The hb Story

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Inspiration is all around – tucked into the most unassuming nooks of everyday life, and exposed in the wide open for the whole world to see. But to realize when an inspiration is staring you in the face, that’s what differentiates a creative-minded person from the rest of us. And when they feel that stare, creative talents have no choice but to thrust themselves into action. There is no holding back.

Hollywood Baby was born out of a fusion of ongoing inspiration, a creative upbringing and necessity. For Founder Stacy Flippen, this was a path she was ultimately destined to travel. And when she reflects on her journey, she is reminded that she is inspired daily and thankful forever to be able to pursue her passion.

When I think about the evolution of Hollywood Baby and go back to the inception of this company, I have to believe that the environment I grew up in played a big part in my being here today. My grandmother, "Doll," owned a women’s clothing store in Baltimore, MD. She was passionate about making the shop uniquely her own and traveled to Mexico seeking out unusual fabrics. The shift dresses and post-War fashions were far from ordinary. My father grew up above the shop – working there after school and on weekends. I’m not sure if it was by osmosis or actual training, but my father clearly gained a lot of creative talents from his mom.

As a young child I have great memories of spending lots of time in my father’s studio where he designed, built and sold furniture. I was a shop kid. But rather than being put to work there, I was allowed to build tents and forts from his scrap lumber and remnant fabrics. The more time I spent there, the more elaborate my creations. Alone in my little world, the freedom to create was a beautiful gift.
Just as my father was inspired by his mother, so too was I inspired by his creative pursuits. I loved seeing the process of constructing a sofa, but naively I believed everyone’s dad could build sofas. Later in his life, I was again motivated by my dad’s ability to evolve his business into the sophisticated world of selling and marketing furniture.

When I began Hollywood Baby, while I didn’t know it at the time, I was combining so much of what I had learned creatively with what I then realized was a true passion for design and marketing. Armed with this simple passion and the notion that children’s clothing should and could be better, Hollywood Baby has evolved into a thriving business today. With roughly 90 hostesses in 13 states, our custom business continues to grow, develop and seek inspiration.

Whether I’m here at home or traveling, I look for patterns and colors in everyday places. On an early morning walk, the new foliage of spring provides a source of inspiration for adding just the right bright green to a new collection. The vibrant, almost unnatural colors of the winter-blue waters in Palm Beach, FL inspires me to seek out that perfect aqua in my summer designs. The skyscrapers of New York City remind of the juxtaposition of scale. Following that trip, it’s no surprise that our applique designs became more oversized and dimensional.

Inspiration is all around. There are days when I sit in my office and as I try to work I become entranced, watching my girls spread out on the floor getting lost in their own little world. They cut fabrics and glue them to paper, sketch in a notebook, and design clothes for their dolls out of scraps. It’s a connective moment of many lives coming full-circle. As I watch, I am hoping that on some level, this means that they have been inspired. And where that inspiration may take them? Well, that’s only limited by their imaginations.