Life is busy these days for Lacie Cupani of Little Rock.
She's the designer of Cupani Fashion, a collection of crocheted pieces with flair whose first appearance at Little Rock Fashion Week garnered 2014 Clothing Line of the Year honors. She has made a dress for Arkansas' new first lady, Susan Hutchinson. And she's now getting ready to show her line during Baton Rouge Fashion Week from Feb. 25-28, in New York on April 25, during Little Rock Fashion Week 7 in July and in London in October.
In the meantime, Cupani has been planning a splashy charity event. The inaugural "Cupani's Cupidon Is Inviting You!" Valentine's Day Party will be held from 6 to 9:30 p.m Saturday at the Statehouse Convention Center, Ballroom D. Cupani promises a romantic evening featuring dinner, dancing, entertainment, games, photo opportunities with body builders and fashion models, and music. And, of course, there's a fashion show with guest designers Brandon D. Campbell (IMe), Treva "DivaStyl" Burns (Merocki), Jennifer K. Smith (Ms Smitty) and Bruce Davis (22nd Element). Cupani will donate 10 percent of ticket sales to the IQ Edu-Science Learning Foundation, a new organization designed to enhance student achievement in the areas of math, science and reading. Students from Osaka, Japan, will arrive in April to work with Arkansas students in the program, Cupani says.
Tickets for the event are $49.99-$99.49 at Cupanifashion.com.
A native of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, Cupani started out simply making crocheted items and giving them to friends for events such as baby showers. Those friends, inside and outside the United States, amplified her reputation by word of mouth.
Cupani's inaugural line came out Valentine's Day 2013; she started the company that June. "And then my husband bought me tickets to Little Rock Fashion Week" that year, she says.
She attended wearing her black Tulip Dress, a short, sleeveless, scoop-necked cocktail dress of mercerized crochet cotton using crochet guipure lace flowers and netting. It got her noticed by Sonya Swinton of Washington, publisher and host for Internet Celebrity magazine and radio show, who interviewed Cupani. "And then I decided, 'OK, I'm going to do my collection and I will go to Little Rock Fashion Week'" the next year as a featured designer, she says.
Although Cupani is the designer, she takes each client's preferences into consideration before making her outfits.
"Every time I'm asking 'What do you want to express ... with your dress.'" Many tell her they want to look younger, feel sexy. She asked Hutchinson this question. "She said she would like to express dignity, tradition and [conservatism]," Cupani recalls. The resulting dress, done in sugarplum-colored yarn, features a vertical leaf-and-vine pattern. Cupani created the dress in nine days.
Dry Winter Skin, continued
Well, the groundhog came out Feb. 2, looked for his shadow, and ugh, saw it, which means six more weeks of the cold stuff, and the war with our dry winter skin wages on.
I introduced a few skin moisturizers in the last column; here are a few more, all of which I tried.
• Skin care products by La Bella: Almond & Honey Luxurious Bar Soap and Chamomile & Aloe Soothing Bar Soap (both 99 cents each); and Vitamin E Facial Cream with Aloe Vera ($4.99). The soap was a nice, skin-pampering ride; the facial cream is indeed good to thirsty skin, plus it smells wonderful. La Bella products are at Target, Wal-Mart and Walgreens.
• Two products from Kiss My Face: Spray-on Light Moisturizing Lotion with lavender and shea butter ($9.99) and Pure Coconut Milk Bar Soap ($3.99, or $5.99 for a three-pack). The bar soap lathers so generously, it should last a bit. The lotion is lush but not greasy. Kiss My Face can be found at Whole Foods, Kissmyface.com, Amazon.com and various supermarkets.
• Two items from Farmhouse Fresh: Sundae Best Chocolate Softening Mask ($20) and Ruby Red Grapefruit Sea Salt Scrub ($34). The mask is a thick, kaolin-clay softening mud mask that has real chocolate in it to pull impurities and dead skin cells from pores and soften the effects of wrinkles, sagging and dryness. The scrub -- made with grapefruit extract, bears an all-natural, ripened grapefruit scent, along with a deep pink hue that resembles its namesake. Not bad; users should expect their skin to feel tight after using the mask. The biggest challenge might be trying not to eat either product. Both are available at Farmhousefreshgoods.com, luxury retail boutiques and top destination spas and resorts.
Suds for a cause
How about soap that could save a life? Colorado entrepreneurs Aaron Madonna and Juwon Melvin started LifeSoap Co. with a mission to turn soap into clean water. So far, sales of their Boxes of Joy soap products have funded a number of clean water projects for schoolchildren in Nicaragua. The company has grown from a bar soap subscription company to a bath and body movement that offers four bar soaps, two lotions, two body washes, nine packages, and special limited-edition seasonal products. All are shipped via subscriptions ranging from $13-$70 each month. The company also offers a monthly limited-edition package. January customers were offered the Fresh Start Package, a paraben-free Calendula Mint Bar and Revitalize Citrus Basil Shea Lotion. Ten percent of the cost of each purchase goes to supply clean water to schoolchildren in communities across the world. Visit Lifesoapcompany.com.
Keeping it real ... modest
Not every woman wants to walk around in revealing clothing. And luckily, not every wardrobe purveyor caters to those who do.
Take Diviine ModesTee, an online and brick-and-mortar boutique offering "divine" dresses and swim collections for women and teens as well as children. The company stays on top of the trends, but delivers them in a way that leaves something to the imagination -- for instance, feminine dresses and tops that are high-cut and flatter the body without clinging and swimwear that doesn't reveal the three B's (breasts, bellies or "buns"). The label is broken up into four collections: Sweet Innocence Dresses for day and evening; Tres le Jen, rife with items offering "a fresh and vibrant color palette and tons of adorable styles to juniors everywhere"; the Daisy Petal collection for 'tweens; and Divinita Sole Swimwear, which gives wearers the option of customizing their suits with choices of tops and bottoms in different colors and prints. Visit Diviinemodestee.com and Divinitasole.com.
Got fashion and beauty news? Contact Helaine R. Williams, Dressing Room, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or email:
hwilliams@arkansasonline.com
High Profile on 02/08/2015