This first year at Stripe has flown by. With the prod­uct and store lay­out always chang­ing, Stripe’s back­wall makeover every sea­son is some­thing we all look for­ward too. Here’s a look at all of the chang­ing col­ors and themes the Stripe wall has seen yet…

When we opened in Spring, the wall was a fresh coral…

When Sum­mer came, we turned the wall a stun­ning teal!

For Fall a murky green went up…

For the Hol­i­days we had glam­our in a glossy black with sil­ver­ware snowflakes!

And for this Spring we have bright tis­sue flow­ers cov­er­ing the wall…

We look for­ward to another great year, and many walls to come!

Here are a few behind the scene shots of the Stripe girls from pho­tog­ra­pher, Dina Scoppettone’s photo shoot.

This week’s Santa Cruz Weekly “Van­ity Issue” came out March 3rd, fea­tur­ing Stripe’s cloth­ing. The mod­els were Stephanie Crocker, and Stripe girls Julianne Cas­tro and Leda St. John, and the photo shoot was styled by Stripe’s own, Julianne Cas­tro.  All pho­tos were taken by the tal­ented local pho­tog­ra­pher, Dina Scop­pet­tone.  Although only a hand­ful of pho­tos were cho­sen for the issue, Julianne coor­di­nated two lovely photo shoots, one with cover girl Stephanie Crocker, and another with her and Leda.  

The arti­cle can be viewed at: http://www.metrosantacruz.com/metro-santa-cruz/03.03.10/feature-1009.html

Here’s a peek into the issue and both photo shoots.

The First Fri­day of each month we host the work of a local artist here in the store.  For the month of March we will be feau­tur­ing local artist, Roberta Lee Woods. Local restau­rant Drunk Mon­keys will be cater­ing the event with yummy appe­tiz­ers. This event will also be ben­e­fit­ing Haiti.
 

Who: Roberta Lee Woods
 
What: First Fri­day Art Recep­tion, Stripetini’s, and bites by Drunk Mon­keys
 
When: March 5th, Fri­day 5-9pm
 
Where: Stripe — 107 Wal­nut Avenue (Next to Soif and across from Wal­nut Ave Cafe)
 
Why: Why not!? Great Crowd, free drinks, amaz­ing art. Come and sup­port local artists and design­ers.
Artist State­ment:
Title: Reclaimed Books
Medium: Encaus­tics
 
This recent body of work is the result of a long strug­gle to com­bine mixed media
with parts of books. My inter­ests have always been in sur­faces and how to
manip­u­late their tex­tures. I have been exper­i­ment­ing with the com­bi­na­tion of
wax, books, fire, and bind­ing to form a unique syn­the­sis of ele­ments. The
reassem­bled parts coa­lesce as a new poetic form.
 
Cause: HAITI RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT
On Jan­u­ary 12, a series of earth­quakes with mag­ni­tudes rang­ing from 6.5 to 7.3
dev­as­tated Haiti. The Amer­i­can Red Cross is work­ing with its part­ners in the
global Red Cross and Red Cres­cent net­work, includ­ing the Hait­ian Red Cross, and
other part­ners to assist those affected by this dis­as­ter. 10% of all art sales will go straight to
the Amer­i­can Red Cross and will sup­port emer­gency relief and recov­ery efforts to help those peo­ple affected by the earth­quake in Haiti. Assis­tance pro­vided by the Amer­i­can Red Cross may include deploy­ing per­son­nel, send­ing relief sup­plies, and pro­vid­ing finan­cial resources.

March 13th will mark our 1 year anniver­sary! How could it be that a year has already gone by since we opened our doors to the Santa Cruz com­mu­nity?!  We would like to thank all of our Stripe friends for sup­port­ing us through our first year! It has truly been a blast being a part of the down­town com­mu­nity. In cel­e­bra­tion of a great first year, Hulas Restau­rant in down­town, off of Cath­cart, will be serv­ing our sig­na­ture cock­tail The Stripetini, from March 5th-11th! Make sure to go in and grab one for the anniver­sary fes­tiv­i­ties! Again, thanks every­one for a great 1st year!

