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CHANNELING CHARLESTON CHIC

Designers, bloggers and stylists are giving a whole new look to southern style
 

BY ALEX HAGG 

PHOTO COURTESY CHARLIE MAGAZINE

Jean Cocteau once said, “Fashion produces beautiful things, which always become ugly with time.” Indeed, the players in the fashion business are constantly cycling in and out of trends and always working full throttle to compete. For this reason, the slow, laidback pace of the Lowcountry is an unusual place for such an industry to be taking root.

            Charleston does have a great amount of talent in the form of designers, stylists, bloggers and retailers. But can the grit in a gentlemen’s gingham jacket, the haute couture at Hampden or the charm of Charlestonians’ chic clothing choices build a creative, thriving and competitive ready-to-wear market? 

            One of the biggest events that has brought the city to the forefront of fashion and stimulated the economy is the yearly showcase called Charleston Fashion Week. The spring runway show swarms with a crowd of around 7,500, including such notables as Fern Mallis, former head of New York Fashion Week and current Council of Fashion Designers of America executive director.

            Another fashion star is CFW founder and stylist Ayoka Lucas. She is a champion of the struggling fashion artist.  “I know the struggle as a creative,” she says. “I understand how it feels when you have something to say but no audience. So I believe in the emerging talent and in giving them a voice.” Emphasizing that New York Fashion Week has always been on her radar, Lucas made the CFW a reality with the help of Charleston Magazine.

            Fashion week has put Charleston on the map, giving such well-known southern designers as Carol Hannah, Charlotte Hess and Afriye Poku a springboard to the top tier of fashion in New York City.

            Brittany Lapin, the fashion blogger behind Southern Meets Chic, notes the difference between Charleston and New York fashion. “In Charleston, we tend to play it a little safer and keep things on the pretty side rather than the wild side,” she says. This could be a problem for southern designers as they try to infiltrate the northern fashion capital and popularize southern clothing with its consumer base, she adds. The progressive nature that fuels fashion down south, however, may surprise those who are expecting a preppy and pastel stereotype. “Everyone isn’t just walking around wearing Lilly [Pulitzer] and Jack Rogers,” Lapin says.

            Both Lapin and Lucas says there’s a unique street style to Charleston’s creative energy that is showing the rest of the fashion industry that southerners are now fusing the traditional attire of the south with a hip urban edge. This blend of style is one of ideas that inspired Lapin’s own blog, Southern Meets Chic. “My love is for combining classic styles with trendy pieces to create timeless, yet fashion-forward looks,” she says. “It also perfectly describes Charleston’s style aesthetic.”

            With the power of today’s blogosphere, fashion hopefuls anywhere can start a career in the industry and promote their city’s distinct way of designing and dressing. “Girls follow us and then want to buy what we post because of how we’ve styled it or portrayed it,” says Lapin. “We’re absolutely a huge influence on trends in the consumer; therefore we are also influencing designers and brands.”

            Fashion’s team of designers, bloggers, stylists and retailers are creating the new fashion industry for Charleston. “I think there is a culture of style in Charleston that is stronger than ever before,” Lucas says. With the progressive movement in Charleston’s creative community helping the business of fashion come into its own, the prospects for growth in sewing, selling and styling in the Lowcountry, not just for locals but for consumers everywhere, is more promising than ever before.

 

 

PHOTOS COURTESY SOUTHERN MEETS CHIC 

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