Area fashion truck sells items from ‘vulnerable communities’

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - When Emily Sexton was a student at Elon University, she took her first trip abroad, journeying to Honduras.
Like many other young travelers, her “eyes were opened” to the different working standards and living conditions that existed a plane ride away. She volunteered at a hospital and orphanage, where she witnessed the devastating effects of poverty.
But unlike many people, she decided to do something about it.
Sexton and her husband, Chris, recently founded The Flourish Market, a fashion truck based in Raleigh that partners with 32 brands from all over the world. Each brand works with “vulnerable communities to spread dignity across the globe,” she said. That includes refugees, survivors of sex trafficking and women who escaped poverty.
“I’ve learned that it takes a village,” said Sexton, 31. “I want to help women use their purchasing power for good.”
Items for sale include jewelry, T-shirts, shoes and greeting cards from Asia, Mexico, India, the United States and more.

Proceeds from sales of a sleeveless black tunic help a safe house in Nepal and orphanages in India. A pair of pink-and-yellow loafers was created by Mayan women in Guatemala.
The most popular item is the lightweight leather earrings crafted by artisans living in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains. Sexton said she wears them every day.
“The heart and the vision that Em has for valuable women in vulnerable communities is so apparent in the way she does business, both behind the scenes and with her customers,” Anna Davis, a N.C. State University student and one of two interns at The Flourish Market, said in an email. “The Flourish Market gives other women the chance to support these valuable artisans and makers to bring meaning to their lives and other people’s.”
The Flourish Market attends public events - it set up in downtown Raleigh for the annual Fourth of July celebration. On July 23, the truck will be at the Dorothea Dix Summer Festival at Dix Park in Raleigh.

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The business also hosts private parties for women at their homes.
About a year ago, Sexton started raising money on Tilt, an online fundraising site similar to Kickstarter, to start The Flourish Market. The campaign raised more than $4,000, easily surpassing its $1,000 goal.
The Flourish Market has been up and running for nine months, and Sexton, who previously worked in communications at an investment bank, said she has already surpassed her first sales goal.
Sexton said companies from around the world have reached out to her about selling their items. She travels eight times year - she recently returned from Rwanda - and has seen firsthand the work of many of the brands she buys from.
Sexton also owns a photography and video studio in Raleigh, which initially helped her form relationships with many of the companies she now buys from. She learned about other companies from friends within the industry.
“I’m interested in finding out about the people behind the products,” Sexton said. “The ‘why’ behind everything I do is to elevate the work of individuals. I look for people pursuing opportunities to make a difference in their communities.”
Sexton is eager to meet new customers through The Flourish Market, but she’s never behind the wheel. Her husband is the driver.
“The one time I helped him maneuver the truck I accidentally motioned for him to back up too far into a steep hostess’ driveway and we had to call someone to tow us out,” Sexton said. “That was the last time I had anything to do with the truck and directions.”

Inside Pinterest's effort to woo fashion brands

In an effort to highlight its e-commerce efforts, Pinterest brought its online trend boards to life, transferring style tips from the screen to the shelf at a popup event in New York yesterday. 

The display was part of an effort to promote the platform’s featured styles from its recently launched Pinterest Shop, a separate section of the site that features brands that offer shoppable products via “buyable pins.” Pinterest also used the vent to tout its new visual search capability, an offering that allows users to identify a product or find similar styles from a photo. Though fashion is the top category on Pinterest, it has continued to struggle to lure shoppers to actually make purchases on the app in spite of recent additions like the buy buttons and collaborations with brands like Kate Spade New York.

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Why a retro approach to financial advice is back in fashion

The wheel has turned full circle. Financial advice from an agent tied to a provider is making a comeback, after years in which conventional thinking dictated that the only way forward was independent financial advice.

As first revealed last week in the trade magazine Money Marketing, Aviva, one of Britain’s biggest insurers, is to restore face-to-face advice for people who are retiring who are currently without help.

This follows similar moves by Standard Life and Old Mutual, all of which have been predictably labelled as the return of the Man from the Pru – the thousands of Prudential agents who cycled door to door in the last century, collecting as little as a penny and staying for a cup of tea and an often useful chat.

In the 1980s and 1990s regulators, government departments and the media all lauded the IFA as the only true supplier of the purest wisdom. IFAs were allegedly made all the purer three years ago when the Retail Distribution Review insisted that consumers paid fees instead of banks, insurers, pension firms and fund managers paying secret commissions.

