Michelle is an extremely talented and original designer with an instinctive feel for the lingerie market. Her idea to take design inspiration from Playboy's 1950's Bunny Girls proved to be a massive success with customers and ultimately resulted in Michelle designing and developing the 'Bunny Lift Bra' to recreate a similar look and cleavage of the original Bunny Girl costume.

During her time at BCI, Michelle used her out going personality and infectious enthusiasm for lingerie design to build extremely strong relationships with colleagues, Playboy management in the USA, key suppliers and factories as well as buyers and retailers. She would be a great asset for any lingerie team and we are sad to lose her from ours but hope to work with her again in the future once she is up and running with her new freelance business.

We wish her the very best of luck for the future!

Neal Futcher
Managing Director
Branded Clothing International Limited

Michelle is a lovely person and a brilliant businessperson :-)! x

LAST DAY OF VOTING BUTTERFLIES

First of all I want to say how overjoyed I am about the sunshine! Had lovely weekend with lots of fun family time!

Well today is the last day of voting and I have little butterfly feelings within my stomach!

The last few weeks since being chosen as one of the finalists have been amazing. I just want to say thankyou to the team at ifwecanyoucan and also to Chris and the editors of the Hartlepool Mail. All of whom have been great and really helpful and supportive.

I would also like to say thankyou to Stuart Drummond and Jaki Savage for their continued help and support too and for organising my meeting with the Enterprise team at Brougham Terrace Hartlepool. Mick Emmerson and Andrea have been great and helped me realise that Im not on my own in this!

Good luck everyone

looking forward to seeing you all soon

Michelle is a fab person who deserves to win the competition, I may be being a bit bias as she's my beloved older sis, but I really want her to win. She spends a lot of her time helping others and would love her to recieve the same support she gives others.

Leanne Taylor

Freelance ups and downs

DEADLINES

what a week last week was! I seemed to have two deadlines looming on me which meant no social time for me at all! I'm not complaining as the feeling I get when I've finished a good project is second to none.I feel so chuffed if not wiped out!!

 One project was lingerie for the U.S for my colleague in Hong Kong and the other was prints and creative graphics also for the states too.

Very different but both needed lots of creative energy!

I loved doing both projects and have been working on and off on them for the last few weeks.

..thankfully I  managed to get away at the weekend to the west coast of Scotland which was just what I needed..lots of beach walks, good food and a bit of dancing!

MAYOR MEETING

Had a really good day Monday too when I met with the Mayor of Hartlepool, Stuart Drummond to talk over my plans for the business and tell him all about the if we can you campaign. He was so helpful and is already on the case setting up meetings for me in order to get the most help I can from Hartlepool council. He seems to really care about the people of Hartlepool and wants to support new businesses in the area.

HARTLEPOOL MAIL BEEN AMAZING

There has also been some positive activity on the press front with the Hartlepool Mail being stars and very supportive of myself and Les too. There has even been a few lingerie boutiques contact me via the Mail to learn more about the range and my plans!!Thanks Chris for passing on details.

see links to read the articles.

All in all its been a bit of a roller coaster this week as waiting on some folks to pay invoices and trying to gently remind them without seeming like a stalker! 

I must say though the feeling that I have being in charge of my own future and my own destiny is something that Im thriving on. Been to a fabulous Marketing seminar hosted by pulse creative marketing that found inspirational too.

I'm off to the Sunderland Uni Blueprint awards tomorrow with my friend Shirley who is a finalist in the Creativity section. So will be cheering her on a well as Chooba I think! Good luck to you both!

Right I best get on... as this afternoon Im going to do some C.V and promotion packs to send out to potential customers.

thanks everyone for votes so far and lovely messages...anytime Im fretting and worrying I read them and it spurs me on!!

x

Michelle is as an inspirational entrepeneur. She is far better looking than Richard Branson but I believe she has the same entrepreneurial spirit.

Mave Wilson

Michelle is a truly amazing designer and an
inspiration to other people. Her personality radiates in every room
she enters and is a pleasure to work with.

Shirley Anne Wood

I'm one Lucky Lady; A myriad of Entrepreneurialism under one roof

Happy Bank Holiday weekend everyone
Well......... Thursday I was invited as part of getting through to the final 14 to the
Progressive Entrepreneurs conference at the Hilton Hotel In Newcastle.........
and what an amazing day it was and may I just take this opportunity once again to thank Stephen/Hazel and Audrey for this fabulous opportunity and for looking after us all so well.

