You never forget your firsts, that’s how the saying goes. And it’s so true! I remember my first customer, first Instagram follower, first reviewer and so on. Well this week another first is being added to my list; my first retail client, Shop 1990 in Houston, TX is now carrying my fragrance, Remember When in their store! I feel like a child on Christmas Day every time I think about it. And what’s unique about this new partnership is how our paths crossed.

I was at SAKS earlier in the year looking for a dress to wear to my launch party, and the dresses I kept taking back to the dressing room were the kind a person wouldn’t typically buy without a planned event in mind. The lady helping me was Daniela Casteneda (Shop 1990 owner). After the second trip to the dressing room she stopped me and said, “ Where are you going in these dresses?” I smiled and began to tell her my plans for launching my own fragrance line. She then told me she was planning on opening her own boutique shop and without hesitation said, “ I want to carry your product, when it’s ready.” I was speechless, I couldn’t contain my excitement, I started shrieking and hugging her over and over again. The cool part about this is she agreed to carry it without smelling it, or seeing the product. She was more captivated by the vision of the brand and how the brand got its start.

What is more wild about this story is that I was not supposed to be there! The office building where I worked at the time is attached to the Galleria Mall in Houston, and I took a break after multiple hours of data crunching. What was supposed to be a quick stroll through the mall turned out to be a destiny changer. Normally, I never walk into the stores (for obvious reasons) but this time I just happened to walk into SAKS, just happened to be in the section where Daniela worked, and it just happened to be her helping me out in the dressing room. It’s as if my footsteps were orchestrated.