An exploration of trends, characteristics, and the national and international affect of modern Southern design and designers. This was the third of three fashion industry panels that were part of Lexus Nashville Fashion Week 2012. Panels were held on March 22, 2012 at the Frist Center for Visual Arts and were sponsored by Imogene + Willie. PANELISTS: Dana Thomas, Matt and Carrie Eddmenson, Phillip Nappi, Jamie Frazier, Hannah Jones MODERATOR: Libby Callaway, writer, author and media director of Imogene + Willie DANA THOMAS is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster" published by the Penguin Press in 2007 and is a contributing editor for “WSJ,” the Wall Street Journal’s monthly magazine. She began her career writing for the Style section of the Washington Post, and from 1995 to 2011, she served as a cultural and fashion correspondent for Newsweek in Paris. She has written for the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, the Financial Times, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Architectural Digest and Elle Décor and was the European editor of Condé Nast Portfolio. Thomas is a member of the Anglo-American Press Association in Paris and the Overseas Press Club. She taught journalism at The American University of Paris from 1996 to 1999. In 1987, she received the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation Scholarship and the Ellis Haller Award for Outstanding Achievement in Journalism. She lives in Paris. She has just completed three months as a writer in residence at the Savannah College of Art and Design, working on a new book. PHILLIP NAPPI is co-founder of the Italian hand made boot and shoe company, Peter Nappi (named for his grandfather, an immigrant shoemaker who arrived in America in 1904). Peter Nappi offers boots, bags and other dry goods, rich in old world tradition and craftsmanship. The boots are made in Italy by a family who has been handcrafting footwear for over 60 years. The 4,000 square foot Peter Nappi studio in Nashville’s historic Germantown neighborhood showcases luxury leather boots and bags, as well as hand picked, one-of-a-kind vintage European furniture. The brand has been covered in Harper's Bazaar, Men's Fitness, Bon Appetit and Esquire. In January 2013, a Peter Nappi exhibit is planned Pitti Uomo in Florence, Italy. Read more about Phillip Nappi’s business at www.peternappi.com. JAMIE FRAZIER and HANNAH JONES are the Nashville fashion designers behind Jamie and the Jones. The duo discovered their mutual appreciation for slow process design as sophomores at O’More College of Design in Franklin, Tenn. The results were unanimously positive: their skill at creating clothes that combine clean silhouettes with painstaking handwork (knitting, crochet, embroidery, beading, and hand painting are all hallmarks of Jamie and Hannah’s smart, feminine wares). Since graduating in 2009, Frazier and Jones have continued to produce their line from their studio inside Local Honey, Nashville's premiere source for independent design. Jamie and the Jones. have been featured in publications including Nylon, Elle.com, the Nashville Scene, Her Nashville, and the Tennessean. In 2011, they opened the first-ever Nashville Fashion Week. A month later, and they were awarded the Belcourt Theatre’s nD Emerging Designer Competition, through which they were awarded a stipend to produce a capsule collection that was presented alongside the work of two nationally known designers. Read more about Frazier and Jones at www.jamieandthejones.com. MATT and CARRIE EDDMENSON, owners of the Nashville-based fashion company Imogene + Willie, share a long and varied history both personally and professionally. Both started their careers at Sights Denim Systems, formerly the world’s preeminent denim development laboratory and premium finisher, located in Henderson, Ky. Even earlier, at age 11, they met as schoolmates in Henderson. After high school, they went their separate ways until 2003, when they found themselves back in their hometown. Love blossomed, and they were married in 2006. In 2009, Matt and Carrie left Henderson and headed to Nashville, where Imogene + Willie was born. Matt worked in product development and design at Sights Denim Systems for four years. During this tenure, he worked with design houses including Earnest Sewn, Elie Tahari, Billy Reid, Rogan, American Rag, and RRL to develop fits, finishes and branding. Matt holds a BA in Fine Arts from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Carrie started her career in fashion as a principal at Sights, working in product development and design with companies including Paper Denim & Cloth, Rogan, Earnest Sewn, Levis Vintage Clothing, Ralph Lauren’s RRL, Joie, and Loomstate. In the early 1990s, she worked closely with Francois Girbaud, Lee, and Levis to develop new denim processes and inventions that led to the aesthetic of modern denim finishing. Through Sights, she started a product design and development company in Istanbul, Turkey

• published: 20 May 2012
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