Carolina Cup Week: The Bow Tie

Carolina Cup is not for the long tie. Sorry to those guys who insist on no-bow ties, but it's just the way it is. You wear a bow tie. Not only that, but you wear about as festive of a bow tie as you can find. This might mean:

Southern Proper's Topless Beau

High Cotton Ties' Spring Four Way Bow Tie

Social Primer's Sea Island Bow Tie

Southern Proper's Mint Julep Beau 

Lilly Pulitzer's Resort White Spring Fling Bow Tie (Lilly or louder, right?!)

Bow ties are the single most important MUST-HAVE for the guys on the day of Carolina Cup! For the gals, you must insist that your date dons his best beau so that you can boast  you've got the best lookin' date of them all out there!

xxKatie

Formal Season!

There are few things in life that make me as happy as helping people get ready for formals! Whether that's helping my girlfriends primp and prep for their sorority formals or high school proms, or even helping the guys pick out cummerbund and bowtie sets, formal season is calling my name!

Just last Friday was a HUGE day for formals here at USC and I can't tell you how many people we outfitted properly! 

Girl formal season can mean so many different things to different people, but here are a few of my favorite looks for the guys:

Avery Cummerbund Set from High Cotton Ties

This is my absolute favorite look for formal season! Right now on their site, it's out of stock, so I guess I'm not the only one who liked it! Pink, green, gingham and reversible, what's NOT to like about this?!

Plaid Silk Cummerbund Set from Just Madras

I've seen this in person, and it is STUNNING! It would look great with so many different formal dresses, and has just a teeny piping of black in it to look perfect with any tux!

Rainbow Trout Cummerbund by Smathers and Branson 

There are a few friends of mine who'd wear this in a heartbeat for their formals or even proms! Too cute!!

Deep Pink Check Cummerbund Set from High Cotton Ties

This set is so perfect for custom monogramming! I usually suggest monograms in colors, but this one looks best with a black to really pop with a tux. Here's a bit of a lighter example, but still one of my favorites:

Fishbone Cummerbund Set from Vineyard Vines

I find that silk sets are dressier than the cotton combos, but this whimsical one is just too fun to pass up!

Mardi Gras Tattersall Cummerbund Set from High Cotton Ties

I know a lot of fraternity formals choose to go somewhere for a destination formal, so this could be perfect should you find yourself going to a formal in the Big Easy! I love how you can see the colors even from far away too!

American Flag Needlepoint Cummerbund from Smathers and Branson 

I'm totally a sucker for anything patriotic, so this one totally made the list! I'm definitely a fan of this one with some kind of solid red or blue bowtie to complete the look.

Spring Four Way Cummerbund Set from High Cotton Ties

This is my first runner-up for favorites! Think of all the different times you can wear this four-way combo from HCT! It's perfect for the summer, for weddings, proms and even formals too! It is so festive and fun and you can change it up so many different ways.

What are you wearing to formal or prom? Do you match your date or do you dress on your own?

xxKatie

It's FRIDAY!

I had to post this song today! I know there are some people out there who vehemently hate this song, but I'm a huge fan! To my favorite logic boys, I still laugh about class...to this day it brings a smile to my face! The Glee version of this song makes me so happy! Emma (how Glee is she?!) and I were cleaning the store one day after we had closed and we were JAMMIN' out to this song! It is so much fun for the weekend!

I've had one of the busiest weeks of the summer (not that there have be a whole lot...) and am looking at a very busy week ahead of me too full of working, tests and my very first Bayside Bride intern meeting! I can't wait--that's later today!

Any big plans this weekend? Glad you have an extra day?! (Jonathan, tell Patrick he can finally wear the white and seersucker and we won't be mad! How very un-LBP of him!) I surely can't believe that May is over!

Here's to lookin' at you June!

xxKatie

Nothing Says Summer Quite Like Seersucker!

Seersucker is a go-to fabric for the summer. It's comfy, breezy, and packs well for quick trips here and there. Girls can wear it, guys can rock it, and let's face it, a baby looks stinkin' adorable donning seersucker. What's better? My friend Madras might have a bone to pick but here are my seersucker picks for summer:

Lilly Pulitzer: Blossom Dress in Classic White Regatta Embroidery

Brooks Brothers: Seersucker Fitzgerald Fit Suit

High Cotton Ties: Walker Madras & Yellow Pincord Reversible Bow Tie

High Cotton Ties: Duncan Madras & Blue Seersucker Reversible Bow Tie

Vineyard Vines: Seersucker Patchwork Shorts

Just Madras: Caroline Dress-Girls Pink Seersucker with rick rack

(Isn't she just cute as a button?!)

Aerie: Halter Seersucker Bikini Top and Bottom (on sale)

Anyone already have their seersucker ready for summer? Gearing up for those hot days!

xxKatie

Koozie Kollection

During this past week, my koozie collection has just about doubled! Here's part of the collection that I could track down:

I'm loving the colors in this!

These two are thanks to my fave Lilly stores: The Pink Crab and Pink Sorbet!

These guys are my southern collection: Southern Tide, Coast, High Cotton Ties 1, Vineyard Vines (my most recent acquisition from a trunk show at Britton's of Columbia) and High Cotton Ties 2

These are all my koozies from school! I'm missing one from Homecoming last year that I loved because it had nautical flags of USC because our theme was Anchors Aweigh!

What does your koozie collection look like? A lot? A few? Have a few faves?

xxKatie

Fabulous USC Visitors!

On Monday I had the privilege of meeting a wonderful crowd from Brittons of Columbia, High Cotton Ties and Southern Tide! Both companies made a trip down to our campus and thanks to a facebook invite, I was able to attend between classes! I was so excited to meet such a fun (and superbly-dressed) group of visitors, I hope they enjoyed the trip as much as I was. Judy Hill from High Cotton Ties was even nice enough to give me a secret look to one of their newest patterns!

James and Judy Hill of High Cotton Ties (Judy was the original designer--too cute!), Perry Lancaster of Brittons, and Michael the HCT campus rep! We chatted for so long and I loved getting to know y'all and your product!

How great are these cummerbunds? They have matching bowties AND headbands for girls.

I'm already a huge fan. Image this Walker Madras cummerbund for any fraternity function or sorority formal!! Eben, since I saw you (if you read LBP) I think you need to get one of these! Secret LBP insider tip: you might see a HCT package that resembles this bowtie/headband set quite soon (wink wink!)!

Great tip: some of the bowties are reversible! Check out my favorite look:

I'm absolutely IN LOVE with this bowtie look! It is so sharp. If you are one of my boy readers and go to USC buy this. Or look out for your future birthdays!

Here are a few more of the reversibles! I'm lovin' all the plaid that they feature.

This is the just-in Christmas madras that Judy was showing me! So excited for a LBP sneak peek! This is such a classic madras and would look great for any occasion. I'm so excited to see them using great colors! It's also super manly I think so most guys would have no defense against this one!! Also great about the HCT products is that you can toss them in the washing machine and dryer because they're 100% cotton...if that doesn't say low maintenance for any college boy I don't know what does!

I also tweeted about meeting everyone and the HCT tweet just about made my already fun day:

I had such a fun day getting to know all these fun visitors! I picked up a bunch of koozies and stickers (5 in all...2 from USC Homecoming, 2 from High Cotton and 1 from Southern Tide!) to add to my collection too. I also was lucky enough to talk to a few representatives from the USC Fashion Board (who even recognized me from run-ins at fittings--total bonus!) who hosted the entire event. A group of girls who did a great job that led me to getting to know all these folks! Such an action-packed day for me! 

xxKatie