My Superstylin* post about JADEtribe is featured on this week's Independent Fashion Bloggers Links à la Mode. Kimberly Hartman has given me guidance over the years and provided entrepreneurial inspiration. I look forward to watching her company grow and thrive in the future.

Be Authentically You! // Edited by Fajr of Stylish Thought

The IFB conference is over and the dust is finally settling. After a day of being immersed in the power and study of blogging, I’m left thinking about what I learned from IFB this season. Without a doubt, the unequivocal theme was to blog and be authentically you. From building your blogging tool kit to balancing it all, being unique and putting what you love into the blogging space is the best method to lasting blogging success.

The IFB Weekly Roundup: LINKS À LA MODE: September 8th

Arash Mazinani: Are A/W 2011 Trends Uninspiring?
Britt + Whit: Ode to Summer
Bubbling with Elegance & Grace: Flawless- Sizing Concerns
Dress with Courage: A Woman’s Right to Shoes
Fashables: 4 Jackets you will love for Fall
Glamour Laws: Sunnies Side Up
Labels and Love: Why Eradicate Style?
Liv Lux Mag: DIY Band of Outsiders Inspired Skirt
Metaphors in Blue: Five Fabulous Things Every Girl Needs
Modly Chic: Fall 2011 Fashion Trends
One Outfit at a Time: 10 Signs You’re a Raging Shopaholic
Small Town Big Wardrobe: Four Red Lipstick Reviews
Style Through Her Eyes: Watch Those Lips
Stylish Thought: Life Lessons to a Younger Self
Sugar and Spice: Your Relationship with Shoes
Superstylin*: JADEtribe on a Global Quest
The Fashion Edition: Memoirs of a Geisha
The Loudmouth: Look Living the Dream
The Style Project: Modern Vintage
Woodstock Wardrobe: Classic Closet- Penny Gac

After years of working on the fashion frontline and travelling back and forth from Los Angeles, New York and Paris, Kimberly Hartman set off on a global quest and returned having found her passion. The result- JADEtribe, a line comprised of handcrafted jewelry, clutches and handbags. During a stay in Laos, Hartman found herself in a weaving village and the pieces began to fall in place. In an effort to help the women in the rural crafting community, she purchases the handwoven textiles at a fair price and, in turn, hires women at a fair wage to sew the goods. Hartman now returns three times a year to design and oversee production.

Hartman considers herself a spring/summer gal and JADEtribe's fall collection is an extension of the spirit of spring, just warmer and cozier. The brand's focus is still heavy on travel- whether it is Aspen or Jackson Hole to ski or snowboard or a warm weather getaway to Bali for the holidays. The handwoven Laos textiles used a white warp for spring. The fall styles use a black warp and take on more of a Native American or South American Aztec feel. "It is quite surprising how rural ethnic tribes all over the world have similar aesthetics" says Hartman.

Other faraway destinations at the top of Hartman's list to travel to and source from include South Africa and Bali. "Africa needs so much help that if I provide sustainable incomes for women there, it would be amazing." JADEtribe's tagline to "dream, imagine, explore, discover, inspire, love, grow, share" is more of a mantra: Dream your dream, imagine what you can create, discover people and ways of achieving your goals, inspire others along your journey, love freely and love what you do, grow as a person spiritually as you grow your idea, company and brand, and share your story and experience with others.

JADEtribe is set to launch e-commerce on the company's website very soon. Hartman is excited about the online store since it will allow her to offer more one-of-a-kind items crafted from rare recycled textiles which are impossible to wholesale as the quantities are too limited. Plans to expand the JADEtribe offering and include apparel are definitely in mind. Hartman wants to do sexy beach dresses and envisions a JADEtribe version of a caftan. Her travels continue around the globe in search of the right group of women to work with on her next venture.

Please visit JADEtribe on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.