I’m back in the States after a week+ in Guangzhou, China. Really enjoyed spending time with family and a very good friend, learning more about Dino Bebe “behind the scenes”, eating delicious food, and having some very important discussions about the past, present, and future of the business.

A few key takeaways were:

• My sister-in-law (and Dino Bebe head designer) is pregnant again with baby numero dos!!
• There are over 20 factories (albeit small) that produce Dino Bebe clothes. I was lucky enough to tour one and was shocked to see that every piece of clothing is hand-sewn by a person on a sewing machine. Really makes you think about where the things you use every day come from.
• After watching the entire fourth season of Mad Men on the looong flights, I am a total Don Draper groupie.
• The Chinese take an entire month off for lunar new year celebrations ~ something to keep in mind when making orders and creating delivery timelines.
• Chinese liquor and I are not friends.
• The social media blocks in China were actually kind of nice. I should really unplug more often.
• I need to learn some basic Chinese. English doesn’t seem to be widely spoken in Guangzhou and being completely helpless stinks.
• My brother is smart — like really, really smart. And ambitious. He has such huge, global plans for the brand and isn’t afraid to do what it takes to get there. With his wife designing the clothes and him at the helm, I see very big things in the future for Dino Bebe. :)