Nicki's Central West End Guide

Sifting through a photographer's archives: Part IV

 
Today's photo from Martin Schweig's archives feature a 1927 Gardner Model 90 Roadster parked on the upper Muny Opera lot, filled with what Martin assumes are actresses involved in a Muny Opera production. 

To get more information about the automobile, Martin sent a copy of the photo to Al Mercer, President of the AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America). After some research Al reported that Gardners were semi-luxury automobiles built in St. Louis from 1919 to 1932. Mercer continued,  "The photo was probably a publicity photo for Gardner and the Muny."

Other automobiles manufactured in St. Louis (approximately 10) in the early part of the 20th century were the Moon, Diana, Ruxton, and the Dorris, which was manufactured in the building now known as the Dorris Lofts at Laclede and Sarah.

The photographs above and below were also taken by Martin's father on the Muny grounds during the same time period.

Some of the women look as if posing with the stuffed toys is the last thing they want to do, don't they?

Thanks again Martin for sharing these photos. Next up from the archives: Bridal photographs.

Sunday, April 29

Do you have your Passport?

If not, you definitely should pick up your Passport to the CWE before May 1st so you can take advantage of all that it offers for the entire month of May. Sale proceeds of the Passport benefit the Children's Education Alliance of Missouri, a state-wide nonprofit organization located on McPherson. CEAM focuses on affecting education-related policy change to improve the quality of educational opportunities for all Missouri children, especially those who do not learn in a typical classroom setting.

Peter Franzen, CEAM's Director of Development, has enlisted many local shops and restaurants who agrred to offer special deals, and placed them in a "passport" booklet complete with a map showing their locations and a list of special Passport-related events. The cost is $25. One can easily recoup the cost in one or two visits to restaurants; or the Passport will more than pay for itself at participating neighborhood shops and businesses. Enjoying the perks, while supporting a great cause, adds up to: "What are you waiting for?"

 

 

You may have spotted this poster that's been popping up in the windows of participating businesses left, including Shelton Davis Antiques, below.

  

A kick-off party will take place Tuesday, May 1st at The Vino Gallery, 4701 McPherson from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. You can purchase your passport online, at CEAM's offices at 4742A McPherson, The Vino Gallery, or at The Eye Bar which is offering $100 off any complete pair of prescription glasses and $50 off sunglasses.

More from CEAM's Peter Franzen: "Passport holders carry their Passports with them the entire month of May to redeem special offers at the best CWE spots.  Things like 'buy one, get one' offers at Pi, Starbucks, and Qdoba; appetizers and desserts with your meal - Duff's, SubZero, Llewelyn's; great discounts like 50% off introductory classes at CrossFit, 15% off or a free bronze initial charm at Jennifer Walker Jewelry; and more free things like House-made bavarian chips at Dressel's, ice cream at Coffee Cartel, a martini at Premium Lounge, gelato at Bar Italia, and a free trial membership at Sante Health Club in the Chase Park Plaza.  Of course there are many more great deals in the Passport that add up to a fun-filled month of May in the Central West End."

Bike Shop Coming to Euclid!

In the onward and upward department, it was exciting to discover that a bike shop is about to open in the neighborhood. This morning, I noticed a sign in the window at 324 N. Euclid, in the space below Lemon Spalon and next to Wolfgang's Pet Stop, indicating that "Mike's Bikes" is "coming soon."

A bike shop has been on many people's wish list of businesses or services missing from the mix in the neighborhood for years. Now at last that wish is about to be fulfilled.

The website listed on the sign in the window appears to be a work-in-progress. As soon as I get more information, I'll pass it along.

Mikes Bikes, opening soon at 324 N. Euclid.

L Photographie lands in the CWE

I wish I could take credit for the gorgeous photographs in this post, which were provided by Kristie Cromie, on the right above, co-owner with Liz Sloan, middle, of L Photographie.  Also pictured is L Photographie's Kate Hayes, left. You'll notice a huge bump-up in quality and styling on this page, and you may also realize that this post is yet another about a female-owned business located in the CWE, a theme that is beginning to have a familiar ring to it.

