What’s Buzzing Around Austin This Month
Tribeza Talk: Style
Room to Relax
What’s better than a little pampering? How about the full spa experience. Milk + Honey, the Austin-based brand started by Alissa Bayer in 2006, is transforming its Arboretum Market location into its largest full-service spa. The expanded outpost will offer a full range of treatments, including massages, waxing, nails, and facials, as well as products like the brand’s new all-natural deodorant, with scents of coconut and lemongrass, and lavender and tea tree.
Path to Ethos
“I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. I always knew that I wanted to start a business,” Sydney Sherman says. A few years ago, while traveling in India, Sherman was struck by seeing people living in extreme poverty. “I just thought, ‘OK, I have to do something to help.’” Sherman turned her attention to ethical purchasing, wanting to create a platform that would bring fair-trade brands together in one space and provide more information for shoppers. In December 2017, Sherman launched The Etho (formerly Faire), an online marketplace of 50 international sellers focused on ethical and fair-trade goods, including handbags, jewelry, and men’s and women’s fashion.
Krewe’s All Here
In late June Krewe Eyewear opened up shop on South Congress Avenue inside a tiny house. Modeled after New Orleans’ home styles, the house’s shotgun shape and wraparound glass windows invite folks in to try on glasses popularized by the likes of Gigi Hadid and Beyoncé. The brand’s first Texas Tiny House debuted during SXSW 2017, and the current residency is expected to continue until January.
The Big Leagues
For Musa Ato, owner of the Second Street menswear shop League of Rebels, his personal, polished style emerged from a youth spent wearing school uniforms. “That’s still the way I dress still today,” Ato says. “Any day you catch me will be the same thing: a dress shirt tucked in, wool slacks, and a necktie.” The necktie, he concedes can be optional, but the functionality and integrity of fabrics is not, a belief at the core of the garments he produces.
Since 2016 League of Rebels has offered high-quality men’s fashion at its downtown outpost, which doubled in size earlier this year. There Ato espouses the beauty of merino wool suits and offers limited-edition shirts and select pieces. Up next? “Silk pajamas,” Ato says. “That’s what I’m most excited about.”
Seeing Clearly
If you’re caught in a game day dilemma about which bag to bring to the stadium, Kelly Wynne has a few solutions. With new rules calling for clear or very small bags in many venues, Wynne offers up the clear Mingle Mingle Mini, an eight-by-six crossbody in multiple styles and outlined in various colors (yes, including burnt orange python). There’s also the option for the BYOBackpack, a clear backpack that gives a little more space, with a removable top to turn it into a handbag. Keep an eye out for the brand’s new diaper bags and luggage coming this fall.
Noble Attire
“We knew we wanted to do a womenswear line and wanted it to be fun and something that was inspiring to other women,” Staley Moore says. Having grown up together in Fort Worth, Moore, along with Mackenzie Shoppa, and their respective sisters, Mary Elizabeth Crawford and Madi Davis, created Noble 31, a women’s fashion brand built on the idea of creating timeless pieces.
The brand, whose name stems from Proverbs 31, spent two and a half years in development, with the four women launching the first collection in May 2017. “Since we started this idea, there have been three cross-country moves, three babies, and two weddings,” Shoppa says.
The seed of the idea for the brand began with Shoppa while she was studying costume design at UT Austin, and she serves as lead designer, taking inspiration from the theater and nature. “I have more of an open mind to mix textures and colors and there-are-no-rules kind of thing,” Shoppa says. The result is silk tops and white denim skirts, surprise pleats, and relaxed pants. “Our stuff is ready-to-wear, and we spend a lot of time sourcing the best fabrics and making sure that each garment is perfect,” Moore says.