Magazine Street is a well known shopping destination and there are always some stylish New Orleanians scoping out what’s new in stores.This week we head back uptown to soak up the scenery and the styles.
Month: June 2011
One of the things that I enjoy most about summer is packing away my constricting closed toe shoes for a few months and giving my tootsies some room to breathe. I love these wooden wedges that I recently purchased, they feel less clunky and heavy than my normal “goes with everything” black heels. Taupe is such a great shade to complement a variety of pieces in my summer wardrobe so I know I’ll get a lot of use out of these.
Check out the other lovely Southern Fashion Bloggers for their favorite sandals and what they will be wearing all summer long.
Beauty Unmade
Fashionably Meg
Where Sexy Meets Classy
I’m rather excited to give y’all a sneak peek of what I will be wearing for a bloggers feature in the Times Picayune! Every month the newspaper puts out a monthly style magazine Wish and I’m thrilled to be featured in it for a second time! Along with five other bloggers I will be sharing my must have summer items and I can’t wait to see the final product in July.
This guy might look familiar to some of y’all.
Yup, that is in fact my husband, Thomas shopping in the French Quarter for some new summer clothes. Where’d he stop? Gnome, French Connection, UAL, and Urban Outfitters were all on the list. Guys are you looking for some men’s clothing stores in New Orleans? Check out my uptown and downtown men’s shopping guides on Go NOLA.
Pictures and text by Christy
In the summer time it is so hard to look presentable when the humidity and the temperature are battling it out for who has the highest digits. Suddenly a tank top and shorts seems like the only viable option, and even a leather sandal seems too heavy. Ladies and gents, summer in the south is a constant battle, and the only way to win is by stocking your closet with cotton and linen pieces that will help see you through to Fall.
I bought this 100% linen dress but needed to find a slip to go under it since it is completely sheer. I might be a little daring, but I’m not THAT daring. The sherbet slip is a fun alternative to a neutral underpinning and I like how it changes up the hemline of the dress. It’s also amazing how good my hair looked on this day. My big secret? I showered then slept on it then ran a pick through it to get the knots out. So why is it when I actually try to fix my hair that I can’t achieve perfectly wavy tresses?
Dress: Flax, Gae-tanas
Slip: A Common Thread, Buffalo Exchange
Scarf: Gifted from Armoire Boutique
Shoes and cuff: Buffalo Exchange
If you are into bright colors and tribal prints than you’ll love what Sheridan French has to offer you. I don’t exactly remember when or how I discovered Sheridan’s blog, Southern Eclectic, but I remember anxiously awaiting for her clothing line to come out. Her aesthetic is bright and punchy, with a strong Eastern feel both in cut and the beautiful, saturated hues seem quite Indian to me.
Click through to read the full interview
First off I love how bright and playful all of the patterns you use are! Everything almost feels like resort wear. Can you tell us a little bit about your line?
I ran into Kate McNee at the June Freret Market. While everyone was wilting in the hot weather she really stood out in her neon vintage Hawaiian style dress. Kate makes these crazy good fascinators and tiny hats. I love how festive these little pieces of art are, perfect for anything from a quirky cocktail party or even a wedding. For purchasing info and her contact information click here.
I used to be quite the adventurous dresser. If y’all could see the crazy things I wore in high school you’d laugh and that’s okay because I thought most of it was funny too. I remember my favorite shoes well. I bought them in Belle Promenade mall (ain’t dere no more) and the year was, oh never mind the year they were baby powder blue and had the same sheen as a 1950s diner booth. Oh yea did I mention the stacked wooden heel with white trim? Jeffrey Campbell could probably sell them now and ladies would eat them up for breakfast, or brunch since this is a New Orleans based blog. If anyone from Jeffrey Campbell shoes wants to hit me up I’ll gladly describe them to you. I’ll even let y’all call them “The Christy.”
Anyway.
As a teenager growing up in the South back in the 90’s (there I said it) most of my classmates were pretty conservative and all I wanted to do was rebel and wear outrageous things for the sake of being different. I dress downright dowdy compared to the strange wardrobe choices I made in the springtime of my life. However sometimes you have to live a little and have fun, hence this little friend that I picked up at Freret Market last weekend.
The trick to wearing a whimsical outfit is keeping the entire getup in sync. Here I kept the color palette completely the same throughout with mint green and bright pink so everything tied in and made sense vs. making a hot mess. You can’t just throw on something silly with a pair of jeans otherwise it will look, well silly instead of fun.
Find out more about the company after the break.
Is there any one thing that made you decide to do this?
CARMIN – Before Founding HALF UNITED, I grew up in a home where giving back and fashion were placed as top priorities. My father was a minister, my mother an interior space designer for retail stores. I always loved both philanthropy and the fashion industry but never thought I could find a career that would combine the two seemingly unrelated worlds until I was accepted by TOMS shoes to be a part of their “Vagabond” program. It was my job to travel the country in a 15 passenger van (loaded down with TOMS shoes and other merchandise) with two other female team members to help spread the word about the TOMS One for One movement. At TOMS I learned how to correctly run a business that gives back. This knowledge combined with everything I lived through as a child made this type of business the perfect fit for my life. I love using fashion as my means of supporting a cause I truly believe in- eradicating global hunger!
I’d love to share some more inspiration behind the line. There is an obvious Native American influence with the designs, how did that come about?
DANIELLE – I honestly don’t know why, but I have always been drawn to clothing reminiscent of Native American culture. I love feathers , fringe, and the intricate patterns and colors seen in Native American prints. We all collectively thought that this would be a great theme that would work well for the guys and girls clothing collection. We weren’t even thinking if it was trendy or not, which turns out it is!
CARMIN – I feel the same as Danielle- I love the culture, the lifestyle, the feeling our designs give you that you’re somehow free. Two summer’s ago I worked with American Indian children from the Apache and Navajo Indian Reservations in Arizona and while I cannot say these children or their families ever wore feathers, or loud patterns, or any other thing we’ve used in our designs- I can say that they somehow felt like they lived life at a slower pace than the rest of us in the US, as if they were somehow more connected to the world around them. Of course this only my opinion based on my own personal observation- these people just seemed at peace- somehow I hope our designs speak that same message- to slow down and take a look at others around you- and in our case we are hoping that you will think of the child you’ve fed every single time you put on your HALF UNITED merchandise. Currently Native American inspired-design is on trend and while we were coming up with our line’s theme we really didn’t think about that, we just wanted to create pieces that we would love, and in doing so it turns out others feel the same.
Where do you see the future of the company going?
HALF is constantly growing and changing, the one thing that is constant is our mission to fight global hunger. We are fortunate to be constantly approached by numerous organizations and companies that want to partner with us. Our goal is to sell as many of our products as possible…THE MORE WE SELL, THE MORE KIDS WE FEED! In the future another exciting goal is to only work with sustainable fabrics and to give back specifically to the men or women who make our products. How awesome will it be if one day we are not only feeding children in need with every purchase made, but we are also taking an active role in creating sustainable employment and changing entire communities!? These are goals that we are not far from and will stop at nothing until they have been accomplished.
Will it expand past t-shirts or are y’all going to keep it nice and simple?
Yes, we plan to expand! We are actually in the beginning stages of designing our Spring/Summer 2012 collection. We hope to branch out from just graphic tees and include more complex styles and designs, yet keeping our price point and customers in mind. We will be debuting our Spring/Summer ’12 Collection at the Atlanta Apparel Trade show, happening in October of this year!