Glam Slam: Southern Style – Postcards From Charleston, S.C.

I just got back from a trip back East to my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. As I shopped along King Street, the city’s quaint main shopping drag, I noticed a very big change… lots and lots of people carrying Forever 21 bags.

The chain recently took over a Saks Fifth Avenue store and if that’s not a sign of the times, I don’t know what is.

I am a huge fan of Forever 21 and happy that the affordable chain has made it’s way there and people will be able to look on-trend at accessible prices, but I’d also hate to see big business swallow up the local mom and pop places. And while the whole preppy thing isn’t exactly my own personal style mantra, I do recognize that it’s an integral part of Southern Style and I can appreciate how Charleston, in particular, has always embraced traditional styles.

You can count on seeing plenty of “Southern Gentlemen” dressed in seersucker suits and bow ties, while the women, often dressed to the nines, shine in their brightly colored print dresses.

Kourtney Kardashian’s very preppy beau Scott Disick would be right at home in Charleston. In fact, I saw a couple of guys in conservative navy blue jackets paired with brightly colored Bermuda shorts and loafers. I got a good chuckle when I saw a pair of pink men’s pants with embroidered martini glasses all over them in the window of M. Dumas & Sons, a family owned store where I bought my first pair of Levi’s in the 4th grade.

Not everyone is breaking out the madras plaid though and that’s what I also love about Charleston, it’s a college town, it’s a beach town, it’s a ladies that lunch town… there are all kinds there. I saw some very stylish people on the trip, like the two girls I met while shopping the annual Summer sale at Bob Ellis… a local institution that sells Christian Louboutin, Prada, Balenciaga and other designer shoes and bags. These two sisters, (pictured) were lovely and told me they were honored and thrilled to be singled out for their style and confessed that they had been “ogling” my outfit as well. (I had on a Vanessa Bruno dress I bought in Paris several years ago, Lanvin leather collar and Lanvin sandals paired with my strappy Alexander Wang bag.)

Over a group dinner one night with some of my childhood friends (aka my Carolina Gurls, pictured), one of them said something that struck me… “Other places change, but Charleston is not supposed to change.”

Maybe some of us Southerners are allergic to change, but as we all know, change is inevitable. Let’s just hope that it’s a slow, subtle transformation like the gentle ebb and flow of a Lowcountry saltwater creek and not some Hollywood style extreme makeover.