Southern Belle Wannabe
January 21, 2010
Yesterday’s disclosure of my secret southern belle dreams got me thinking—just what would it take to channel a “belle” in my life? Here are some ideas I came up with, many of which are based on horribly cheesy stereotypes (but are lovely all the same!). Feel free to laugh and if you’re a real belle, please do give me some pointers! My fiance is actually applying to a few law schools in the south so my mint-julep-filled-dreams just might come true!
1. Buy a house with a big front porch. Relax here on hot summer evenings while listening to country tunes and sipping fresh Mint Juleps.
2. Add some cute, girly attire designed by the darling Lela Rose to my wardrobe.
3. Invest in some grown-up flatware. I read that Francis I by Reed & Barton is a popular choice south of the Mason-Dixon.
4. Plant a Magnolia tree. Swoon.
5. Set the table with a gorgeous floral china like Herend’s Chinese Bouquet pattern. Throw fun, lavish dinner parties. On the menu? Fried green tomatoes and shrimp and grits.
6. Buy this sweet, feminine Rosette Ruffle Cardigan by J.Crew (okay, okay, so I’m looking any excuse I can find…).
7. Every girl (north or south) deserves a set of monogrammed napkins by the one and only Leontine Linens.
8. Attend the Kentucky Derby (on my list of life goals…) and wear a fantastic feathered hat like this one.
9. Get more use out of my pearls. Love the classic look of this triple strand set.
10. Be all around cute and adorable a la Reese Witherspoon (born in New Orleans).
Let me know what y’all think : ) XX Kate “The Neo-Trad”
Image Links — Juleps, Lela Rose, Reed & Barton, Magnolia Tree, Herend Chinese Bouquet, J.Crew Cardigan, Leontine Linens, Kentucky Derby Hat, Pearls, and Miss Witherspoon.
Comments
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Thanks for the input Brandi! I corrected “y’all” and actually just placed an online Anthro order yesterday—yippee! XX Kate
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I LOVE this post! I was born in New Jersey, yet when I first moved to NYC I signed up for the “Southern Belle” MeetUp. Too funny… after spending college plus about 5 years in Washington, DC (where I live now), I felt like a Southerner. My truly Southern friends still call me a Yankee – sadly.
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Prippy Handbook—- You’re adorable and southern in my book! I’m going to have to bother you for pointers if we really move down that way… Thanks for stopping by The Neo-Trad! XX Kate
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Ooo, what a lovely dream. And thanks for introducing me to Leontine Linens — utterly divine.
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I think I was born in th ewrong part of the country! I want to be a Southern Belle! LOL
Would also LOVE your support on the ELLE DECOR window I did for the Big Window Challenge this year with Apartment Therapy. Check it out at http://www.bigwindowchallenge com. As we all know, AT doesn’t make it easy, but you can vote TWICE a day, once online and the other by texting “1” to 89800.
Your support means the world to me!!
Xo
Eddie -
Oh Kate!! Come here for the Derby this year and we can have mint juleps in our feathered hats! xo
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Eddie—I’m off to vote for you now, although I think you have this one in the bag. Splatter paint walls? Brilliant. XX Kate
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Even though I too am a Yankee, I totally get it….
Love any kind of mint drink (julep, mojito,), not to mention the classic cup they
come in! In my northern imagination, not only does the weather seem more desirable, but most people appear to have more patience and manners, too. (until I go and visit, and I want everyone to hurry up a bit :) )
xo
Sue -
KateMcG says:
If you go South I might have to leave my wonderful DC and follow you and John down there for pretty dresses, lots of pearls, and mint julep parties :)
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You are too cute! I Interned with Lela Rose a couple years ago. She is a doll! I could still walk in there to this day and she will remember my name. you have to be in NYC when she has a sample sale and pick up some new duds!
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i secretly wish i were a southern belle too! great post, i lovelovelove your blog :)
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Kirby — I can’t believe you interned for Lela Rose. How cute is she and her little dog?! I’m obsessed. Thanks for sample sale tip!
Design Darling — So glad I’m not the only wishful southerner. Thanks for your sweet comment, I’m glad you like my silly posts!
XX Kate
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ohh honey..i will help you become a “belle” in no time! shrimp and grits are on the menu at most event at my household with my parents and now out here in CA..you know what is funny, my godmother used to give me a piece of silver every christmas and as a kd i was like great another fork! now i am so thankful..
its just all about traditions..you and your man need to meet me at my river house! -
Rikshaw I love you!!! Show me your southern ways!!! “Great another fork” hahaha. You have a river house?! Geeez louise, aren’t you a lucky gal. You know I’ve had grits once and they weren’t half bad… XX Kate
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its gotta be cheese grits (the stone ground kind) with shrimp..might be my dinner tonight sounds so good..
if you make it to the rivahh you will pick crabs and toe-dig for clams..very rustic! right out of the movie fried green tomatAS -
I am so down with the Magnolia tree! I was born in Atlanta, GA and will always always always have a southern place in my heart. There’s just somethin’ about that southern charm darlin’, suga’ honey. (Which one do you prefer?!)
