This time, it’s Reese Witherspoon, and she’s expanding her fashion and lifestyle brand, Draper James, from online into the physical realm.
Witherspoon told Garden & Gun that she first developed Draper James (named for her grandparents) because she “couldn’t find the sort of items I wanted anywhere else.” With the first brick-and-mortar Draper James store set to open in Witherspoon’s hometown of Nashville this fall, the Southern-centric style of the brand will physically debut in the very region whose spirit the company founder credits with inspiring the brand.
The Southern-style products in which Draper James trades — many of which, the Garden & Gun story points out, are actually sourced and developed in the South — include dresses, jewelry, engraved julep cups and embroidered linens.
“Southerners have such pride in their work,” Witherspoon remarked in her interview with the outlet. “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.”
“We’ll be located on a busy walking street in the 12South neighborhood, which is so exciting for me,” she went on to say. “When I was growing up, we had this amazing store in Nashville called McClures, which is closed now. I have so many memories as a kid of sitting there while my mom tried on clothes, running into everyone we knew while we shopped. I want to recreate that environment. A gathering spot where the mom brings kids in, and you drink sweet tea while you browse. That community. The charm of the old Southern department store feeling.”
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