There was just one flaw. Fees big enough to get IFAs out of bed were prohibitive unless the customer had at least £100,000. That excluded the vast bulk of the population, who were also in the most need of advice.

Well-meaning attempts were made to plug this gap through Citizens Advice, the Money Advice Service and campaigns to introduce financial lessons in schools. But they never really worked because the financial incentive was not there. Advisers have to eat and pro bono can only get you so far.

Tied advice was seen as tainted, but many self-proclaimed IFAs are far from independent. They find no difficulty in recommending products that just happen to earn them the highest fees. It may just be coincidence that investment trusts, one of the best-value equity savings vehicles, long shunned by advisers, pay no fees or commission.

But the liberalisation of pensions last year, enabling policyholders to cash in their entire pot and – theoretically, at least – blow it on a world tour or a Lamborghini, sent the industry into a spin.

Discreet lobbying began in 2014, a year before the pension floodgates opened, to let providers talk to retiring customers to try to dissuade them from anything too rash – such as taking their money away. It worked.

Andy Barton, Aviva’s client advice director, said: ‘There has been a noticeable increase in people asking if we can help with advice, and up to now we have had to say no. Like a lot of organisations when the RDR came in, Aviva did not know what the demand to provide advice would be in the future so we stopped providing it. But in April last year all of a sudden that demand increased again and we are aiming to meet those customer requirements.’ In other words, panic stations.

Whatever the immediate trigger, the consequence may be to break the deadlock over how to get advice to those who most need it – the poor and the ignorant who are on average retiring on the state pension plus a nestegg of under £30,000. These days, that sum will buy a 65-year-old man a flat annuity worth £27.80 a week.

Of course, to be effective the advice has to start at least 20 years earlier, when many people are still digging themselves out from under student debt, a mortgage and school fees. No wonder the Bank of Mum and Dad is working overtime.

The principle has finally been conceded that, while tied advice is often inferior to the independent variety, it is a heck of a lot better than no advice at all. And, when all’s said and done, providers and their agents are still obliged to inform customers that they have the right to shop around. Shopping around? What’s that? All of a sudden, we are off on a whole new conversation.

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It is universally acknowledged nowadays that a British man without a fortune would rather have his fingernails pulled out than pay for someone to tell him what to do with his pittance – or, even worse, how to turn it into a fortune.

While everyone in UK financial services bemoans the injustice of that sentiment, the events of the past eight years have hardly endeared Joe Public to the idea of pushing a penny more than necessary towards the money magicians.

The good news is that the regulators blinkered by the old shibboleths have largely moved on. This month the Financial Conduct Authority acquired a new chief executive, Andrew Bailey from the Bank of England. Let us hope that, without too much prodding from new heavyweight non-executive directors (Baroness Hogg and Ruth Kelly), he is brave enough to start with a clean sheet of paper and fresh thinking.

Meanwhile, although his death has been pronounced more often than Mark Twain’s, the Man from the Pru never entirely went away. He long ago traded his bicycle clips for an email address and has acquired some bright young sisters, but for the past few years he has been quietly offering a restricted but nevertheless face-to-face advice service.

Long may that continue and, now that the Pru has been joined by Aviva, let us hope that Legal & General, Aegon, Royal London and other leading firms gatecrash the party.

Comings and Goings: New fashion boutique in Irondequoit

Ever since she was a little girl, friends and family have sought out Dee Kimbrel for her sage fashion advice.

Nowadays, she's putting her eye for artistic flair to business. Kimbrel recently opened She Says So Boutique at 884 E. Ridge Road Irondequoit, moving it from 1733 Norton St. in Rochester.

The new spacious boutique near Hudson Avenue offers more than clothes. There is a large collection of jewelry as well as accessories such as purses. Kimbrel offers personal styling advice and can help you select that special occasion outfit or a dress for the beach. Unlike many boutiques, She Says So offers an array of plus-sized items. Sizing on the clothing at the shop ranges from size zero, which fits my tiny teen daughter, to myriad plus sizes. There is a consignment area that is new. Kimbrel also hosts ladies night events at her shop, with makeovers, food and the company of women.

Of course, I had to pick up something new while checking out the new shop and selected a black fringe dress that's getting a lot of compliments this summer. With a coupon from her Facebook page, the dress was less than $30.