Oh and that’s just the most charming picture of Reese ever ever ever!!!
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Lauren — If I move down that way I’m contacting you so you can teach me your ways. Suga’ honey whaaat? XX Kate
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those mint juleps look perfect and refreshing! I’d channel a southern belle if it meant drinking those all day :) And Reese is so darn cute. I’m jealous of that infectious smile!!
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Oh! I’m not down there anymore sadly:( I left for Belgium when I was younger…7 years there and am in NYC area now. All sorts of “all over the place!” I always say I’m 1/3 southern belle, 1/3 european femme, and 1/3 city girl! BUT I can STILL teach you my ways, fear not, the southern-ness sticks forever!
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Liz — I know, Reese is bottled cuteness. It’s ridiculous.
Lauren — May we trade lives? I lived in Europe for two years and never made it to Belgium (tisk, tisk). Someday…
XX Kate
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I’ve told you, PLEASE come South! You will love it. With all it’s eccentrics (people, things and places), you will be charmed instantly and not want to leave. It’s all about tradition and luckily now with the “New South” some chic to go along with it. I use my silver daily, we eat dinner every night with cloth napkins and proper table setting but we’re listening to country music (or sometimes grateful dead) and we don’t wear “preppy” clothes. You never come here when my husband doesn’t have your drink made for you when walking in the door and there is always, and I always, a comfortable place to sit and put your feet up. It’s a great mix and the people are amazing. I love to travel and do, but I will always call the South home. And I hope you will too. And, maybe you’ll win the Leontine Linens. Then we would know it is fate! Oh, you need to know your history, literature and anything else that might add to conversation on a daily basis. We do a lot of talking around here!
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Oh Gwen I just adore you!!! This all sounds so wonderful—truly. Maybe after all the moving from place to place I’ve done the south is where I’m meant to hunker down! Wouldn’t that be grand? I love a place steeped in history and tradition and it sounds as though you have more than your fair share. I can’t wait to explore Tennessee and Kentucky and Alabama and Georgia…oh my! Looking forward to your last day of white (bittersweet though it may be!)! XXXXXX Kate
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There’s nothing that rushing a college sorority at a big southern university can’t teach you about being a belle…big hair, rich date, don’t wear your pearls in the shower. Seriously, you have to read “A Southern Belle Primer: Why Princess Margaret Will Never Be a Kappa Kappa Gamma.” It will make you pee your britches, not that I rushed a sorority, but I lived vicariously through my roommates…and I didn’t need to learn. I was born and bred in Alabama and Mississippi, the heartland!
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I wouldn’t forget some pretty stationery and calling cards – a true Southern belle knows how to saw thank you the old-fashioned way by writing a graceful note, not an email! I think Lilly Pulitzer actually has a pattern called “Southern Belle”!
- The Buzz - -
Elizabeth — I have the book! I know, I’m such a nerd! I’m so envious of your Alabama / Mississippi upbringing! I’m sure you could teach me a thing or two!
The Buzz — So true! Thankfully I have both stationary and letterpress calling cards, but I fear I don’t put them to use as often as I ought…tisk tisk. The Lilly pattern sounds like a classic!
XX Kate
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Kate, I love this post! Ever since I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil I’ve had a secret longing to move to a beautiful house on a square in Savannah and sit on my porch and sip cocktails all day long. In pearls and a hat like that one it’d be even more fun!
Also, Lela Rose’s stuff looks wonderful – I’d never heard of her before but there are some beautifully skirts and wonderful prints in her spring collection. Thanks for the pointer, I’m inspired! -
Jane — Move from London to Savannah and I’ll join you for cocktails!!! XXXX Kate
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Hope you do move south. It really is quite lovely. Love the list minus the country music, I just cant do it.
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Love this post. I love being from the south while sometimes we do get bad raps it is great. I think you can do it! I really want that J.Crew ruffle cardigan too.I also wish I was as adorable as Reese Witherspoon. I love her.
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Ooh I am fascinated by Southern ways too, and I can proudly claim that I am 1/4 southern- my grandfather was from Tennessee. I can’t wait to visit. Do Southern girls really use linen napkins and proper silverware at every meal? Wow that’s impressive… I will need to lift my game!
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Just monogram everything and you will be set! People even monogram their cars down here (which I think is taking it a little too far:)!
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I love this post! I am from Houston and while the rest of the south doesn’t consider us to be true Southerners, we share a lot of the same traditions.
I think you can do it, though I would skip the cardigan for J.Crew and take a look at the ones at Anthropologie (there’s something about this J.Crew one that looks like the design team went a little scrunchy-ruffle-happy). You’ll also have to work on calling soda “pop”, and shouldn’t “ya’ll” be “y’all”? I do love that front porch idea so. You’re bringing out the southern belle in me too.