Liz Sloan had been an event manager in the media world before switching to photography in 2003. She serendipitously ran into Kristie Cromie, a friend from Mizzou, in their Soulard neighborhood. The friends had lost touch with each other, but decided to join forces and form L Photographie after that chance meeting. Kristie had been working as a graphic designer for the Switch Agency for 9 years, and had been dabbling in photography as a hobby. After Kristie became a mother, she decided to refocus her attention from wedding photography to concentrate on family portraits. That's when Kate Hayes, a photographer they met at a Bridal Fair, came onboard. When I observed that they all seemed to get along so well, Kristie said they think they mesh so beautifully because all three are the only girl in a family of boys, which meant they had to be tough and learn to get along. 

L Photographie is located in a building filled with small, creative entrepreneurs at 449 N. Euclid, above. Since all three women are residents of the City of St. Louis they wanted to keep their business within the city limits. "There is a perceived value to being in the CWE," Liz said. The neighborhood has a 'boutique feel' to it--and we consider ourselves to be a boutique company--it's upscale, hip, well-maintained, and has a good eclectic mix...it's just cooler to be in the CWE!" Sounds like a great tag line for an ad for the CWE to me!

When I visited the trio of photographers (shown sitting at their workstations above) Kristie said that their clients tend to be with them full circle--for 5-7 years and beyond--from engagement photos, through the wedding, and "love the dress" sessions (after the wedding, the bride wears "the dress" in a completely different way). A few years later, there are maternity and baby photos, family portraits, and perhaps a high school photo in the future.

Two of the partners are mothers of young children and try to balance family life with work, but there are still many midnight editing sessions, especially during the spring and fall. Wedding season typically spans mid-March through mid-November and even New Year's Eve.

Photography sessions include archival-quality portraits, which the photographers edit themselves, digital files, custom framing, and custom-designed albums, which are exclusive to L Photographie (not available on do-it-yourself websites such as Snapfish). Sometimes clients will say they only want to order a disc with photographs, not the proofs. L Photographie provides the proofs anyway. As Kristie said, "As professional photographers we want to keep the tradition alive and take our work to its final stage. Who knows what the technology will be in twenty years, and if discs will even be around?" When you have the actual photographs, you and your children can always pull them out to enjoy for years to come.

Wedding photography by L Photographie starts at $3,000; family photography sessions, including new baby photos, run anywhere from $700 to $1500. Kristie said that the best time to take new baby photos--which can take as much as five hours--is during the first nine days of life. That's when babies sleep most of the time (tell that to a new parent!), and are easy to "style," i.e. dress and move around.

Liz allowed that every event is "once in a lifetime," so you may as well hire a professional. I know that the photography industry is going through a huge transition, but hearing Liz describe what has happened helped clarify some of the reasons. Cameras are so good now that anyone can set up a business without actually "going into business," i.e. renting a studio, paying taxes, etc. I learned that there is a term, "shoot and burns," for this type of hobbyist, which hurts the industry as a whole.

The remaining photos in the post show a series of vignettes taken in the light-filled space L Photographie occupies on the second floor of the Consulate Building, above and below.

L Photographie, 449 N. Euclid, by appointment only. Weddings: Liz Sloan (314) 265-3786, Kate Hayes (618) 910-8671; Portraits & family photography: Kristie Cromie (314) 503-7719.

Sifting through a photographer's archives, Part III

Here are more photos from the archives of photographer Martin Schweig showing fashion from the early 20th century. I mentioned in the last post from the archives that Martin's father and grandfather were commissioned to do photography for St. Louis department stores. That's what Martin thinks these beautiful fashion photographs were for.

If you are curious about what kind of camera was used then, Martin said it was probably an 8 x 10 view camera. To see the first two posts from the archives, look here and here. And there are more wonderful photographs to come....

 

 

Sunday, April 22

Libby's adds another 5

When I stopped by to say hello to Debbie Gibbens, the proprietor of Libby's at 4742 McPherson, she said she had just renewed the lease on her CWE location for an additional five years. Libby's opened almost three years ago (see first post here) in the handsome space formerly occupied for many years by Bissinger's, now located on Maryland Plaza.

At one time Debbie and her husband lived on Westminster Place and then moved to St. Charles before locating to Eufaula, Oklahoma, the site of the original Libby's. A third store is located in Tulsa. Her strong attraction to beautiful buildings is the reason there's a Libby's in the Central West End. When she and her husband were in town for a wedding, sitting outside Llywelyn's having a beer,  she spied the "for lease" sign in the window across the street. Before her husband knew what happened she had signed a lease and was ordering clothing for a Libby's in St. Louis.