Dee Kimbrel of She Says So boutique (Photo: Mary Chao)
Wigz by Bangz

For many women, their hair is part of their identity. When they undergo hair loss, be it from medical or genetic reasons, the experience can be traumatizing. A new wig shop in Penfield is trying to make that journey easier, providing women with information and options when it comes to hair loss.

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Wigz by Bangz Salon recently opened at 1801 Penfield Road in Penfield. Co-owners Tammy Allen and Beth D’Angelo are licensed cosmetologists with nearly 50 years of hair care and styling experience between them. Tammy is the owner of Bangz Salon, which she relocated to 2105 Five Mile Line Road, around the corner from the Penfield Road address, to make room for Wigz. Allen was inspired to start Wigz after experiencing firsthand the complicated and confusing wig-buying process during her mom's battle with cancer.

"We couldn't get information or a proper fitting. And, unfortunately, by the time we did finally get my mom's wig, she had lost her battle," she said. This shop is a tribute to her, Allen added

D'Angelo has always had a passion for wigs and a desire to help women going through the trauma of losing their hair.

The shop is currently open by appointment only by calling (585) 248-WIGZ.

Tea for two

The Mad Hatter Restaurant and Bakery has opened at 176 S. Goodman St., across from Parkleigh. It serves an array of baked goods, delicious-looking breakfast and loose leaf teas. I'm looking forward to trying the new tea restaurant as there hasn't been a tea room in the Park Avenue area since La-Tea- Da.

Speaking of La-Tea-Da, it is celebrating its first anniversary at its new location at 211 W. Commercial St.after a devastating fire destroyed its original business on Alexander Street in Rochester. The East Rochester locale retains its Victorian charm with different themed rooms and hats and dress up clothes for the young and young at heart.

Bargain of Week



Mary Chao with Eye Opener glasses and Paula Deen. (Photo: Provided)
I have a thing for accessories. And eye glasses are jewelry for me as it frames my face. So I have several different pairs of prescription glasses to match different outfits.

Fashionable prescription eyewear can be expensive. Which is why I wait until August of each year for the annual garage sale at Eye Openers, 2929 Monroe Ave. in Brighton. Each year from August 1 to 31, owner Rich Levy puts out a collection of designer frames for a garage sale price this year of $79. (Prescription lenses are extra.) These are high-end designer brands normally costing $400 and up for the frames. I've been able to grab funky frames for a fraction of retail, including a pair of Judith Leiber Swarovski crystal studded frames that had retailed for about $800.

The line is long on the first day and you have to dig, but you will reap rewards. There is a sale on the lenses as well with the price varying depending on prescription. I've been able to keep the cost low due to my single-vision prescription but now as I'm moving into bifocal phases, I may not be able to afford as many frames as accessories.

Inside the Fabulous Fashions of the Absolutely Fabulous Movie

Always the life of the party—even when there isn’t one—lifelong friends Edina “Eddy” Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) are back and behaving as badly as ever in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, the big-screen follow-up to the beloved British sitcom. The film drops back into the lives of these over-the-top fashionistas, who haven’t let age slow down their mass consumption of booze, pills, and any other illicit substance they can get their hands on. Though Eddy’s “boutique” P.R. firm is circling the drain (despite loyal clients Lulu and “Baby Spice” Emma Bunton), Patsy’s somehow retained her fashion-editor gig. So in defiance of Eddy’s cash-strapped status, the two continue trying to lead the glamorous life while cozying up to style icons and fashion designers. Before long, the hilarious pair is plotting its own Brexit after Eddy accidentally tosses supermodel Kate Moss into the Thames.

Overseeing all of the ensembles worn by Eddy, Patsy, and the rest of the AbFab gang—including Eddy’s clueless assistant Bubbles (Jane Horrocks), straight-laced daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha), her hairdresser Christopher (Chris Colfer), and a who’s who of the fashion elite—was the TV show’s most recent costume designer, Rebecca Hale. Working on a much larger scale—and in today’s anything-goes era of self-promotion and fashion bloggers—brought new challenges, Hale says. One solution? To actually tone Eddy’s wardrobe down, because “everyone’s expecting her to wear something utterly ridiculous.” Another was to use Bubbles’s outlandish outfits as not-so-subtle digs at current obsessions.

Bubbles, left, played by Jane Horrocks, with Mother, played by June Whitfield.

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight.

