“Nell” Noell (’04 BSGEO) of Charleston, S.C.
Lashawn Laree Gee (’03 AB) and Jeffrey Lamont
Henighan (’01 ABJM) of Kernersville. Kristen
Heather McArthur (’03 BSDH) and Whitley Wayne
Bartholomew of Cary. Melinda Anne Woodall (’03
BSN) and Benjamin Hill Davidson (’03 AB) of
Arlington, Va.
■ family addition
Brian Michael Rogers (’03 BSCS) and Lindsay
Bowers Rogers (’02 AB) of Durham; a son, Hudson
Dean Rogers, on June 5, 2008.
’04 Michael Lafon Wiley (’04 MFA) of Apex
performed his adaptation of the book
Life Is So Good in a play of the same
name, dramatizing multiple characters in the story
of George Dawson, a descendant of slaves who
lived into the 20th century. The performance at the
Holly Springs Cultural Center included a supporting
cast of characters performed by C. David zum Brunnen Jr. ’ 86 (AB) under the direction of Serena
Michelle Ebhardt ’ 88 (AB). In November, Wiley presented his adaptation of Tim Tyson’s Blood Done
Sign My Name at the Sheafer Theater at Duke University.
Want to connect with a classmate?
E-mail addresses for more than
190,000 UNC alumni are available
online to members only in the
Alumni Directory.
There’s more online. alumni.unc.edu
■ marriages
Catherine Na-Yen Cheng (’04, ’05 ABJM) and
Archie Valejo “Tre” Jones III (’05 AB) of New York.
Catherine Thomson Davis (’04 ABJM) and
Matthew Edwin Hornaday (’01 BSBA, ’02 MAC) of
Winston-Salem. Helen Nelson “Nell” Noell (’04
BSGEO) and Russell Edward Byrd (’03 AB) of
Charleston, S.C. Jennifer Michelle Parker (’04
AB) and Jeremy Surla Buenviaje (’02 BSMS) of
Mebane. Kimberly Nicole Rouse (’04 BSDH) and
Harrison Alexander LeRoi Hall (’04 BSIS) of
Fayetteville.
■ family addition
Elizabeth Cohen Ponder (’04 AB) and Steven Ponder
of Ansbach, Germany; a son, Jacob Robert Ponder,
on Jan. 23, 2008.
’05 Karianne Carter (’05 AB) of Jacksonville
graduated in May 2008 from Campbell
Law School. Carter is a lawyer with
Strout & Oswalt, Attorneys at Law. Elizabeth Duncan Routh (’05 BSBIO) of Winston-Salem has
received the Medical Student Research Award from
Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where
she is in her second year of study. Routh’s project,
Evaluation of Biomarkers for MEK Inhibitor Treatment
in Pancreatic Cancer, was conducted in collaboration with the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer
Center.
■ marriages
William Woodard Anders (’05 BSBA) and Lydia
Hastings Parrott (’06 AB) of Charlotte. Thomas
Davie Barrier (’05 AB) and Tiffany Karen Stone of
Winston-Salem. Lauren Elizabeth Brownlow (’05
A Belle for Beaus
Business couldn’t be finer for a Southern
belle from Carolina with an eye for what the
well-dressed Southern gentleman should wear.
That self-described belle would be Reagan
Hardy ’04, who with business partner Emily
Howard started Southern Proper, a clothing line
whose colorful products include long silk ties
and bow ties (called Beaus after the name of
Hardy’s black Labrador retriever, who figures
prominently in company advertising) with
whimsical images that evoke the iconic
Southern lifestyle — mint juleps, buttercups,
magnolias and cotton bolls. The company
also produces polo shirts, frat hats, visors,
women’s headbands and boxer shorts. The
cotton boll tie is the company’s No. 1 seller.
Hardy comes by her love of the South naturally — she grew up on a farm in Kinston.
Her goal with Southern Proper was to create a
fashionable company that cares about the
people and places of the South.
“The South is such a hospitable place,”
Hardy said. “People love the tone of the South
and all that it has to offer. Wherever they live
and whatever walk of life they come from,
they like to take a piece of that.”
She and Howard live in Atlanta, where
they operate Southern Proper out of Howard’s
home. The two worked for Goody Products, a
division of Rubbermaid, before taking the
plunge into the fashion world. Hardy, who
graduated with a journalism degree, handles
sales and public relations, while Howard handles product development.
They created their clothing line because
they couldn’t find apparel that specifically targeted the Southern gentleman. Their research
showed a gap in the marketplace for a line that
was specifically “Southern preppy.”
“Emmy and I have always loved two things
— Southern men and fashion — so we thought,
gosh, this would be a neat way not only to do
something that we loved but also to help guys an eye on the future. They
out and give them a specific Southern clothing are developing a line of
line,” Hardy said. blazers for gentlemen and profile
She takes inspiration for clothing fashions planning a children’s line
from college students. “College students set the and a sub-brand of South-pace. When alums come back for football and ern Proper that would be a trendier, more edgy
basketball games, they get an idea based on women’s boutique line.
Most clothing sold by Southern Proper is
COURTESY OF SOUTHERN PROPER
manufactured and warehoused in North Carolina. The line is in 185 stores nationwide,
and Hardy expected the company to rack up
sales of more than $800,000 by the end of
2008. College students make up 60 percent
of customers; business people account for
the rest.
“It’s amazing how we’ve been able to do
it in two and a half years,” Hardy said. “We
are women in a men’s business. We’re in the
minority. There are some advantages and
disadvantages to that. But it has pushed us
to be that much better.”
The company gets the word out by staging trunk shows at such establishments as
Julian’s in Chapel Hill and Charlotte’s in
Raleigh and with its Tailgates and Ties Tour,
which targets football games (including Carolina’s Homecoming/RAMpage weekend in
November). Campus representatives —
called Belles for Beaus — also tout the company line on campuses and at fraternities
and sororities. Hardy credits courses in mar-
Emily Howard, left, and Reagan Hardy ’04 started Southern Proper
keting and feature writing that she took at
as a fashionable company that cares about the people and places UNC for preparing her to take on the real
of the South.
world.
Hardy’s personal style philosophy is simple.
“Emmy would describe me as trendy-conser-vative,” Hardy said. “I love high heels. I love
something that I feel comfortable in and that I
feel good about myself in. I do take pride in
what I look like. I think that says a lot about a
person, about who you are.”
what these college students are wearing about
what’s the latest and greatest trend,” Hardy
said. “They take those trends back to the work-place. A lot of our designs can translate from
the classroom to the boardroom and from the
fraternity to the farm.”
While studying current fashions, they keep
— Don Evans ’ 80
