No negativity allowed | Ann + Sid Mashburn
Recorded in August 2022, a Brigadoon Monthly Call with Ann + Sid Mashburn.
Ann Mashburn started her career on the editorial side of fashion at Conde Nast. She served as an assistant to famed Vogue fashion editor and stylist Polly Mellen, which meant lots of running around and schlepping samples, but also working on photo shoots with some of the greats: Richard Avedon and Irving Penn on one side of the camera, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford on the other (to name a few).
She left Vogue to serve as Glamour's fashion editor, and then as a stylist at J.Crew a few years later. Ann took a break from the world of tearsheets and photo shoots to raise her daughters, but jumped back in when she and Sid moved to Atlanta to open the shop in 2007.
Sid was also in the fashion industry, working as a designer (J.Crew, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Lands’ End.) Since meeting in their early 20s, they’d known that whether it was making mix tapes or throwing parties, what they really loved wasn’t just creating things, but sharing them with others. They may not have known it at the time, but they spent the first 20-something years together laying the creative groundwork for a brand of their own.
Sid Mashburn is an American fashion designer and head of his eponymous brand based in Atlanta.
Sid had always wanted to build a menswear brand. But from the records playing to the rugs underfoot to the ephemera pinned to the moodboard, his dream was as much about the physical space to share it in as the clothing itself.
Hospitality, not just design.
The brand has brick-and-mortar stores in Houston, Dallas, Washington DC (Georgetown), and Los Angeles (Brentwood) with the main store in Atlanta's Westside Provisions District.
Sid Mashburn grew up in small-town Mississippi but began his design career in New York in the mid-1980s, as J.Crew’s first men’s designer.
His interest in tailoring and vintage clothing (and love of the hunt) made up for his lack of formal design training, and he designed the brand’s first heritage piece—the Barn Jacket.
He was later recruited by Ralph Lauren to join the design team at Polo, and after subsequent stints leading design at Tommy Hilfiger and Lands’ End, it was time to do his own thing.
His wife Ann had been on the editorial side of fashion, working in magazines at Condé Nast (Vogue, Glamour) and then as a stylist at J.Crew.
Since meeting in their early 20s, they’d known that whether it was making mix tapes or throwing parties, what they really loved wasn’t just creating things, but sharing them with others.
They may not have known it at the time, but they spent the first 20-something years together laying the creative groundwork for a brand of their own.
You can follow Ann Mashburn on Instagram here and follow Sid Mashburn on Instagram here.
Notes:
"Clothes stores and restaurants are both hospitality businesses and customer-centric."
"Being surrounded by excellence."
Familiarity + Surprise
"How do we make the store a wonderland?"
The Soap Opera: Serving you natural and luxury bath and grooming products since 1972 - Madison, WI Web
"Making the tailor shop the central focus of the store... part theatre and celebrating the acumen of the tailors."
The original inspiration board in Sid Mashburn's Atlanta men's shop. Featuring: A note from Chef Alton Brown, a giraffe, and an OG Apple sticker. Pinterest
Why barn coats—a J. Crew classic—are coming back: Humble and versatile, the men’s barn jacket—a utilitarian American staple for hunters, farmers, and politicians—has found new favor in the pandemic era among urbanites and suburbanites. WSJ
#YouNeedThisIPromise
Good.
Better.
Best.
Core.
Core-Plus.
Fashion.
"How do you open up the aperture of customer opportunity?"
"Every outfit can only take one lead singer."