLM/Network Marketing/Direct Sales Experience? How long have they been in business? Are they ethical? –What about their integrity? Is the company privately held or publicly traded? (If the home party company of choice is publicly traded I hope it is one that Warren Buffet owns e.g., Pampered Chef) Have you actually read their Policies & Procedures? How Many pages? (Less is usually better.) WHY? Because the more paper work the less creativity and options you have. It means your every move will be monitored by the party plan company gate-keepers. You might as well get a job! Who does it protect? Comp plan set up to favor/protect distributors or company? Allow ‘walk away’ income? Loopholes to steal your commissions someday?
LONG TERM focus with a solid foundation, or “get rich quick” mentality? I recently read up on the ‘dead’ Circuit city company. The CEO said that their greatest failure was focusing on short term profits instead of long term value. Is your company of choice has not been in business for 5 years…think again

3) Timing of INDUSTRY and COMPANY: Did you know that jewelry home party plan companies are the hottest thing in the party plan industry? Yes Gold home parties are taking the nation by storm. Bill Gates willingly shares his secrets to success, he says:

1. Recognize the future of an industry
2. Take immediate massive action
3. Be at the right place at the right time!

If you can grasp this, success as a home party consultant is all but guaranteed! That said people will never be too young, too thin, too fashionable, too glamorous or too sexy. Any home party plan business surrounding these questions and problems will always be a hit! Run from Startups are to be avoided at all costs. This is what we call trending in the direct sales industry. E.g., once Mary Kay unveiled her company suddenly everyone had a beauty and skin care line you could sell from home. You want to find balance in your choice.

What phase is the Party Plan Company? Formulation? Momentum? Critical Mass? Plateau? Companies in the plateau phase offer more name recognition and less of an opportunity. (Under 5 year or 25 + I’d stay away)!

4). TARGET MARKET for your PRODUCTS: Is there huge demand for the home party products you plan on representing? Is the Future bright? Does the product meet Long Term TRENDS? The BIGGEST mistake people make is by making an emotional decision about their choice to become involved in direct sales. Sure your neighbor who is only a high school graduate jumped into party plan company ABC and made a killing and drives the car of your dreams. That is all well and good. However are you suited to the direct selling business? Is it the right time for you to jump in? More importantly have you identified a market for your product? Want to know why most home party consultants fail? because they found a product but have no one to sell it to. Your first step in succeeding is identifying a market for your product and then finding the right home party company. Trust me on this one, you will save yourself a whole lot of trouble!

5) Flagship PRODUCT(s): Products have to be REMARKABLE Not over-priced CONSUMABLE! Seth Godin, author of the best seller Purple Cow speaks at length on the issue of product remarkability. He talks about the mundane-ness of a regular black and white cow over a purple cow. A purple cow is remarkable. Remarkable incidentally doesn’t mean good or awesome

adjective

worthy of attention; striking
Is your home party product of choice one that will compel other to talk about and thus market for you? This is the essence of word of mouth. Is your product average or top of the line? Your product must be good enough to compel repeat buys and persuade me or any other person to tell a friend or ten about it!

6) Compensation Plan: The comp. plan should be the least of your worries, but I will discuss it for your benefit. The home party, direct sales and direct selling industry are all victims of the recruitment scam. You see you are paid for volume not the number of recruits you get. Look it this way what benefit is it to enroll 100 people who buy nothing? However if you make get 10 customers, and each buy $100 of products then you have a percentage of $1000 home party sales. The compensation needs to pay the average person fair percentage. Party plan companies reward home party consultants for selling products NOT for recruiting reps. Avoid comp. plan that pay on levels. Volume is quantifiable. Levels is cut throat and breeds the scams and failings that network marketing has a bad reputation. Paying on VOLUME not levels – drives BEHAVIOR in the field. Do you have a break-away plan? I would be cautious and careful. Best ’statistics’ to determine comp. plan include
‘TAC’ Total Average Commission? ‘PTV’ Percentage of TOTAL volume ?

7) Training, Education, Experience & Personal Development: Duplication is all well and good. Remember what I said at the beginning a home party plan business is about you. You are the single most important determinant of how successful this home party business. There is no such thing as proven SYSTEMS, UPLINE SUPPORT. The only thing that will help you build a successful business is personal development, training, education and experience. Do you have an Action Plan / Game Plan? It is one that can be taught to others i.e., duplicatable while still leaving room for creativity, innovation and expansion? Times have changed. Some things that worked just a few years ago, do not today. Many companies and TEAMS are using outdated systems and methods. Most people (92+% of population) do not like to sell or be sold. Are you building a home party business using 8 track methods in an iPod world? Don’t get caught in a rut!

Wishing you success,
Party Plan Pat

Holiday parties! What to wear?!

