For today's Entrepreneur Highlight combined with a chic New York City office tour, we're excited to introduce you to Alle Fister. She is the Principal and Founder of Bollare Communications, a full service beauty, fashion and lifestyle communications firm. Alle began her career as an early employee at online retailer, SHOPBOP, where she headed the brand's communications- helping grow the business through a blend of traditional public relations efforts- print and broadcast - personally appearing on over 200 television segments. Fister forged thoughtful working relationships with the editorial community, as an early innovator to digital commerce publicity. The efforts were a success, and as Shopbop was acquired by Amazon, Fister bootstrapped her communications firm with Shopbop as her first client.
Today Bollare has over 100 clients across many facets of the beauty, fashion and lifestyle industries and has added scopes of innovation in contemporary digital media and a deep touch within the celebrity and editorial communities in an increasing world where cross-collaboration is emerging as vital.
Bollare’s 60+ person team operates between agency presence in Melbourne, Los Angeles, Tribeca and East London.
Fister lives in Playa Del Rey, CA with her husband, Don. They are both fans of the outdoors and the beach lifestyle! Together, they recently took on the big challenge of moving Bollare into a new office space in New York and renovating it into the what we're about to see today! But first...before we get inspired by all the decisions, details and everything in between the interior design of the space..
It's been 11 years since you began Bollare. What are some of the challenges as well as joys of being an entrepreneur?
The biggest joy is in building a team, creating a culture and opportunity for people who really want to get in there and create something cool! The challenge, oh man, there are so many...I have learned many lessons throughout my Bollare journey to date, and I will continue to learn many, many more...the path to grow and drive towards success is not a straight line, there are many twists and turns. One of the biggest challenges for me is to look at those twists and turns and try and extract the most powerful growth lessons and apply them, for myself and my team.
This makes complete sense and we're sure that Gray would agree with every word. Thanks so much for sharing as it's always inspiring for us as well as our readers to get a look inside the world of running your own business. And, we think it's safe to say that taking on one city is a large feet so cudos to you for stretching out on a global scale. With that said, lets check out the Tribeca pad!
Will you tell us a bit about the space? What you liked about it and why you felt like it'd work for Bollare?
When we first saw the space, we loved the location, the natural light exposures across two full sides of the building, the view to the cobblestone street, the overall volume (ceiling height)…but we had to push our vision as there were holes in the ceilings and floors, lead paint chipping, even a concrete ramp in the middle of the footprint…and don’t even get us started on the bathrooms…! We were really drawn to the industrial feel of the space (it’s in an historic building that was mainly used for manufacturing for most of the last century) and that vast airiness that’s so hard to find in New York – we just knew this was it!
Bollare has offices coast to coast, and a presence worldwide, it is important that while we’re building the DNA and amplifying the voices of our brands, that we too, cement our voice. Bollare’s style vibe is rooted in bold movement, aloha spirit and passion-evoking prints. This look spans not only our offices, but ideally all of the visual elements Bollare creates around the world!
We can certainly appreciate that over here at Gray Malin! Gray as well as all of us with Team GM want to Make Every day a Getaway and that starts as soon as you enter the studio, follow Gray on Instagram, see him at Neimans or any other touch point along the way. With that in mind, lets dive in and get the immersed Bollare experience!
Can we go room by room? Tell us everything...
Of course! The showroom and open office area are just that…open, bright and breezy, a space for our team, visitors and brands to enjoy the volume of our loft-like environment. This is also where I chose to hang ourAmalfi Diptych by Gray!
Well, we obviously love this part of the space! Before we move on, tell us more about why you chose this particular piece from La Dolce Vita?
I knew I wanted to include a Gray Malin print...but the hard part was...which one!?!
Bollare is an Italian word - it means ‘to brand’, ‘to put your stamp on’. My mother is Italian, so growing up, we would visit Italy, and it was always an amazing place of discovery for me. I like to think that is what we do with brands...help discover them and then put our stamp on and with them!
As Italy is such a special place, my husband actually proposed to me on this very beach as well…
So all of this...Gray Malin’s work, the beautiful beach, the Italian roots, the meaning of Bollare, my husband and I’s story...how could we not select this powerful print!
OK. LOVE that story! It's always so nice hearing the inspiration behind a person's selection of their Gray Malin print. Now that our heart is warm with all the feels...lets get back to the tour .
Haha! So glad you do! Don and I used to have it in our home, but it really felt right to have it in this brand new space. It's a fantastic quick escape whenever I walk past not to mention a wonderful conversation piece for first time visitors to the office. Moving into the rest of it, lets start with the VIP Lounge.
The styling of this areais meant to be graphic and fun, grounded by a more demure (by our standards) print on the wallpaper and monochromatic furnishings. This lets our contacts (bloggers, celebrities, stylists) have their own ‘living room-esque’ space to try on and play with clothing and garments, in an environment that feels relaxed and lets the product shine!
Our small group meeting room might be my favorite of the space. We opted for a bold, black-and-white bamboo print wallpaper from Chrisitan Lacroix. The chairs are vintage and styled with African mudcloth pillows from The Estate of Things. The table and side stools are from CB2 (and great for the budget!) and the room is completed with a chandelier from ALESSI.
The conference room celebrates the ceiling height we love so much in this space. Rooted with an oversized, beaded chandelier sourced through Anthropologie and our signature Fornasetti wallpaper, it’s a perfect example of the blend of sophistication and cool-kid vibe that we’re all about. We styled this room with prints from local NYC artist Knowlita. The metal conference table is from Restoration Hardware and was a favorite piece in our old showroom. It’s exciting to see this find a second life in our new office.
Wow! Very cool bathrooms! Do tell...
The foundation of the bathrooms are Ann Sacks tile floors and crushed glass walls, which we down-lit for effect. They are each papered with an eye-catching Christian Lacroix paper and styled with a mirror we found in Miami through Archiproducts and a copper sink sourced from Berlin from KARE Design.
And, as for the rest?
The executive offices embrace the industrial feel of the space, with metal and glass desks, but share our bohemian spirit accented with equipale chairs and styled with shearling throws .
The phone room is FUN – a papaya-patterned paper wraps the small space and an oversized wicker chair and ottoman are styled with indigo dyed pillows. We looked to create spaces for the team that are as fabulous as they are functional and spaces moments like these are an easy way to dial up the energy.
The photo studio is a raw space, with two industrial makeup vanities (which I love), designed for creatives and photographers to come in and utilize. Instead of walling off this room, we chose to incorporate a garage door (as with the VIP Lounge). It gives us more flexibility and light, and brings that industrial sensibility back into the space in a cool and purposeful way.
..and last, but not least, the entry! We created an ALOHA floor tile placard right off the elevator and custom reception desk with Porcelanosa slabs. The all white entry is boldly complimented with a living wall that dons a dual rocking chair in front !
WOW! We love everything about all of this Alle! Thanks so much for letting us into your space! It's always inspiring learning about how someone went after their goals and really made (and continuous to make) things happen...all the while doing it oh so chicly!
xx
Team GM