Everyone is tired of hearing us talk about how busy we are. “How have you been?” “BUSY!”
I am trying to stop it.
Often it is my version of an apology for not getting back to people… just a weak excuse that helps me to rationalize. But I swear this time, I actually have been busy. Busier than usual.
We opened our Nashville store this past Saturday and it was just as much an eleventh-hour effort as always – that is, for ME! No matter how much prep I do, no matter how many superstars on my team are pushing me to make decisions and adhere to timelines, I am unable to fully finish any job until I am on the precipice of a deadline. Maybe there is some kind of Enneagram-style way of smoothing out or spinning this personality flaw, but it is equal parts procrastination and pride in being able to pull it off at the last minute. Unfortunately it is a thrill unlike anything else… although a lot of other people around me don’t experience it that way.
Just ask all my friends who were forced to jump in on the day of my daughters wedding. I had people pressing down moss at the end of a muddy patch in the yard, a group winding ribbons around programs, sewing-circle style. All dear friends who love me enough to know that it was always going to turn out this way, no matter how much warning I had. (To be fair, the wedding itself was pretty last-minute as I have passed this tendency down to my offspring! That same daughter has a baby coming in two months who does not have a crib. It will be fine.)
All in all, our Nashville store opening was a wonderful success thanks to our wonderful team. So many others around me actually do have the capacity to plan and organize, which enables me to breeze in at the last minute and do my “panic work.” We were at the store til 1 AM on Friday night doing finishing touches before opening on Saturday morning… I am still kind of on a high from it. If you are in Nashville, please go visit! It is our 7th city and I promise… it is kind of crazy great. I have loved getting to know this city in short bursts over the last few months, but that is how I feel about all of the places we have stores. Spend 36 breakneck, very fun hours in a city (most of them in a very fun store) and you, too, might fantasize about living there. I get to meet so many cool, wonderful women. I get to take a morning run in Central Park or the SMU campus or the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. And now Nashville is the latest setting for this fantasy. Everyone I have met there is so groovy and interesting.
After our late night at the store, Sid and I got to spend nearly all of opening day on the floor with customers. I was running on very little sleep but felt so jazzed to be wearing my very favorite getup of the season, starring our navy velveteen double-breasted jacket. I have been alternating between both pairs of matching pants – the pull-on Fayettes and the five-pocket Kendall jeans – and every time I wear the full suit I feel the same first-day-of-school thrill I remember from junior high. I was allowed like four or five new outfits at the beginning of every year and have never forgotten that rush of a fresh start. Every year, I’d go back and forth about which one deserved first-day status. This velveteen suit is it for me. The fabric is relatively flat and made of cotton, so it is more casual and easy to wear than a traditional silk velvet. It has the un-preciousness that is so core to my own style. Also in heavy rotation have been two more colors of the jeans – we made them in fantastic gold and green. Mallie who works on my team wore the chocolate pair last week and it made me want those too! How many is too many? I love pairing them with a menswear-style jacket as sort of a feminine version of the sport-coat-and-corduroys combo that is such a Sid Mashburn look… both the line AND the guy.
We have some really amazing tailored jackets on the women’s line this fall, including a beautiful camel hair flannel… another borrowed-from-the-boys, single-button style in a plaid wool. All three of these can be worn as a full suit with matching bottoms, but the jackets on their own can be the perfect thing to grab when you want to put more of a finish on your jeans-and-t-shirt look for weekends with sneakers. They can also be great over a short dress if you are a leg girl. This is the first season in a long time where I feel like I have found my groove with incorporating elements of Sid’s line into my own. He and I met when we were 24 and truly grew up together, so his style truly has influenced my own over the years. In all of my style experimentation, I always find myself with some kind of tomboy twist. Wherever you go, there you are!
You may not need a full velveteen suit. It is not for everyone. But anyone can get excited about finding an outfit that makes you feel excited about a new season and the way you show up for a big day. The look that makes you feel like an extra-good version of yourself. It makes me really proud when I see glimpses of that in other women and know that we can play a small role there. When I see women’s headshots on Instagram in our silk blouses, or our shirtdress on a sports commentator on ESPN during the US Open, or a congresswoman wearing our shoes for a national convention. Clothes are mostly just clothes, but they make us feel a certain way, and help us show up the way we want. Being able to provide a piece of that for women will never get old to me whether it’s in Nashville or New York or another city I haven’t been to yet. I know Sid feels that way too. Anyway, right now, the velveteen suit is it for me.
