BLOWING UP A GALE

Without craftsmanship, said Brahms, inspiration “is a mere reed shaken in the wind.” His clever double meaning is not lost on artists of the wind instruments, and certainly not on...

ECO-FRIENDLY SHOPPING

Amanda Joseph smiles as she shows off a new-to-her set of bangle bracelets to Ann Shimer, her sister-in-business for the past four years. The jewelry, along with nearly everything else...

Playtime!

Give your favorite patterns free rein....

SAY IT WITH SUCCULENTS

This winter, instead of adorning your home with yet another philodendron, indulge your creative side by pulling together a colorful, easy-to-care-for assortment of succulents....

HIGH STYLE FLYING

Tray Crow, director, interior design, Gulfstream Aerospace, once served as the department chair for interior design at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and was involved with the interior...

SWINGIN’ WITH SUÁREZ

With her rich, expressive interpretations, Charleston chanteuse Leah Suárez joins sister vocalists Ann Caldwell and Quiana Parler in a celebrated triumvirate of Holy City voices, as distinctive in style as...

MY MOTHER’S STYLE

The ultimate compliment in our family was “you look Italian.” The words pretty, stylish, even stunning carried no weight: Italian was the adjective that mattered....

THE ROAD HOME

In 2016, Jesse Kirchner recovered more than $58 million for homeowners and property owners’ associations that had experienced construction defects. No small feat. But helping his clients is just one...

THE ARTFUL PALATE

Muse Restaurant & Wine Bar is a celebration of Mediterranean foods and wine—and so much more....

GORGEOUS WEDDING FASHIONS

Mount Pleasant has changed a lot in the past 40 years. What used to be the outer reaches of town is now in the middle. One thing hasn’t changed though....

SELLING THE WORLD’S NO. 1 CITY

In a charming Charleston Single House near the Gaillard Center— in a part of town that’s hot with new development—is the downtown office of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Carolina Sun Real...

CURRENTS

For more than 30 years, the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) has showcased wildlife and sporting art in Charleston. One of the longest-running events of its kind, SEWE hosts hundreds of...

A MUSIC FESTIVAL’S VIVID HUES

One of the most celebrated musical figures of the 18th century, Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–1799), was a renaissance man of African-French heritage. He was an anomaly in...

A UNIQUE STEAKHOUSE

Four years ago Burwell’s Stone Fire Grill quietly opened on Market Street. Though it’s done little advertising, its unusual approach combined with a reputation for remarkable food and flawless service...

FABULOUSLY FRINGED

FASHION TRENDS...

CURRENTS

What’s New, What’s Happening, What’s Now...

A TOUCH OF CHARLESTON

Classic, high-end gifts that won’t break your budget are not always easy to find. The convenience of shopping at one location for multiple friends and family members comes as a...

THE COMEBACK CONIFER

Once I added flora to my list of curiosities, I was forced to confront the realities of extinction again. Imagine my delight when I learned that a once-thought-to-be extinct tree...

AFFORDABLE GEMS

When he opened Graffito in October 2011, owner Bill Thomasson understood he needed to be creative to successfully operate a jewelry store in one of Charleston’s premier tourist neighborhoods. He...

OVER THE TOP

The last time I caught up with Marshall Simon, owner of Gwynn’s, an upscale shopping mecca in Mount Pleasant, he had just finished helping a client pick out a suit...

TAKING THE CHALLENGING PATH

Sharon Graci and Rodney Lee Rogers could not have chosen a more appropriate name for their company, PURE Theatre. It’s a name that reflects the best sort of ambition—a striving...

WHEN GRILLING MEETS GRITS

My husband, who doesn’t do recipes, has invented Gribits, another breakfast entrée combining Friday night leftovers with Saturday morning grits....

PERSONAL SERVICE AND A FOCUS ON FIT

If you’ve ever hunted for the perfect jeans, these are magical words: “Beija-Flor jeans are flattering, comfortable and designed to work with a woman’s curves. They’re made in Brazil, but...

OREGON PINOT NOIR

They said it couldn’t be done: grow Pinot Noir in Oregon. They were wrong....

MAKING MAGIC

When you walk into one of the four Wonder Works specialty toy stores in the Lowcountry, you are entering an ecosystem that begins and ends with customers who are a...

A GARDEN REVERIE

My sister tells me she could never understand why she’s drawn to gardens with white-painted rocks along the borders— until recently, when she came across an old snapshot that explains...

CURRENTS

What’s New, What’s Happening, What’s Now...

