Where does style come from? Are we born with it or, with enough study and determination, can we acquire it? It's a question editors tend to ponder, since as much as anything, magazines are about style, that elusive quality that invests those who have it with glamour and allure and speaks worlds about our aspirations and our culture-which may be why magazines-and readers-find it so endlessly fascinating.
Wherever it came from, there's no question that Southwest Florida has a style all its own, as photographer Mary McCulley realized several years ago when she was driving down Gulf Shore Boulevard in Naples and spotted a well-dressed gentleman standing in front of his topiary hedges and trees. The man had placed his white standard poodle on a card table and was giving him a classic French cut. "The little tufts of fur on the poodle's legs and tail were exactly the same shape as the topiary trees," remembers Mary. "All I could think was, oh, how I wish I had my camera!" That quintessential Naples image, with everything it suggests about wealth, ornamentation and our refining of the native tropical landscape, lingered; and the result is our playful tribute to "The Good Life," a high-fashion fairy tale about sophistication and style, Southwest-Florida style.
That story makes the perfect centerpiece for this issue about Gulfshore style-something that not that long ago was mainly about quiet retirement and low-key vacation living. We've come a long way since then. Jet setters, high-powered entrepreneurs, wealthy young retirees, successful professionals and working families from other regions and countries have added to the local melting pot, and the result is a new Southwest Florida style, one that blends our relaxed, seaside sensibility with cosmopolitan taste and sophistication. Even a decade ago, discriminating shoppers often headed to the east coast or up North to find what they wanted; but today, our shops overflow with the latest couture fashions, fine jewelry, Old Master paintings, designer linens, rare wines and exquisite objects of every sort.
But there's more to style than conspicuous consumption, and all the trappings of wealth can't create that indescribable mix of presence, poise and personality that signals here is a person who knows himself-and is also worth our knowing. In 1937, Emily Post warned the readers of her Etiquette against ostentation. "Overdressed" and "over-trimmed," she wrote, the "woman of uncultivated taste has no more sense of moderation that the Queen of the Cannibals." Everything about her, from the food she orders to the appearance she makes is so rich, that "to see her often is like nothing so much as to be forced to eat a large amount of butter-plain." Those with style, on the other hand, understand the power of restraint, expressing "the individuality of beautiful taste combined with personal dignity and grace." Or as the greatest style setter of them all, Coco Chanel, once declared, "Fashion passes; style endures."
And it's enduring longer than it used to, says our own style editor, Marsha Fottler. In "Timeless Beauty," beginning on page 102, she notes than modern advances in health and beauty now enable us to look-and feel-great at any stage of life, and to prove her point, she spotlights five Southwest Florida women. They range in age from their early 20s to mid-60s, and as you'll see in the photographs by Stefan Andreev, they all look sensational. But they were chosen for more than their looks or their fashion sense. Our style setters have the staying power that comes from understanding who they are and expressing that with confidence and grace. Much as they all love fashion-we're talking about women who gladly suffer for stilettos and follow daunting exercise and diet regimens-every one of them agreed that character is the most beautiful attribute of all. As actress Anjelica Huston said when she turned 50, "It's not about a number. Age is largely in your head. What matters most is what you do with your life." And that's an idea that will always be in style.
Print this page
Email to a Friend
Digg This Article
Purchase this Issue
