While we all wait patiently for Reese Witherspoon’s store, Draper James to open, we found this article just published in Garden&Gun where she talks more about the store, the south, and grandmothers.
Tell me about the genesis of Draper James.
I started this for many reasons. First, because I was being approached by Northeastern brands to represent them and I thought, I don’t know anything about the Northeast. I don’t even go there very often. [Laughs.] Then, two years ago I was shooting a movie in Atlanta, and I noticed this boom of cultural growth in the South: in food, music, art, fashion. I saw something similar in New Orleans and other places. I feel like a lot of people who left the South are moving back and bringing with them everything they’ve learned from living elsewhere.
You source and develop much of your line in the South. Your denim is sewn in Blue Ridge, Georgia; your linen pillows in Savannah.
Southerners have such pride in their work. I was tapping into a community that already existed. I started the company myself and funded it myself so I wouldn’t have to do what someone else wanted. My goal was to create a retail experience that spoke to Southern people. I feel like Southerners have their own unique sense of style, and I wanted to be a part of telling the story of what it means to be a contemporary Southern woman.
You’ve always been a bit of an ambassador on that front.
My mother always said, “If you want to get something done, ask a Southern woman to do it.” It’s so true. No matter what you need, within twenty-four hours it has gotten done. The last movie I shot in Georgia, I couldn’t find summer camps for my kids. And I asked one friend, the phone tree happened, and before the day was over I not only had a camp but also women volunteering to drive and pick up the kids. It’s incredible how Southern women take care of each other.
That care often extends to appearance as well.
Yes. Every Southern woman I meet is always so pulled together. I’m just saying you don’t see a Southern woman standing in the airport in sweatpants. You just don’t. Even when they are stressed and their kids are swarming around their legs, they do things with grace. It’s how we were raised. We all have those lessons of what your mother or grandma told you was “appropriate” or “attractive.” That idea is quintessentially Southern.
So much of what you’re doing with Draper James seems to get at that nostalgia and sense of wanting to preserve the past.
You can travel to so many places where you only see the same things, but you go to the South and you always experience something unique. It has identity. And in a world where anything goes, sometimes it is nice to have a sense of respect. Events and occasions you need to dress for. It’s about honoring the history of the people who came before you and created these traditions that became the cornerstones of our culture.
Read the rest of the interview at Garden&Gun magazine.
Reese Witherspoon Opens Store in Nashville