THE BEST MEDICINE

You probably don’t think about oral surgery until you need it. Let’s face it: Most of us aren’t thrilled about going to the dentist, much less an oral surgeon. We...

STYLE, HER WAY

On the eve of Copper Penny boutique’s 30th anniversary, Charleston Style & Design caught up with founder Penny Vaigneur at home in Mount Pleasant to talk about the demands and...

HEALING AND LONGEVITY

The white cotton waffle-weave robe is delivered as a fresh bundle tied with its own sash. Why the robe, I wonder, for a facial described as “a skin quenching cocktail...

MOTHER NATURE’S MIDWIFE

Over the past few years, the words “preservation,” “sustainability” and “conservation” have crept into the urban and suburban gardener’s vernacular. To some, this means commonsense good stewardship, to others it...

MASTERWORK

It seems a shame that I kept the blinds to the front of my apartment closed so much. The window faced the street and my privacy, my sense of decorum,...

WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID

Plato would have recognized Brian Hicks straightaway as a “gadfly,” the philosopher’s term for someone who provokes the power structure and lampoons foolishness....

SHOWTIME!

This is a big year for Charleston’s internationally renowned Spoleto Festival USA, a showpiece for the performing arts that revs up in late spring. It’s a cultural extravaganza that will...

A CENTURY OF BRIDES

Lowcountry brides, take note. If shopping for the most important dress of your life has left you exhausted and discouraged, you should head over to the Charleston Museum for inspiration....

A NEW LOOK

For the past two years, the Gibbes Museum of Art has been closed to the public while it went through a $13.5 million renovation. But on May 28, the Gibbes...

THE END OF ZINN

After 33 years in the Lowcountry, Zinn Rug Gallery in Mount Pleasant is closing its doors. A beloved fixture in Charleston’s Turkish community, owner Nese Zinn is both charming and...

OLD AND NEW

If William Joseph Croghan, the jeweler and hand-engraver who opened Croghan’s Jewel Box on King Street in 1919, could see his store today, there’s a lot he might recognize....

FASHIONS FOR ANY OCCASION

In 1883 the world was on the verge of enormous change. Thomas Edison was building the world’s first overhead lighting system, and Karl Benz was about to introduce the first...

THE ART OF BEAUTY

Shades of blue—the color of the sea, sky and sunrises—surround you. Soft music blends with the soothing sound of flowing water. Plastic Surgery of the Carolinas offers patients an oasis-like...

BE UNIQUE

“Celebrate your uniqueness!” That is the 21st century’s rallying cry for a worldwide movement that encourages people to embrace their individuality and to strive to become exactly who they were...

JAZZ AGE LUXURY

We had long looked forward to last summer’s opening of The Spectator Hotel in Charleston’s historic French Quarter. Advance publicity suggested that it would be a boutique hotel like no...

A MUSICAL LEGACY

What’s New, What’s Happening, What’s Now...

EMBRACING WELLNESS

Stephanie Burg, a lifelong professional ballet dancer, knows the importance of nutrition and positive body image....

BEAUTIFUL AND COVETED

Daughtridge’s background is in advertising and PR, although she’s also worked in interior design and retail. And while she’s not a Charlestonian by birth, she’s lived here for more than...

AN INSANELY GOOD EVENING

A good dinner party is a thing of beauty. If you can assemble an inspiring group of people and give them good wine, memorable food and plenty of time to...

AN ECLECTIC BOUTIQUE

Adornments for women, gear for men—that’s the tagline of Henry & Eva, a Mount Pleasant boutique owned by husband and wife Jeff and Wesley Kennedy. It’s a fitting description. The...

A PASSION FOR PROVENANCE

Like a conductor moments before he raises his baton, Jeremy Wooten—gavel in hand—looks out over the auction house filled with treasure, chatter and buyers from across the country. He glances...

HANDPICKED DIAMONDS

Amidst the medieval streets and Renaissance monuments dominating the centuries-old city of Antwerp, Belgium, lies a single square mile of mostly nondescript-looking 20thcentury structures. Remarkably, the $54 billion annual business...

RELAX AND REPAIR

Kimberly Powell, owner of the spacious 9,000-square-foot Woodhouse Day Spa, thinks she knows a couple of girls who can help fix those pesky wintertime skin concerns. Their names are Wonder...

A LIVELY ENSEMBLE

It’s a cliché born of a dozen movies. Formally dressed dinner guests, having finished a sumptuous repast, settle into a drawing room with their brandies and liqueurs to enjoy the...

A CULTURAL TREASURE

This fall is a great time to check out the exhibits and activities at Charleston’s Halsey Institute, for many years one of the city’s great cultural venues....