Her employees, who seem to have just shown up at propitious times (she has never conducted an interview), all live in the neighborhood. Rose Sullivan was walking her dog by the store just before it opened, and stopped in to ask Debbie if there was anything she could do to help. Debbie asked if she knew how to operate a steamer. Rose didn't, but wound up steaming clothing for hours and has been on the sales staff ever since. For the past few years I assumed that neighbor Hannah Roth just liked hanging out at the shop (it is that kind of place) with her Japanese Chins, Miles and Ella. The day I visited Debbie I learned that she works there part-time.

Debbie goes to market in Dallas or Las Vegas six times a year to buy for her three shops. She looks for loose free-flowing clothing--without zippers--for women over 35 who are of average body size and want to dress with an artistic flair.  Debbie buys differently for the CWE location than for her stores in Oklahoma, as people tend to dress up more in St. Louis. There are larger, dressier weddings here, more people attending graduations, and out-of-towners who come back every year to stock up on the latest fashions when they are in town for Cardinals games.

Dresses at Libby's are priced in the very reasonable $50 to $80 range. Debbie treats the sleeveless knit turquoise dress, $50, shown above, as a canvas over which to layer flowing tops, to dress it up or down for the occasion. The multi-colored knit "Adore" top, $176, shown with the dress in the photo above is one of the more expensive pieces in the store. 

The open-weave jacket, right, shown over the same style dress as above but in black, is $68. It also comes in a soft grey.
The store stocks lots of cool-looking linen pieces for summer, as well as some unusual sandals. There is a also a large selection of costume jewelry in the display cases. The multi-strand necklace shown with the outfit  right is $35.

 

 

 

 

 

 Libby's carries eco-friendly gossamer-thin silk scarves that fly out of the store at $32, left.

 

 

 

 

 

Capri-length summer leggings with rhinestone buttons come in brown, grey, turquoise and white, $34. There is also a selection of full and half slips in black and white that are cleverly "2 or 3 lengths in 1," $20 to $30, i.e. you can actually cut them to the length that works for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brightly colored form-fitting "jeggings," a cross between jeans and leggings come in sizes 4 to 14, $88. They can be worn with a long top for more coverage. These quickly sell out each time they are reordered. More sizes and colors are on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very snappy leather iPad or Kindle case, $52, right, makes me wish I had one or the other of those devices to slip inside.

 

 

 

 

Besides juggling three Libby's (named after one of her dog's) Debbie Gibbens runs an Italian restaurant, called The Stuffed Olive, located on a lake in Eufaula. Why a restaurant, and why call it The Stuffed Olive, I asked? Again, because she fell in love with the real estate---and her mother's an Olive. "It's really cute," Debbie said, "the former haberdashery is all cedar and in the summer the sailboats go by on the lake (the largest man-made lake in the U.S.)...it was hard to resist." We're just glad she found a space that was hard to resist right here in the CWE. It's great place to shop, fun to visit, and now, with five more years to look forward to, Libby's has become a fixture in the neighborhood!

Libby's, The Picasso of Women's Clothing, 4742 McPherson, Tues.- Sat. 11 to 6, Sun. 11 to 4, (314) 454-3003.

New City School 4th Graders garden for others

One blustery February afternoon New City School 4th graders and their teachers were introduced to an urban garden they were adopting as part of a curriculum on citizenship. The fruits of the children's farming efforts were to benefit two food pantries in the Central West End, one at Trinity Church and the other at Second Presbyterian Church. Involving the children in the gardening effort was the idea of indefatigable CWEA Board Member, Arthur Culbert (see photo below). The plot of land on Waterman had been farmed for the same purpose the year before by a group from Health Literacy Missouri on Euclid (see post here).

On their first day working the garden, the children were handed seeds for lettuces and spring peas. Despite the chilly conditions, mittens were foresaken so the seeds could be sown in neat rows. Each child was given a pumpkin seed to plant in a paper cup full of soil. The pumpkin seeds were carried back to the classroom to germinate on the windowsill. I overheard one student say that she couldn't wait to make a pumpkin pie! Another said, "I am so excited, this is like a dream come true."

