PURPLE BLAB

Yesterday in Tampa Glampa, a day before the big  HSN debut, my six-inch-heels and I were with Christine, the blogger behind Temptalia, who is a love and honey sweet, all day.

She has been capturing the behind-the-scenes look at what goes into launching a brand on this massive network. The day began with a tour where I discovered aspects of the network I had no idea about.

<——- There is an area designated for nothing but drop testing. They take a box of products in the exact packaging it would be shipped in (shipping box, the whole nine) and drop it hundreds – Nay! Thousands! – of times to make sure that the product inside isn’t damaged. All part of QC (quality control).  And speaking of QC, there is a room of washer and dryers where they do loads all day long to test all of the clothing – to see how well do the colors last after 10, 20, 30 washings, etc.

Below, an outdoor studio – with pool! – for lifestyle brands. Colin Cowie (love him!) often uses it. The campus is more than 60 acres. It’s like Disney World. A photo studio with four full sets and a dozen table top areas is used just for imaging used for HSN.com, mailers, collateral. OMG! – on the way to a studio, there’s a full kitchen where they bake all day in preparation for cooking shows (I nearly swiped a brownie).  I can go on…

We watched Susan Lucci doing pilates for her show – live. She is teeeny! I bumped into her as we left the guest area earlier today, actually. I tried not to stare. I didn’t succeed.

The day continued with meetings with the hosts I’d be working with on air to give them a quick training on the brand and products and so we could be comfortable with one another. this is Bobbi Ray Carter and me. She is darling and fun!

The lovely Amy Morrison for the first time – she is who I would be doing my first 9a.m. show with - and I did a dry run rehearsal on set with the models to get the feel of it all.

It was the first time I practiced – on my set! – with the IFB ear piece (which I nicknamed Jack Bower, who I am obsessed with BTW). At first, we had a fab Knoll Tulip table, my favorite iconic 20th century modern piece. But after seeing it through the lens, the behind the scenes powers thought it looked too newsroom-y. A high top table was brought in immediately. Still chic!

There’s a little runway, which I am obsessed with and there’s a model station for one girl at a time on the other side of it. Originally, we thought she would stand and when I went over to her, we’d play. But this is what it looked like with the height discrepancy. So we decided to seat them for the show. I was sickly nervous for the rehearsal. There were about 40 people in the room, overseeing it. Some were taking notes, which I, of course, assumed were all negative and about my doing a bad job. There was a little chaos at the time – there was no format sat… and we needed one… badly!

Enter Chelsea and Bob, who are my personal HSN coaches. I’ll go down that road tomorrow. Until then… stay tuned to tonight’s show at 8p.m. EST.

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

P.S. This is Todd and me on the set, kissing our dream!

Tags: Beauty, HSN, Makeup, Purple Lab

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 3:45 am and is filed under HSN, Karen Robinovitz, Launch, Purple Lab Behind the Scenes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.