I must admit my initial feelings when I boarded the 7.30 am train from Hartlepool were of anticipation mixed with bubbling excitement. This is strange as I have had to some scary experiences in my career over the last few years presenting to large groups of high profile buyers/directors Internationally. However the thought that I was entering an arena where the majority of attendees are already hugely successful in their chosen domains was quite daunting.
I know my market and I know my product area but the world of business is a whole new arena for me! I think it might be because as well in the past I have been representing a brand and now I'm representing ME!! Nothing to hide behind.

Once there I shouldn't have worried as all finalists were made to feel so welcome.
Can I also just say that it was a great honour and pleasure meeting the other finalists and sharing their visions and enthusiasm. Good luck everyone.

My highlights of the day were meeting the beautiful Elle Mcpherson and hearing her inspirational story. It brought me close to tears as she described how she managed to drive her career down the path that she knew she had always wanted. As I feel like I'm at the beginning of a similar journey.




I also loved meeting the charismatic Sadie the bra lady who has promised that she will give me advice when it comes to launching my larger sized range. I will definitely trial the line with her at development stage. Her husband is a lovely man too!;-)
Sir Harvey Goldsmith was an inspiration as he explained how he spots opportunities and chances and goes for them. True characteristics of a young entrepreneur I think.
This morning I lounged in the bath reflecting on all of the nuggets of creative wisdom that I was enlightened by and thought about how lucky I am to be part of this whole thing.

Michelle has created wonderful illustrations
and designs for our brand. Michelle is an absolute pleasure to work
with, and we appreciate her artistic, and creative expression of art in
the form of fashion.

Hey there everyone. My apologies for the lack of Blog action on my area!!

I wasn't sure how to use it as I've never Blogged before and now I know there will be no stopping me!

Just want to say a quick well done to the rest of the finalists. Wow...you're a passionate/clever bunch of people Made me feel all proud to be from the North East when I read all your profiles. It's good to hear how you are all feeling too as its quite an un-usual experience this setting up on your own lark. I go from high as a kite one day when I hear feedback from a customer to slightly panicky the next day when Im starting to worry about paying my bills the next month....

the test will be the end of May when Playboy don't send me a pay cheque ....eeeek

unless they forget I've left and pay me anyway!!Ha ha..I wish.

Well just want to say thanks for the comments and votes received so far. This kind of encouragement makes  me want to work all the harder to make you all proud!!

If anyone wants to add to this ..let me know and I'll give you the details.

am whacked today as I finished a design project for an american lady (hippie chic womenswear aimed at Hollywood) and it left me a bit drained. Don't know if other creatives can empathise with this....I put my heart and soul into these deadlines and then almost need to build up my battery power afterwards!

well we have the Entrepreneurs conference which Im honoured to attend tomorrow. How lucky are we!? All of those wonderful guest speakers to learn from. Very excited while also being a little nervous too. Im sure it will be great though. Im planning on taking in every bit of advice/info and inspiration I can get!

well I need to go now as I have some lingerie to design!!

keep in touch and thanks everyone again.x

Michelle

I vote for Michelle as I know she incorporates the CAN do attitude in her life.

I would like to vote for Michelle Taylor - I have seen her creativity and she will be a massive success.
Lana van der Westhuizen
ROSA Project Administrator

She is an inspiration!!!
Certainly deserves to win.

She's the business! I've never known anyone with the boundless enthusiasm and energy she has! It's literally spurting out of every pore!

Simon Pryce, Director
Skylight Media

I worked with Michelle when she was with Playboy Enterprises. She is a fabulous and innovative designer. I know her business is going to take off and blow up!! She is an amazing designer and deserves to win!

Best, Erica Paul Associate Design Director Playboy Enterprises

Having worked with Michelle for years on the Playboy lingerie, I’m well aware of her great talent and passion for what she does. I have no doubt she will succeed in her endeavors. Winning this competition will allow Michelle to get closer to achieving her goal of running her own business.

Thank you.

Cynthia Weisberg
Sr. Design Director (Product Licensing), Playboy Enterprises
NYC, NY USA

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