What to wear? This is the foremost question that strikes one’s mind while thinking of a holiday party. Definitely apparel is the topmost concern one has for a holiday party. As it’s an occasion that gives you maximum freedom to interact, get socialized and get mixed up with people and most importantly, gives a reason to be yourself, you will never like to take a chance on your looks. It’s always better to educate yourself about proper dress up and all the latest fashion than to repent after buying anything for the holiday party or wearing anything when the party is over.

Party dresses for the holidays can be simple or dramatic. It can also be modest or stylish. The dresses for young girls are often adorned with lace and ribbon. And they also have layers of tulle or organza giving the dress a delicate look. Dresses having contrast collars and short bell sleeves definitely add to the charm.

If you are on the fence about your apparel before every party, remember to have a black dress in your wardrobe. Black is a universal color that goes with the theme of every party. It may be a short backless one or a long formal one or even a formal pair of trousers.

A nice pair of jeans can be recommended. And they should never be the ones that are torn at the knees. A nice pair of straight cut jeans with embellishments around the pockets will be absolutely fine. You should join up your jeans with a nice bold belt. Even if your jeans are simple and not too loud, a good belt can do wonders in transforming them into a style statement. Point to be noted that the sole mantra of adding life to any costume is by accessorizing it. Be it an elegant necklace, chandelier earrings, or a bracelet, these accessories can turn any party dress into a fashion symbol.

Cocktail attire is always a party theme for the holidays. Appropriate cocktail attire consists of dresses ranging from mid-thigh to just below the knee. Remember to avoid a business standby, instead add accents in a vibrant color, choose a fitted cut or incorporate a suit created from a unique textile. Silk, brocade, polyester, cashmere, rayon, velour, velvet and velveteen are all appropriate cocktail fabrics are appropriate. Embellishments with beading sequins are also quite welcome.

You must have a pair of nice footwear to match all your efforts. A neat pair of stilettos or even kitten heels can go a long way in giving that complete look to your party dress. Have wedges, block heels and stylish flat sandals to suit the kind of dress you are going to wear. Don’t wear anything that is worn out or something you wear in a daily basis.

Now it comes to the final touch up. It’s the make up factor to complement your dress up. Remember not to apply excess make up. It may make you look plastic. At the same time, don’t put on very little make up that won’t be even visible to people. Go bold on colors and experiment with new shades.

“In the culture I grew up in, we were all about fashion,”Mary J. Blige said on Friday about fashion, as she made her way from the Baby Phat show to a limousine waiting curbside at Roseland Ballroom. “We were caught up in it.”

The fashion Party’s Over Ms. Blige was headed to the restaurant Guastavino for an intimate fashion dinner being given by the Baby Phat designer Kimora Lee Simmons, intimate being used here in the mosh-pit sense. “Day of the Locust” mobs are now such a common sight during Fashion Week that it is obvious you didn’t have to grow up in the Yonkers projects, as Ms. Blige did, to get caught up in fashion stuff.

Thousands thronged the Robert Cavalli fashion store opening that same evening. Those fortunate enough to have invitations were funneled into a brightly lighted retail space so sardine-packed that even the models were forced to stand sideways.

“Fantastic” Mr. Cavalli said, looking slightly dazed as he shouldered his way toward the exit around 7:15. The fashion party was still in full swing, yet he was leaving for a better one, a dinner he was giving at Graydon Carter’s celebrity safe house, the Waverly Inn.

Ms. Miles, as those old enough to remember pay phones will remember, is an actress once as celebrated for her stamina as a partygoer as for her fashion career. To say that she was indefatigable doesn’t capture her spirit.

Fashion may be feeling the effects of the stock market wobble. To present his Y-3 collection of high-end sports clothes on Saturday, Yohji Yamamoto annexed a fashion city block beneath the High Line railway, transforming Fashion into the kind of raw subterranean space that used to be common and that now requires event-planner sorcery to reproduce.

Ralph Lauren’s has just hit 40. And it says an awful lot about fashion transformations that what began as a line of ties is now a $13.5 billion publicly traded company, of which Mr. Lauren is the principal shareholder.

Yet it is just a couple of miles from the Bronx to the Conservatory Garden on upper Fifth Avenue, as the crow flies, and not much of a stretch that Mr. Lauren would have selected this particular six-acre oasis as the setting for his party. A formal terraced garden grafted onto Frederick Law Olmsted’s rustic masterpiece, the Conservatory Garden is a 1939 rendition of the Gatsbyesque estates on Long Island’s Gold Coast. Does anyone know that terrain better than Mr. Lauren does?

Some time between the herbed haricots verts with goat cheese and dessert, the mayor rose to toast the designer and his wife, Ricky. “If someone said, “Send me a couple that represents New York,’ ” Mr. Bloomberg said, “the Laurens would be them.”

As representative New Yorkers, the two have done the near impossible, stayed “at the top of their game for 40 years.”

Not, the mayor added, that he has any particular fashion expertise. “No one will ever call me a fashion ista,” he said.