It's been a long time coming...

MY SHOP IS FINALLY OPEN!

Definitely appreciate everyone who made it possible. For anyone who is interested, my next few blogs are going to be about how it came to be.

*Preparing for a photoshoot takes awhile, but the results are definitely worth the time.*

On the night of May 22nd I didn't fall asleep until a little past 3AM on May 23rd.

I got off work at 8PM that day and took Lyft home. I own a car, but anyone who lives in Daly City knows that finding street parking can be a nightmare on some nights (especially when there's street cleaning the next morning). With the shoot the next day, I didn't want to take any chances. After work I started steaming the t-shirts. It took a lot longer than I thought it would...

Before I continue, let me just mention that there were a lot of delays and this phase alone goes back further than you might think. Believe it or not, the shop website was more or less done around September 2016. And at that time, I had all the sample tees already made, the custom tags were made. I was very close to launching at that time. I just needed to get some product photos.

Originally, I was going to just do on-hanger photos. Better than the grainy cellphone one above, of course. Or I was going to do lay-flat photos as an alternative. And I was going to do it myself, ask my dad if I could borrow his DSLR...

-___-

After some research however, I realized the best apparel websites show the product on-models. And that it if I wanted the best, I had better seek a professional. . .

Life had other ideas though X__X I took on a new full time job. Moved to a new place. Had some family things to go to. I put out ads on Craigslist for photographers and models shortly after I moved. But before I knew it the holidays had rolled around and things got crazy busy.

*First Golden Wedding Anniversary I've attended, and (with the way my generation approaches relationships) perhaps the last...*

Anyway. 2017 rolled around and I decided that I would focus on my job and get back on building Esthetek once taxes were done. March/April I started contacting one of the photographers again and trying to set something up. I also started looking for models. The models and "models" who responded to my ad weren't all bad. But none of them had that extra something I was looking for.

Trying to hire through a modeling agency felt daunting, especially after looking at some of the fees they would charge.

I started browsing Model Mayhem. Site is a little dated and I remembered it from back in the dA days. But the plus side was that there's tons of people on there and it's pretty easy to browse through a lot of people. Initially, I was looking for an "alternative" type of model but then I figured it might overpower the tees if they were modeled by someone with too much going on. Started narrowing things down and I contacted a couple of models.

Got a response from Julia (Saori) and things started to get in motion. More delays however, after the photographer and I just couldn't quite work things out regarding the location of the shoot.

I started looking for another photographer but all the delays I had experienced started to get me questioning the whole venture... One day I was on my lunch break, just eating pizza and I got an email from Julia asking if the shoot was still on. I was glad to hear she was still interested in the job and I asked her if she knew any good people as I was having a hard time choosing from all the photographers out there (and there are A LOT out there, believe me).

She connected me with a great photographer, Dennis, and an awesome makeup artist/hairstylist, Phi Phi. I got to the studio a bit early, and Dennis offered me a complimentary headshot to replace my old Colombian drug lord profile photo!

*He probably Photoshopped my teeth. I drink a gallon of coffee a day...*

My friend that I invited to be the male model couldn't make it because he had a job interview. So I did some modeling myself while Julia was getting her hair and makeup done. Dennis was very efficient and professional.

It was a very fun shoot! I think the highlight was watching Julia try to blow a bubble for the picture of Inflation. Took many tries but I love the result.

I'm thankful that I got to work with such awesome people and I'm glad it all went smoothly. After the shoot I went to visit one of my colleagues over at Stanford Shopping Center. But what does that have to do with Esthetek?! Haha, I'm going to be posting more blogs about how Esthetek started in the future. Right now, I'm designing some new t-shirts. If everything goes well, I want to expand to doing hoodies, shoes, accessories, and everything else. I haven't stopped writing either! First short story is currently at 25,649 words. Hopefully will have the 1st draft ready before the end of this year but that's just something else I do for my own enjoyment.

Anyway, I gotta do some social media stuff now. Thanks for reading!