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Guest Post: Cavortress

I’m out at sea this week, so while I’m cruisin’ around Mexico I’ve got several lovely ladies taking the blogging reins for me. Let them know how much you like their posts by leaving words of wisdom in the comments. See y’all when I get back and sadly no, my pasty white self won’t be bringing back a tan.







My name is Julie Wheat and I am the owner, founder, and designer at Cavortress that was recently featured in Slow Southern Style’s last guest post, by Katie Kozar Thompson featuring a wedding dress I that designed and created for her.  When Christy offered to have me do a guest post for January, I was totally excited  to share more about Cavortress with SSSreaders.  In fact, Mrs. Kozar Thompson’s dress was our first ( and pssst….we want another bride but we can only handle one a year!).



Cavortress is a Charleston, SC based company known for designing swim and resort wear known for offering ‘conspicuous classics perfect for fun the in the sun’.  This is our first year manufacturing our products that will be available at Hampden Clothing, which has been named by both Town & Country and Coastal Living as one of the top shopping destinations in the South.  Cavortress can also be found at the well known Southern chain Monkee’s , and on our website www.shop.cavortress.com and at Austin’s SXSW event in March.  Our swim and resort wear features prints that I designed and fabric and hardware imported from Italy.  Not to mention, and all of our products are made in the United States.  Cavortress swim and resort designs are inspired by the number of requests we received from or vintage clothing clients over the years for vintage swimwear.




Excerpt from Cavortress vintage campaign ‘Sugar and Spice’ featured at 2011 SXSW’s STYLE X event. Photoraphy: Cyle Suesz.



More than a decade later, Cavortress vintage has expanded to sell clothing to a number of private clients including Charleston Magazine’s Style Director and brains behind Charleston Fashion Week, Ayoka Lucas; runway coach and former model (for Armani, Vivienne Westwood, and Clairol) Michelle Wood who was

recently seen on MTV’s True Life, as well as a number of radio and television personalities and musicians including second time Grammy nominee Spencer Chamberlain of Tampa’s Underoath and his girlfriend for their attendance at the 2010 Grammy Awards.


Our vintage fashions are also available at a number of independent boutiques in the South (including House of Sage and Rogue Wave Surfshop) throughout the South where we carefully curate monthly ‘mini-collections’ based on the boutique’s clientele. The Cavortress ‘Great American Vintage Collection’ will be
shown at SXSW’s second STYLE X event in Austin, TX March 15 and 16 along side of our swim and resort collection. Shoppers can expect to find hand knits, silks, woven wools, cottons, plaids, leathers, as well as strong American brands like DKNY, Pendleton, and Levi’s, including some that don’t exist anymore like Campus Casuals, I. Magnin, and Bleeker Street. Fashions featured in the Cavortress ‘Great American Vintage Collection’ have been plucked from thrift shops, auctions, and private collections across the country from Sioux City to Palm Beach, Honolulu to Salt Lake, Huntsville to Galveston, and San Francisco to Buffalo. This year vintage jewelry will be included. The 2012 advertising campaign for the ‘Great American Vintage Collection’ is being photographed this month with Tout Talent’s Madeline Cimone. 

In addition to designing swim/resort wear and placing vintage fashions, I most recently worked with TBA Productions and Seamless Pictures on the full length feature horror film, III, as a producer, wardrobe designer/supervisor , and as the effects assistant. Principal filming wrapped in December and the movie is currently in post production. The III team is excited about entertaining purchase offers from a number of studios and distributors. Being new to the film industry, it was thrilling to read a script, meet the actors, and make decisions about how to curate the character looks, not to mention figuring out how to
manufacture practical effects for an impalement, human gutting, and amputation. III unearthed totally new applications of my talents that I look forward to using again soon!



Cavortress working on special effects for Robert Dough, lead actor in III who will also appear in HBO’s East Bound and Down this February.


It has been fabulous to grow as a part of the Southern fashion community in a number of capacities and Cavortress is excited about the future. We hope to meet y’all soon!



Cavortress and quality control manager/husband at Bonnaroo 2011.

-Julie










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