It seems like it was just yesterday that we got back from our amazing trip to the Hong Kong Fashion Week. Can it really be almost two months?!?  Now it's time for Sydney's Closet Fashion Team to head back to China again to work on the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 Collections. When we leave St. Louis on the first leg of our 8,500-mile journey it's so cold  ice covers the early morning windshields.  When we land in L.A. it's warm enough to wear sandals! Don't you just love flying Southwest Airlines with their oh-so generous luggage allowance of two bags that fly free?!? It works out perfectly for our design trips when we tend not to travel too light. We each check one bag packed with enough clothes for us to wear and another suitcase with samples, fabric swatches and sketch books. Our favorite trick: put a small mountain of special occasion sample dresses into a pile. Carefully cram the pile into a storage bag designed to save space in your closet. (We use the jumbo quilt and pillow size for this trip!). Take a vacuum hose and suck out of the edxtra air. Viola! That mountain of dresses is now a hill and so much easier to pack.

 

(I don't recommend it for your clothes. You save spaces but sacrifice appearance. When we open the bag in China, creases and wrinkles cover every inch of the wedding, Prom gowns, evening and plus size cocktail dresses. A practical solution but not a pretty sight - until each one is steamed!! The four hour flight from St. Louis to L.A. flies (bad pun!) by so fast. We're pouring over sketches and even coming up with new ideas.  We grab a rental car and head downtown to meet Marcy Guevara, stylist to the stars, at a  delicious restaurant in the trendy Arts District.  All too soon it's time to hit the freeway and head back to LAX to catch our  flight to Hong Kong.

  It's our first time getting a look at the $1.9 billion upgrade to the Thomas Bradley International Terminal. We're so impressed. Seven huge multi-media features light up the space in the Great Hall entertaining us with rotating images of people and places from around the world.

  The designer shops tempt us. But  we head straight to lounge where we have just enough time to recharge our phones, tablets and Kindle before they call our Cathay Pacific flight. It's 16 hours across the Pacific before we land in Hong Kong and then catch a flight into mainland China.  Check back again soon for my next post.  (Can't wait to have you join us on this adventurous trip!)