More than a dozen years after portraying a fashion designer in “Sweet Home Alabama” (her second-highest box-office hit, grossing more than $127 million) Reese Witherspoon is actually planning to make the role a reality and work in the industry. Tuesday, the actress launched her own sportswear and lifestyle label, which she has named Draper James.
Witherspoon’s Draper James — a combination of her maternal grandparents’ names — is a Southern-inspired, and, when it comes to the clothing collection, 40% southern made, attempt to awaken a sense of southern shopping patriotism. (She wants people to actually travel to Southern cities… and buy goods from businesses featured on the company’s Web site.)
“I hope that it sort of opens people’s eyes to how much the South has changed and to all of the cultural experiences happening there,” Witherspoon said of lifestyle site in an interview with WWD. “We’re going to have City Guides, but through my eyes, the places I love. We will have different Southern ambassadors that will show places to buy amazing Southern antique silver or where to find hand towels like their grandmothers had.”
“I can tell you where Sea Island, Georgia, is… Palm Beach and Rosemary Beach… and Charleston. We went to Kiawah Island growing up, and Destin. There are all these beautiful places that I think people will be so charmed by how much is happening there.”
The e-commerce section of the site spotlights great online shopping to accompany these City Guides of the South — like Hanna Nation Seabrook stationary and Kaminer Haislip silver, or a variety of home and entertaining items from Savannah shop Number Four Eleven.
Draper James will also offer its own sportswear line, which will retail from $50 for a top up to $400 for a dress. Jewelry will sell between $25 and $250, handbags and small leather goods will be in the $40 to $325 range, and home decor starts at $14 for pencils to $400 for a sterling silver magnolia-shaped bowl. Witherspoon predicts five Draper James collections a year.
“One of our tenets is ‘unapologetically pretty,’ Witherspoon explained of the new sportswear line. “Like, what’s wrong with being pretty? That went out the window a long time ago. In the South, there’s a lot of color, prints, tradition, traditional fabrics like gingham, plaids, stripes. There’s also definitely a feeling that what you wear makes you feel better, especially if you’re wearing color, prints or joyful things.”
“There’s a heart and soul to things. Otherwise, what’s the point? My heart and soul is in how I feel about the South. It’s what inspires me. It’s what makes me want to go back home.”