Dita Von Teese was spot­ted rock­ing these super­cute Melissa flats by Vivi­enne West­wood. Com­ing in our sec­ond Spring Ship­ment we cant wait to add this cute peep toe, leop­ard print bow style to our Spring wardrobes!

Twice in two months have our beloved Mar­ket Tee’s been fea­tured in Vogue! Shown on Daria Wer­bowy in this months issue. We’re so pleased that the big fash­ion world is catch­ing on to our favorite, amaz­ing boyfriend tees, tanks, etc… Vam­piress actor Kris­ten Stew­art was also spot­ted in one of these super-chic, comfy, rebecca bee­son Mar­ket  Milla bf tees dur­ing an inter­view for “The Yel­low Hand­ker­chief”. Good thing tons of them just arrived at Stripe, so come in and grab one because these tee’s fly out of the store! We LOVE Market!

Bholu/boll-loooo/adj.  1. descrip­tive of naive and free artis­tic expres­sion 2. a term of endear­ment and affec­tion towards a small child. Ori­gin: Katchchh, Gujarat, India.

The amaz­ing Bholu prod­ucts are brought to life by the hands of tra­di­tional Indian arti­sans. Each piece is hand made using ancient tech­niques, giv­ing each prod­uct its own unique and orig­i­nal per­son­al­ity. By using their tra­di­tional skills, the arti­sans gain an income, hence inde­pen­dence and opportunity.

Bholu is a Fair trade com­pany and Cli­mate Neu­tral Com­pany and pro­ceeds go back to the women and their com­mu­ni­ties, along with fund­ing edu­ca­tion facil­i­ties and other pro­grams for under­priv­i­leged chil­dren 

Build­ing angan­wadis (pre-schools) for under­priv­iledged chil­dren, giv­ing the arti­sans who hand make these prod­ucts inde­pen­dence and income anre just two rea­sons that make Bholu prod­ucts so great. Any­way, what’s not to love about these unusual hand­made crea­tures? Their bright col­ors and funny look bring end­less joy, and are made with a cause in mind.

Their cute crea­tures like “Quin­ton” the giraffe, “Mar­jorie” the duck, “Fred­er­ick” the ele­phant, and “Felix” the frog, are just a few of the great stuffed ani­mals inspired by the chuil­drens draw­ings from the Anganwadi’s. 

Stop by Stripe to pick up your Bholu, or give them as a gift to the young­ster in your life. ($52-$60)

88 Orange’s sweet fresh blos­som scent embod­ies the sim­plis­tic lifestyle, beau­ti­ful beaches, and agri­cul­ture that is Orange County. Their name, refer­ring to the ideal size of an orange picked for mar­ket epit­o­mizes the areas nat­ural agri­cul­tural beauty, and “home­grown appeal”. One whiff of their fresh scent  infused with lilac, cit­rus, tan­ger­ine, and water lily and you’ll feel like you’re walk­ing through orchards of oranges and fresh flowers.

The line was cre­ated in 2007 by Andy Drake­ford and Heather Artuko­rich. Between the two of them a col­lec­tion with hints of euro-chic and Cal­i­for­nia casual came together, 88 Orange. Their mouth water­ing fra­grance can be found in their won­der­ful nat­ural prod­cuts. Spritz on their Eau de Par­fum $55, before brunch with the girls. Light their Soy Wax Can­dle $32 to brighten up your space, even on the gloomi­est days. Infuse your clothes and lin­gerie with their amaz­ing Fab­ric Soft­ener $16. All of  these can be found at Stripe.

You’ll fall in love all over again every time you use one of their divine cit­rus cre­ations. Stop by Stripe to pick up any one of their products!