Photo courtesy of Arthur Culbert

The photo above was taken much more recently. Arthur's gardening scheme also involves neighborhood businesses. Wolfgang's Pet Stop on Euclid donates pet hair from grooming sessions that is put into mesh bags and laid around the garden to repel rabbits. Accompanying the hair, Wolfgang's sends a picture of the donor, which garners lots of admiration from the children. New Market Hardware on Laclede at Sarah recently donated paint sticks for signs the students made for the food pantry. And a neighborhood volunteer, Emma Holtzman, waters the garden every morning.

Photo courtesy of Arthur Culbert

The 4th graders have proved to be enthusiastic farmers. One of the student's parents called Arthur on a  recent Saturday morning to ask if she could bring the sleepover group to work in the garden that day. Just yesterday the children worked for over an hour harvesting 16 pounds of collard greens, lettuce, spinach, and turnip greens for Trinity's Food Pantry. They carefully shook the dirt off the greens and put the produce into 20 bags, which was delivered to the church for yesterday's clients.

 

Photo courtesy of Arthur Culbert

Photo courtesy of Arthur Culbert

The photo above shows the produce on the table at Trinity's Food Pantry. Someday soon the 4th graders will take a field trip to meet the clients they serve.

 

 

Arthur Culbert also planted fruit trees around the perimeter of the garden, above. This whole effort from start to finish is the work of this one wonderful volunteer. He came up with the idea, arranged for the involvement of New City School, and purchased the vegetable seeds and fruit trees on his own. And the benefits of this effort will definitely leave an impression on these young lives and benefit those who are less fortunate.  Many thanks to Arthur for his amazing contribution.

Meet designer Emily Brady Koplar

Emily Wai Ming Brady (Koplar) was interested in clothing starting at a very young age and would sketch outfits she would like to wear. She was encouraged by her parents with the gift of her first sewing machine at age 11. She wore the free-spirited clothing she made to a Kirkwood grade school, but when she transferred to MICDS---with its stricter dress code---her designs were saved for proms and working on costumes for school plays.  Her artistic family includes an Irish father who plays the piano, and a Chinese mother who Emily says has the vision in the family. Both encouraged Emily and her brother, an artist who works for Amazon in Seattle, in their artistic endeavors.

While this is a post about Emily, I imagine you're curious about her connection to the Koplars, a family that has been prominent in the Central West End for four generations. Emily has been married for three years to Bob Koplar, a lawyer who is working on the successful relaunch of the family's Voltron property,  a TV series that originally aired in syndication in the mid-1980s.

While clothing design was her passion, practical Emily majored in Economics at Boston University where she also took classes in costume production. After graduation she earned an AAS degree from Parsons School of Design in New York.  She then became a designer for The May Company's private Valerie Stevens label, and then worked for Aeropostale. Last year Emily started her own clothing design company under the label, "Wai Ming," which is her middle name, meaning "gift of light."

Emily creates her designs in a home studio. She hires professionals for pattern and sample-making and uses interns from WU's Sam Fox School of Design to help with computer sketching, packing, and other odds and ends. She uses novelty fabrics from Italy, and silks from Japan. The pattern in the silk blouse that Emily wore the day we met at Ivy Hill in the CWE, and in the dress shown above, is her own design. It takes a full year from fabric selection to shipment of finished product to the stores, so this young designer is always working in a different season. When we met she was about to ship the Spring line, but was working on her collection for the Fall season.  Emily travels to New York at least twice a month to oversee the production of her clothing in the Garment District. 

Hillary Dutcher, the proprietress of Ivy Hill, told me she has done very well with the Wai Ming line. Pieces from the 2012 Spring collection arrived at the neighborhood boutique last week. Pleated skirts are $140 to $180, blouses and tops, $130 to $150, dresses are $300 to $400. For now Emily is content selling to smaller venues, as she gets immediate feedback from their customers. While I don't want to guide you out of the neighborhood to shop, you can also find pieces of Wai Ming's Spring collection at Cha and Esther in St. Louis, Thread in Columbus, Ohio, and Roslyn in Chicago. Her lined was recently picked up by Searle in New York, and Thistle & Clover in Brooklyn.

It was great fun for me to talk to Emily last month and get an advance peek at her Spring collection. The world of fashion is such a tough business to break into, and I greatly admire this talented St. Louisan for following her passion and making a success of it. For more information, or to get on Wai Ming's mailing list, contact Emily at: info@waimingstudio.com.