Brizo Fashion Week Part 1

Last week I was having the time of my life in NYC with the wonderful people of Brizo and 18 other incredible design mavens.   It was an amazing educational and inspiring trip sponsored by Brizo.

Besides making amazing faucets, Brizo sure knows how to cater and host a bunch of designers.

Loved being picked up at the airport by a personal driver who wouldn't let me carry my own bags :) (felt very VIP)  I Arrived at the Eventi Hotel with just enough time to check in, make a couple calls, tweet about how amazing my hotel room view was and off to meet the fabulous Blogger19 group at the Brizo Welcome reception in the Eventi Suite.

Meeting everyone was so FUN !  There is nothing like meeting your twitter "friends" in person.  Some of us were deep in conversation, that we continued the party at Bar Basque  (Thank You Judd @Brizo who also picked up that tab) ....It was so lovely meeting everyone and getting to know them .

Second day was all about learning about the Brizo brand and products.  Their design process is very much like most designers , which is why I found it so fascinating.    I was very impressed by their hard work and dedication to the product, it really made me appreciate the Brizo brand much more.   The amount of research that goes into each product design and the innovative technology details blew me away.  It was a great experience to see and hear about product development in that setting.   Next thing you knew it was lunch time.   

After lunch we were broken up into groups where we also got to see and offer feed back on new prototypes.  This was my favorite part as a designer who loves to talk shop !  Most of the new products we got to preview won't be out until possibly 2015 !  SO I can't talk about what new great products they showed us.   But it was SO fun to be part of that .

(photo by Jennifer Duchene)  Liz Joy, Me  and Shane Inman

We also saw a lot of new product that just launched which I am able to talk about.  One of my favorite new Brizo faucets is the Charlotte.  The Cocoa Bronze and Polished Nickel finish is incredible.  This faucet is not only beautiful but is is eco friendly too. The spout features water-efficient, hidden laminar flow aerator and has a flow rate of 1.5 gpm versus Industry Standard ASME.A112.18.1/CSA.B125.1 of 2.5 gpm

This faucet is great because it has a classic foundation in terms of design which can be used in both a traditional setting or a contemporary setting depending on which finish you select.  It is "Opulent, Poised and Poetic".  The matching accessories are great too, check them out here.

Of course there is also the new and exciting Jason Wu for Brizo Collection for the powder room which is also another classic timeless design. Learning about their collaboration was very inspiring .  Both Jason Wu and the Brizo people are so passionate about their work and it really shows in their product.

Okay, So after the brand and product sessions, Brizo generously gave us all a Kitchen Faucet !  Woo Hoo !  I can not wait to install mine.  I picked the Solna Faucet by Brizo in Stainless for my kitchen .  This is also one of their new products which features a completely new “hidden” pull-down spray wand held in place with MagneDock™ Technology, allowing Solna to maintain its clean, modern form when the wand is docked .
 But wait , that's not it.....it also has SmartTouch® Technology  which lets you turn the water on or off just by touching any part of the handle or faucet. It’s more sanitary, and it lets you save water by stopping it momentarily when your hands are full and you don’t want to reach back and manually turn the handle.  I LOVE this feature.  And hey guess what....Brizo is so awesome, they took us to Sur La Table to experience these faucets first hand while enjoying a cooking lesson.  This was such a treat !  We made pasta, got dirty, used the Smart touch faucets and ate our delicious creations.



In Photo on Left : Lisa Smith, Lisa Ferguson and Carrie Leskowitz getting into suburbans, we were rolling deep!

 In Photo on Right: Cooking with Friends Jennifer Duchene, Shane Inman , Carrie Leskowitz and me.

   

 

Of Course a NYC trip is not complete without a little sight seeing, so a couple of my new designer friends and I got a little fresh air every night by stepping out to the BIG City where I even enjoyed a little slice of NYC pizza !  Yum.

View From Top of Empire State Building 

Sharing this experience with the 18 other designers , bloggers and architects was a gift in itself.  We have made some amazing connections and these new friendships are sure to last a lifetime as will the memories from this trip.  I posted a lot of pictures on our Twitter and our Facebook page too, so be sure to follow us and check those out.
And Just when you thought it couldn't get any better !  Stay tuned for Part 2 .....Wait till you hear about the Third day : Jason Wu Fashion show, after Party and much more !