Viva La Vera! Vera Bradley Open on Level 5 at Water Tower Place

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When walking into any Vera Bradley store, the customer greeted with a black and white photo of Barbara Bradley's mother Vera. Even walking into this high rise mall location, Vera greets us and welcomes us into her comfy home of paisley and plaid. Opened last week with a celebration hosted by Vera's previous owners (before the company went public last October). The store resides in a cozy corner on the fifth floor of Water Tower Place next door to Victoria's Secret and a skip away from Bare Escentuals.

As explained to us, each Vera Bradley store has their own piece of custom artwork specific to each store created by artist, Ira Yeager. In this Water Tower location it is a fitting portrait of Mrs. O'Leary's cow. Also in this location we tested out their big comfy plaid couch and got to explore the selection of new e-reader sleeves, luggage tags, passport covers, and heard that Vera will start making their own luggage. The luggage they sell now at all 41 Vera Bradley stores and in some of the 1,000,000 other retail locations worldwide is now made by Ricardo Beverly Hills using Vera Bradley's fabrics but has apparently found a new manufacturer.

As we're told, there are four new prints to be launched next week that are top secret. Although we weren't allowed to snap photos of them, we jotted down the names of the prints: Deco Daisy, English Meadow, Watercolor, and Viva la Vera. Upon further investigation we found some of these top secret patterns already revealed online so we no longer feel that special but if you absolutely need the new patterns, head over to Vera Bradley in Water Tower Place next Thursday when the new patterns become available for purchase.
· Vera Bradley [Official Site]
· Water Tower Place [Official Site]