HAVEN FOR THE ARTS

Big news this season is the opening of Charleston’s re-envisioned Gaillard Center, a $143.5 million LEED-certified building that has transformed an outdated, ’60s-vintage building into a performance hall with state-of-the-art...

COFFEE ALERT

If you’re a coffee enthusiast, you’ll be excited to know that Counter Culture Coffee (CCC), the Durham, North Carolina-based coffee roaster, recently opened a Charleston Training Center on Spring Street....

TRADITIONAL WITH FLAIR

Looking for the perfect holiday gift for a friend with a passion for interior design? Then pick up a copy of Traditional Interiors, by Brian D. Coleman, a new book...

A LOWCOUNTRY CHRISTMAS

Let’s face it: We need more than sticks, twigs, berries and fluffy stuff to make our Christmas memorable. We need to jazz up our decorations to reflect the season’s joyous...

MAKING HISTORY COME ALIVE

Suzanne Findlen Hood is the curator of ceramics and glass at Colonial Williamsburg. She is co-author, with Janine Skerry, of Salt-Glazed Stoneware in Early America, winner of the American Ceramic...

TRANSFORMATIVE TRAVEL

Some people are born with wanderlust, and I’m one of them. From an early age, a curiosity about the world and yearning for the exotic compelled me to read travel books: Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki,...

RESETTING YOUR METABOLISM

You’ve tried them all. When it comes to weight loss programs, you know the ins and outs. Sure, you’ve lost weight with them, but it crept back on (probably with some...

OBJECTS OF DESIRE

With one quick glance through the storefront window, an unwitting passerby might surmise that they happened upon the hottest new deli in town. It’s lunchtime at Charleston Gold & Diamond...

THE KEYS TO CHARLESTON

If you were asked to imagine the perfect real estate agent, you might start with someone who has lived in Charleston her whole life. Better yet, you’d want a team—two...

INSPIRING WONDER

Whether you’re an experienced parent of four or someone who has to buy the occasional birthday present for a friend’s kid, chances are you’ve been in a Wonder Works toy...

CHARLESTON IS HER PASSION

Beatty Martin is having fun. As a Realtor for Handsome Properties, she spends most days taking her clients through beautiful Charleston properties from the Battery to the beaches. She calls...

DO IT YOUR WAY

What if there were no fashion trends and you could wear comfortable clothes that make you feel beautiful? What if you could get rid of all the things in your...

DON’T STICK YOUR HEAD IN A HINGE

You have heard the saying, “Don’t bury your head in the sand like an ostrich.” In fact, ostriches don’t bury their heads. They lay them on the ground to swallow...

DOROTHEA BENTON FRANK: THE NOVELIST AT EASE

On a sun-splashed day in her new Sullivan’s Island home, Dorothea Benton Frank nibbles on a piece of cake from the Peninsula Grill, sips a cool glass of ice tea...

CHARLESTON’S FIRST ART HOTEL

This spring we stopped by The Vendue (formerly The Vendue Inn), a boutique hotel that, in 2014, completed a multimillion- dollar renovation....

WHERE CUISINE AND HISTORY MEET

Guilds Hollowell, a partner in Charleston Culinary Tours (CCT), offers an amazing fact about the rate at which new restaurants have opened on Upper King Street....

A FRESH TAKE ON FASHION

These days, shopping takes a well-worn track. Walk into any high-end shopping district in any city in the world and you’ll see the same stores touting the same brands....

THE HISTORY OF BOUGAINVILLEA

It should come as no surprise that, because Charleston oozes with history, gardeners from “off”—the local vernacular for people who aren’t from here—want to know about our horticultural heritage....

BUILDING FINANCIAL CONFIDENCE

Sometimes life’s changes come with various financial stresses, compounding an already difficult situation. Charleston native Michelle Ivy Johnson offers a helping hand to those in need of financial guidance and...

NOTHING BUT THE BEST

If there was an Academy Awards for jewelry making, the American Gem Traders Association (AGTA) Spectrum Awards would be it....

THE PLACE TO BE

The first thing you notice about Miss Lulu’s is that it smells good. Not in a perfumy, niceshop kind of way, but in an “I smell really good barbecue” kind...

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE

In Brevard, North Carolina, a town cradled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, the hills are indeed alive with the sounds of music—music by the likes of Mozart, Verdi, Schumann,...

EMBRACING ORNAMENTAL FRUIT TREES

Whether you were born with pluff mud in your veins or you’re a recent transplant, odds are that you have been tempted to purchase one of those scraggly, balled and...

