When I started WIW my husband & I were sailing around the islands, dropping in at the resorts and visiting the buyers. It was a slow mode of transport, but slowly it grew. After a couple of years, I realized a lot of the Caribbean buyers were going to Orlando's Surf Expo to buy for their next season, so I decided to try that. Then mysteriously, I started to sell to stores in USA... that came as quite a shock to me, as I hadn't expected that. For many years I had Lauren selling in FL and another company selling up in New England, but we had no stores and no representation in what I called "the middle part of the East Coast". Ann Jones came to us just last year, and wow what an instant impact. All of a sudden, our Anchor Hoodies were SOLD OUT. ha ha Welcome to the team Ann ! Here is the Anchor Hoodie which I ran out of so quickly, because quite honestly I got caught out !
However, this story is about Ann, not the Anchor Hoodie.... it's just that Ann caught me out on that one. Ann has been in the clothing business right out of college. She started off with a department store based in NC, and made such an impact there, that she was made Buyer within a year! She then met her husband Ed, fell in love and got married, which took her off to another Department store based in SC and NC. Ann was with this company for many years and her last position there was buyer of Designer, Bridge & European Sportswear.... yes she was one of those buyers watching the fashion shows in Paris, London & Milan. Fashion doesn't get any more glamorous than that !
Ann had 2 lovely baby boys, and she always worked as Buyer as she raised her boys. She is a momma number one, and most of us mom's can relate to that. Here she is with one of her babies.
Her boys are now grown up. Her eldest Chris, graduated from law school (where he went at night while working at a super intense job on Capitol Hill) and he just got married last year. Here they are on his wedding day. His younger brother Patrick was his best man.
Patrick, Ann's younger son performed last year on the main stage at the Geary Theater in San Francisco where he played a major part in the play The Christmas Carol. He has graduated with an MFA in Acting at The American Conservatory Theater, and has now moved to New York. It sounds like Ann's boys have inherited her work ethic! Here they are hiking Kauai together just last year before the wedding.
After all those years as a buyer, a good friend of Ann's was resigning a line and told Ann to call the owner and convince him to hire her. Ann told her she could not do that, but she was told strictly to do it anyway. She did, he hired her and the rest is history. Ann loves what she does, she loves her accounts and I think her buyers really trust her. After all she did what they do for 36 years. This stuff is in her DNA.... she could actually sew before she could read ! Ok one more photo of them all in Hawaii together.
Funny that when I asked Ann to send me information for this blog, her information included more about her husband & boys, than herself.
I called Ann from Dallas as I was preparing to fly back home to Australia last month, and she was working hard, packing her samples and preparing for a big show in Atlanta the next week..... but while she was at it, she was doing her son's laundry, as he was in the middle of his move to NYC. Made me laugh to myself, as it doesn't matter how busy us mom's are or how big our kids get, we always have time to help our kids, and they will always be our babies.
Family first right. One Love Ann, so happy to have you in our family x