Hale also wanted to celebrate U.K. fashion specifically in the film. Among the many labels featured are a mix of well-known British brands—Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Mulberry, Anya Hindmarch, Jaeger—and emerging designers like Giles Deacon, Vin + Omi, Shrimps, Tallulah & Hope, Yasmeen Uddin, and Ashish, some of whom are recent fashion-school grads. Despite a budget bigger than that of the BBC series’s, limited funds also had Hale thinking in terms of a high-low aesthetic. It also meant some A-listers—Stella McCartney, Jerry Hall, Kate Moss, John Paul Gaultier—supplied their own clothes.

While Hale may deem Eddy’s attire in the film tame, the fashion-victim’s outfits do not disappoint. She’s still squeezing her not-so-svelte frame into tight, trendy clothes like a floral-print Giles Deacon trapeze top and matching leggings, topped with Stephen Jones’s black feather headpiece, and an oversize green Vêtements military parka, to which Hale added new and old patches. Still, the costumer says Westwood’s “extraordinary tailoring” on Eddy’s purple business suit (accessorized with Alexis Bittar’s “Reality TV Makes Me Sad” pin), as well as a gold lamé evening jacket and skirt, make the pieces more refined. That said, Eddy also sports Westwood T-shirts featuring breasts and sayings like “Don’t Frack Me” and “I’m Not a Terrorist.” Sadly, there’s no Lacroix—famously Eddy’s most coveted designer—except for some jewelry.

From left to right, Gwendoline Christine, Saunders, Abbey Clancy, Lumley, Sadie Frost, and Tinie Tempah.

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight.

While neither of the fashion-addict friends is necessarily dressing her (advanced) age, Patsy’s reputation as the chicer of the two remains intact. Wanting to pay homage to the character’s “iconic” 90s Betty Jackson cream power suit, Hale found an updated, softer version at Mulberry. The all-about-me editrix’s wardrobe is also where most of the movie’s high-low looks live, because, as Hale says, “the cheaper it is, the better it looks on [Lumley]. She’s magical because she’s an old pro,” she adds, referring to Lumley’s past life as a model. Among Patsy’s many style-savvy pairings: a Lanvin sweater jacket with a Zara fringed skirt, an Alexander McQueen fringed red dress topped with a Topshop motorcycle jacket, and Jaeger pants with an Isabel Marant Étoile jacket.

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Social media, our selfie addiction, and certain celebrities named Kardashian get sent up in some of Bubbles’s whimsical custom-made costumes. The world’s recent butt obsession is called out in Vin +Omi’s hashtag-emoji outfit, which includes yellow hot pants and a winking smiley face on the ass; a dissolvable flower dress made of 1,500 Italian crepe paper flowers serves as a nod to our reliance on disposable fast-fashion. Hale plucked designer Yasmeen Uddin straight out of fashion college, thanks to Uddin’s oversize Anna Wintour face dress accessorized with a huge sunglass necklace.

Hale says that dressing matronly Saffy, who’s now the mother of teenage Lola (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), was particularly fun because it meant going to “all the shops and costume houses you’d never go to to find the nastiest pair of trousers, and Clarks shoes, which look like meat pie.”

As for some of those all-star cameos: Hale’s style inspiration for Chris Colfer’s hairdresser character was fashion bloggers like Bryan Boy. Most of his clothes came off the Harrod’s rack, with some Topshop and Versace thrown in. Game of Thrones’s Gwendoline Christiegets glammed-up in a Giles Deacon gown, while Jerry Hall is decked out in (her own) Chanel—as she constantly tells anyone who’ll listen.

Kate Moss taking a dip in the Thames in green sequins.

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight.

And for the supermodel who tumbles into the Thames in a green, sequined mock turtleneck gown? Kate Moss’s dress is modeled on a black sequin bare-back number from Hollywood’s Western Costume Company that Johnny Depp gave her when she was 21. (Hale modified its silhouette, then had six of them made up—after all, they had to accommodate a wet suit underneath.) Moss also wears her own gold sequin Yves St. Laurent gown in the film. Why, though, didn’t Hale dare to find clothes for the movie’s chicest presence? “I said, ‘You’ve got to be you,’” Hale says of her initial meeting with Moss. “I don’t want to style you because you’re a fashion icon.”

All of this adds up to an oh-so-chic AbFab update that no one would suspect kept Hale up nights because ironically, her sourcing coincided with fashion week—and the exclusive runway shows Eddy and Pasty would surely give their last bottle of Bolly to attend.

Breaking Men’s Wear Barriers — in 2026

LONDON — The young black man stands defiantly on the grass in front of the tin-roof bungalow, separated from the house via a pastel-colored fence and a dusty sidewalk that cracked long ago under the searing African heat.

