Just A Walk in the Park

by Mmmitzi

*Wilfred shirt
*Zara jeans, jacket & boots
*Pyrrah necklace & own
*H&M/UNICEF tote bag

photos by mitzi figueroa

Oh Vancouver! Will the rain ever stop? Luckily it does, here and there. I was so happy when Mitzi and I got outside to see that there was actually a bit of sun after an afternoon full of heavy rain. Weather and timing were definatly on our side.

In those photos is an achievement that i’m absolutly proud of. It was a collaboration between H&M, Unicef and myself! Who would’ve thought that one of my drawings would be on an organic cotton tote bag sold in selected H&M stores across Canada with 25% of each sale donating to UNICEF’s Kenya Girls Scholarship Programme. It was an open competition across H&M Canada for employees. The only thing they requested was a piece of art (drawn, painted, or digitally done) that best represented the company. I thought i’d give it a go and who would’ve known that I, out of all submissions, would’ve won. I recieved the phone call from Emily Scarlett in June that I won and that in September they were going to fly me to Toronto for the launch of the bag. What a major plus; paid flight, paid hotel to a city I didn’t really have a clue about or been before. The only thing I had to pay for was food and shopping.

Well of course I couldn’t help but to googled myself about the bag and found out that the bag was an “item of the week” on flare.com. The bag was also featured on SoundBeatRadio.com, MamanPourLavie.com, FashWeekly.com, Dose.ca, StyleHog.com, NowToronto.com, BestHealthMag.ca, Blog.en.Chatelaine.com, LifestyleOntario.ca and Slice.ca.

On September 2nd 2009 the launch of the bag was held at H&M on Bloor. It was a lovely meet & mingle with breakfast (not really breakfast, all the catered food was dessert.) I also brought my portfolio just in case! I was interviewed by Verve Girl and met people from Unicef. Emily and Karen loved my portfolio so much, I honestly didn’t even have to mention that I brought it. Christopher Sherman of Fashion Television looked at my portfolio and “loved it” that he invited me back to Fashion Television Studio to meet Jeanne Beker that evening. My heart stopped right there and I wanted to scream.

So that evening I strolled along Queen Street, went to the studio, met Jeanne Beker and she looked at my portfolio. I honestly didn’t really listen to what she said only because I was in complete awe that she was sitting in front of me. I just kept saying inside my head “Oh… my… god.”