Third Wave Fashion

Wish List Wednesday: Casadei Iconic Blade Pumps

Ok, take a moment, and revel in this super sexy, super sharp, super chic collection of footwear.  Worn by the likes of Zoe Saldana and obsessed over by Oscar Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, Casadei has maintained the chicness for which they’re known and definitely taking it up a notch by replacing the heel with a blade-like stem. Get this: the “blade” is made of real steel!

Embracing the colors of Spring and embodying an edginess we can’t get enough of, these pumps start at about $790 and go to about $950.  They come in more colors than those shown, including nude with an orange lacquer blade and vibrant animal prints with Swarovski crystals and a black lacquered blade. Add these to your wish list immediately! 

Wish List Wednesday: Charles Philip Shanghai Spring/Summer 2013 Slipper Collection

These slippers are about one thing and one thing only: cool elegance.  As you make your way back from SXSW and realize that you miss warm weather more than you thought, stock up on these bad boys and reassure yourself the thaw will be heading our way soon.

Made from the finest fabrics and coolest prints, we’re confident that the entire Spring/Summer 2013 Slipper collection will take you from your workday to the weekend with ease.  (They even come in metallics and snakeskin prints!) So, join Charles Philip and the rest of his small army of shoe aficionados in celebrating the freshness and beauty from around the world in this globally-inspired slipper collection for Spring!

Wish List Wednesday: The Frye Company Taylor Over The Knee Boots

We are SO ready for SXSW!  Have you been reading our blog?  We’ve got you covered on everything you need to know as you head down south — we can’t get enough of all the tech collabs that are about to go down!  And with all that excitement comes a push to start surveying our Western-inspired gear.  We have to look the part, right?  We searched and searched and needed to look no further than these sick Frye Company Taylor Over The Knee Boots.  They’re the perfect mixture of traditional western inspiration with a fashion forward spin.

How much are these bad boys going to set you back?  Oh, just $428, but, c’mon, they’re totally worth it — you’ll be wearing these beauts at the SXSW festivities for years to come!

Tech Crush Thursday: MJ Eng

What started as a conversation between co-founder Brian Lee and his wife about buying shoes and the idea that “When women shop, they want to feel beautiful and pampered,” has grown into a multimillion dollar company. Lee, co-founder of LegalZoom.com, brought on UCLA graduate and LegalZoom.com Director of Application Development, MJ Eng, to build the successful online shoe, apparel & accessories site that is now ShoeDazzle. Also part of the package, attorney Robert Shapiro, and Kim Kardashian, as Chief Fashion Stylist. In under three years, the ShoeDazzle team designed and built the site, then scaled the company to over $80M in annual revenue.

After a series of business model changes following the hiring of Bill Strauss in 2011 as CEO of ShoeDazzle, both Lee and Eng returned to the company this year to resume their original leadership positions. During that year away from ShoeDazzle, Eng built Teeology, an e-commerce luxury tee shirt line, also co-founded with Lee as well as fashion executives Jeff Marine and Erica Zohar in partnership with Jennifer Lopez (Yes-JLO).

With Teeology officially launched in July and ShoeDazzle signing up a record one million new members in that same month, as well as growing the company from 3 million to 13 million members over the past year, it seems Eng knows what he’s doing! Third Wave Fashion was even lucky enough to have MJ as a panelist at our Los Angeles Meetup a few weeks ago. We definitely take his advice to heart and cannot wait to see what he does next!

(Source: crosscutventures.com)

Fashion Icon Friday: Emily Schuman

Over the past few years, there has been a shift in the fashion world. The front row at some of NYFW’s biggest fashion shows has some new faces: bloggers. We mentioned Leandra Medine of The Man Repeller in a previous Fashion Icon Friday and today we’re looking to a different but equally well-known fashion blogger, Emily Schuman of Cupcakes and Cashmere. After graduating from Scripps College in California and before taking on her blog, Emily worked at Teen Vogue and Domino Magazine. What originally began as a way to document the things she loved turned into a full-time career and became the foundation for a New York Times Best Seller, conveniently titled Cupcakes and Cashmere: A Guide for Defining Your Style, Reinventing Your Space, and Entertaining with Ease.

Emily’s blog combines her love for two things- food and fashion. She highlights her classic and polished ladylike style in outfit posts, as well as shares tongue tingling recipes such as Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake and French Onion Soup. Recently, Emily has named the brand ambassador for Estee Lauder, giving readers video tutorials on how to use the brand’s latest beauty products.

With over 50,000 followers (and upward of 67k on Twitter), Emily has been widely recognized for her personal style and role in the fashion world. We absolutely love her polished looks that easily go from day to night and are just perfect for the chic working woman!

Image via Refinery29

Tech Crush Thursday: Josh Berman

Since its launch in 2010, BeachMint has quickly become one of the hottest and most successful companies in Los Angeles. The e-commerce startup, which now includes six different “Mint” companies, lets customers subscribe to receive products hand-picked by celebrities each month. However, it’s no surprise BeachMint has done so well, seeing as the CEO and co-founder, Josh Berman, has quite the history of successful startups.

Berman, who earned his undergraduate degree from UC-Santa Barbara and his MBA from University of Southern California, went on to serve as a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, before co-founding and managing multiple successful Internet companies including ResponseBase Marketing and Xdrive Technologies. Berman, however, is probably best known for his role as co-founder and COO of MySpace.

After recognizing the lack of integration of social and e-commerce, Berman with co-founder Diego Berdakin started BeachMint, launching their first brand, JewelMint, with Kate Bosworth and celebrity stylist, Cher Coulter, in October 2010. StyleMint soon followed, with Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashely Oslen in July 2011, BeautyMint with Jessica Simpson and skincare expert, Nerida Joy, in October 2011, and ShoeMint with Rachel Bilson and celebrtiy stylist Nicole Chavez in collaboration with Steve Madden soon thereafter. More recently, HomeMint with Justin Timberlake and interior designer Estee Stanley joined the family in May 2012, and intiMINT with Brooke Burke-Charvet in June 2012. Each site offers a subscription service with personalized product recommendations from the respective celebrity and expert.

Although Berman attributes the success of BeachMint to “being at the right place at the right time,” he cited four factors that made a great contribution in a recent interview. He said it is important to build a strong team, let customers serve as advocates, leverage social networks where customers maintain a presence, and keep focused on priorities, rather than trying to be all things to all people.  

His number one piece of advice? From the outset, build a great team – “Have teammates, don’t just keep all the equity … You’re working 12+ hours with your teammates, and that’s critical to have the right team.”

Josh, you are a man of many successes. The latest of which we happen to love!

Team Tuesdays… on Tumblr.

Today, the TWF team is ooh-ing and ahh-ing over our founder Liza’s adorable new limited edition Milly for Sperry Top-Siders heels.

Uh yah. We know.

And yes, she did stand on a table that resembles a tree trunk in order to get this shot.

Editor’s note: How stellar is her “go with grace” tattoo?