LOUIS YUHASZ: FOUNDER OF LOUIE’S KIDS

In January 2001, Louis Yuhasz’s father died due to complications from obesity. A man who was loved by everyone he knew, his father, affectionately called “Big Louie,” weighed 550 pounds...

MOSS HOUSES

The day I drew my first house plans in Spanish moss, I knew I’d discovered the ideal building material....

EAT, PLAY, RIDE

Nestled among the hills in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, you’ll find Hotel Domestique, a new luxury getaway located some 30 minutes north of Greenville, South Carolina. Reminiscent...

BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS

If you like to read books—and book reviews—you should pick up Art & Craft, Thirty Years on the Literary Beat, a collection of reviews and writer interviews by Bill Thompson,...

HAUTE HORLOGERIE

Windsor Jewelers is one of the South’s most exclusive jewelers, carrying luxury brands that are difficult, if not impossible, to find elsewhere in the Carolinas. Founder Rob Simon started his...

SPOLETO 2015

It’s time again for Spoleto Festival USA, which runs May 22 through June 7. This year’s program promises to be as exciting as ever. Artists from across the United States...

OUR FAVORITE THINGS

I’ve come to The Resort Shop at Freshfields Village on Kiawah Island to learn more about what makes this boutique so special to locals and travelers alike. What I found...

FOREVER PRIZED

The sign just inside the door reads, “Browsers Welcome!” It’s not a sign retail customers expect to see inside a jewelry store, but then again, Joint Venture Estate Jewelers isn’t...

AN ARTISTIC LEGACY

Lowcountry native Angela Stoneworth learned to create sweetgrass baskets in early childhood while working alongside her grandmother and mother....

JEWELRY AS ART

If there’s something that is not inspiring or inspired about goldsmith Michael Corneau, it’s not readily apparent. His transformation from architectural and interior designer to acclaimed custom jewelry designer is...

FINDING A NICHE

After a quick browse through Vivi & Kate, a brand new Mount Pleasant boutique, you’d never guess that general manager Elizabeth Raub’s first calling wasn’t fashion....

A PLACE IN THE SUN

Sean Leighton knows how good it feels to finally find the perfect home. Back when he was serving in the United States Coast Guard, he visited many places up and...

Unforgettable Valentines

No offense to chocolatiers but, if you’re a foam-at-the-mouth gardener like me, you prefer the botanical side of Valentine’s Day instead of the confectionary one. I’d much rather receive a...

LIFE ON A LADDER

I sat and leaned back on the brick chimney. The East Texas sun was beating down on me as I looked down from the second story roof of the home....

GO WILD!

It’s that time of year again, time for the Charleston-based Southeastern Wildlife Exposition (SEWE). This three-day event, which celebrates wildlife and nature through fine art, conservation education, sporting demonstrations and...

ALL ABOUT CHARLESTON

Sometimes a newcomer—defined as someone who’s recently moved to a city and has had several years to explore it with an unbiased eye—offers the best insights on a destination. For...

THE LOWCOUNTRY ON TWO WHEELS

I always enjoy summer, but last summer my pleasure index inched up several notches when I bought my first carbon bicycle—a featherweight machine that allowed me to fly like the...

BANISH BATHROOM BLUES

Look at the pedestal sink or vanity in your guest bathroom. Have you ever wished it were just a little more stylish? Now consider the lights above your wall-mounted mirror....

VINCENT MUSI—CELEBRATING NATURE’S BEAUTY

Award-winning photographer for National Geographic and other international magazines, Vincent Musi has a sharp wit, a preference for sly humor, a keen eye and a never-ending desire to showcase natural...

Sip and Shop

Charleston’s fashion scene just got savvier thanks to Sarah Cobb and her new boutique, MOSA. Cobb says her goal is to offer clients sophisticated, on-trend styles and fresh takes on...

Timeless Treasures

Glenn and Vicki Wolfe were high school sweethearts from Augusta, Georgia, in the 1970s. After graduation, they hit the open road, traveling in a VW Bug headed west toward New...

Sartorial Success

Opening its flagship store on historic lower King Street just over two years ago was a defining moment for Ike Behar. The luxury men’s clothing line took root in the...

Body Language

It was my very first visit to Bits of Lace, an intimate apparel boutique specializing in exclusive foreign and domestic lingerie lines, which proudly opened a second location in Mount...

Tradition Meets Style

When third-generation master goldsmith Paulo Geiss opened his jewelry store in historic Charleston three decades ago, he was carrying on a family tradition that began in Brazil in 1919. As...

17th Year Anniversary