Lowcountry Boil

Ashley Newsome

WRITTEN BY Kristina Shernoff

I have had the pleasure of knowing Ashley Newsome, fashion designer, owner of Haberdashery (Savannah, Georgia), and 2012 Charleston Fashion Week Emerging Designer Contestant, for about five years.  In those five years, I have watched her earn it and own it.  She is one of the hardest working women I know who knows exactly what she is capable of.  She’s an inspiration to say the least.  Every bit of recognition she is receiving lately is more than well-deserved…it was seized with a needle and thread, forward thinking and good intentions.  I had a chance to get together with her in the midst of the madness of preparing for Charleston Fashion Week for a little Q & A session.

Miss A:  Give us a brief history of you.  Where were you raised?  What brought you to this point?  (Inspirations, life experiences, etc.)

Ashley:  I think I was inspired mostly as a kid by my grandmother Margaret (maternal) she taught me to sew a little bit and I was always fascinated by her fabrics and making stuff.  I was always a really artistic kid.  I would make these sketchbooks with girls wearing clothes that I had designed.  I would give them names like Ginger, Madison or Keeley or something and she would be a brunette, blonde or dorky depending on the theme that I had in mind.  Mom kept every one.  I think they knew that fashion design was my destiny.  I Got most artistic superlative in HS. I was really pushed by my art teachers, the Bannermans.  I took art lessons from Mary Louise Bannerman in K-8 then went on to take art classes in High School with her husband, Mark.  They were both really prolific and talented artists.  Unique, beautiful and differnt folks in a town as small as Whiteville NC.   I admired them so much.  They taught me to love art.  So when I graduated, It was natural for me to go to NCSU in Raleigh for Art and Design and Textiles on a scholarship.  My second choice was College of Charleston for Art Therapy.  I was one of the first Annie Albers Scholars at NCSU, meaning I got a dual degree in Art and Design from the College of Design and Textile Technology from the College of Textiles, which is one of the top textile shcools in the country.  After graduation I knew so much about fabric, but not much about clothing construciton so I decided to get my Masters in Fashion at SCAD in Savannah and here i am. 

Miss A:  Tell us a little about Haberdashery.

Ashley:  Haberdashery is my baby.  It is my design studio where we focus on creating sustainable, environmentally friendly and socially conscious clothing. We focus on custom clothing design, wholesale to local boutiques and alterations to existing garments, which in my eyes is one of the most eco friendly things to do with your clothing…rework what you already have.  However, I do love designing from scratch.   We operate from our 311 W broughton St. location, which we share with SATCHEL, another business owned by a very talented SCAD grad named Elizabeth Seeger who makes leather handbags and accessories in our studio.  The atmosphere in there is great, charged with energy and just a bunch of girls making fashion locally and supporting our local economy.

I want haberdashery to be a clothing line that is recognized for unique, quirky, customizable clothing.  I want to see the Haberdashery Eco line to be carried in Charleston, and throughout the US in coming months/years.  I want people to see what eco fashion can be and is through our innovative designs.  We focus on the fabrics.  We do alot of surface design because it is really hard to source colored or printed eco friendly materials without meeting crazy minimum orders from china.  So we do alot of the grunt work, but that makes each piece truly unique and custom for each person, so we try to make that our focus.  Clothing shoud have meaning.  It should be bought with longevity in mind.  So we try to keep our styles classic with a twist to give the garment an extended fashion life.

Miss A:  How has the experience  building up to Charleston Fashion Week 2012 been so far?  (Any fun stories, unexpected events, interesting people?)

Ashley: Preparations for Charleston Fashion Week (TM) have been so exciting, stressful, tiring and invigorating leading up to this week.  I feel like my life has revolved around this 2012 fall/winter collection for the past 4 months which would not be too far off.  I have been working around the clock to make it happen.  First was sourcing fabrics, so a trip to New York  ensued.  This was hard because we want to source eco friendly, but we need fabric that we can get replinished sources, so stores like MOOD and B and J, although they are my faves did not offer continuous yardages.  These stores have only small amounts of fabrics.  so that was a challenge.  I ended up buying greige goods fabrics (undyed materials from the factory) and having them naturally dyed to my color specifications and also did alot of the designs myself in studio.  We used alot of burnout satin, velvet, silk and even some upcycled furs.

Thats an interesting story… So we got the fur collars off vintage coats because they can’t be taken apart to make fur pillows.  The hides were not big enough square footage wise, so we used the collars as the basis of the design and went from there.  True recycling and one of a kind.  Lots of hand beading… lots of work. 

Miss A:  Where can we find Haberdashery?

Ashley:  You can find Haberdashery on our website www.habsav.com.   Line sheet will be fully viewable in May and hopefully in your local boutiques in the fall!!!

People can find me on King st. working diliigently at ONELOVE 478 King.  This is my friend and local designer, Rachel Gordon’s boutique, open by appointment only!!!  Please call ahead to see her beautiful work.  She is fantastic.   If you would like to meet with me please call Haberdashery at 912-335-8763 or email me at info@habsav.com

Ashley will be competing in the Emerging Designer Runway Show on Friday, March 23, 2012.  Come show your support for these designers and see what ‘s in store for our fashion future.

Purchase tickets here