Staring straight into the camera, he proudly sports black leather brogues, knee-high green school socks, tight white polo pants — and a billowing peach silk robe, covered in flowers and slashed to the navel. Plus a glittering pink belt and cocked pirate hat. Gardeners’ gloves encase his hands, while endless loops of heavy gold chains hang from his neck.

This is one of 60 images in a new exhibition called “2026,” a small but powerful show at Somerset House in London through Aug. 29 focusing on how masculinity is defined through dress, and how that may change in the next 10 years.

The project is jointly curated by the London-based stylist Ibrahim Kamara and the Johannesburg photographer Kristin-Lee Moolman. It is part of a larger group of displays and performances, “Utopian Voices Here and Now,” showcasing explorations by young British-based artists around the issues most affecting them, like the body and gender, sexuality and race.

The “2026” installation focuses on presenting an idealized vision of black masculinity 10 years into the future, by challenging current heteronormative attitudes to self-expression through fashion (although these are increasingly dissolving, if current catwalk trends are anything to go by).

Mr. Kamara, 26, a soon-to-be Central Saint Martins graduate who was born and raised in Sierra Leone, created the project as part of his degree in fashion communications and promotion after a monthlong residency in Johannesburg alongside Ms. Moolman, 29, whom he met on the internet.

The duo scoured the city’s Dumpsters and thrift shops for fabrics, which they then reworked into contemporary garments, with a view to shaping self-expression for the black male body.

“I wanted to create a utopia where you can be whatever you want to be, without emphasis on masculinity or sexuality,” Mr. Kamara said last week, as he put the finishing touches to the large-scale photographic prints of young African men in dresses now hanging from the walls of Somerset House, one of Britain’s grandest palaces. “I wanted men, in particular black men, to just be able to be and breathe like every other type of man has been able to breathe for centuries, without the pressure and policing of black masculinity lingering over them.”

So one photograph depicts a young man in an embrace, wearing a white ball gown, socks and city brogues, a cowboy hat, jewels and both evening and boxing gloves.

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Another look evokes a 16th century swashbuckling pirate-meets-Soweto-schoolboy, teaming a rich padded ocher velveteen jacket and frilled white gloves with a David Beckham soccer shirt wrapped like a sarong and yellow soccer socks.

And in another, two men stand side by side in sleeveless gold buttoned navy blazers and multiple layered pairs of super low-slung, belted baggy jeans, sporting black hats and blond side curls like those worn by Orthodox Jewish men.

Photo

Lebohang Otukile, left.CreditKristin Lee-Moolman

“‘2026’ is an escapism, it’s all the things I long to be, it’s the black man I aspire to be: expressive, confident, not holding back, regardless of sexual orientation, gender or race,” Mr. Kamara said. “Kristen and I wanted to present images that are uplifting and positive, as the image of black sexuality is consistently being ripped apart.”

By using Johannesburg’s back streets as sets and locals as their models, the project also highlighted the energy and creativity of the young arts scene in that city, which Mr. Kamara and Ms. Moolman believe is consistently overlooked by the media, or distorted by the stereotypes anchored in poverty and violence that have come to define South Africa internationally.

“It has become my personal mission to change the way people perceive Africa and especially Johannesburg,” Ms. Moolman said. “There is an explosion of talent here right now. Everyone is creating, whether it is clothing, art, music or imagery.” She added that the digital era meant that the city’s creatives had become far more aware of the work of their contemporaries in cities like London, Berlin and New York.

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“What is amazing here now is the originality and energy with which young people have absorbed those influences, and then have created their own scene in an authentic and African way,” she said. “‘2026’ and everything around it, including its inception, is rooted in cross-cultural mutual exchange. We portrayed Johannesburg how it should be, not what it is. But we also wanted to remind people of the alternative, progressive and open-minded South Africa that both exists and is booming, beyond the images that are fed to them on the TV.”

Most of the men photographed by Ms. Moolman are either her friends or followers on Instagram. Despite the flamboyancy and gender stereotypes challenged through the outfits they wore, very few of them are gay, and they usually subscribe to heteronormative codes of dress. One is the owner of a security company. Another is an artist. Others are dancers.

“These are young and passionate men willing to challenge conventional codes of dress, who weren’t about to let their clothing influence their sexuality or vice versa,” she said. “In fact, most of the guys said that rather than confusing them, the clothes had made them feel more empowered.”