Southern Proper

Frbiz Site


Heritage



Southern Proper's founders grew up in the traditional South - Regan Hardy was born in Kinston, North Carolina and spent most of her life on the Carolina Coast; Emmie Henderson was born and raised on a farm in the Tennessee Delta, spending her childhood harvesting cotton. The two met at Brenau Women College in Gainesville, GA in 1999 through their sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. The brand is based on dressing the part of, or like a, preppy southern gentleman. A preppy look generally entails dress-trousers or khakis, a button-down shirt, a natural-shoulder sport coat or jacket, a bow tie or neck tie, and loafers with tassels or boat shoes. high voltage switchgear

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College Presence



The company caters mainly to young college men, especially those who attend southern universities. To maintain its presence on college campuses in the south, the company hosts multiple events throughout the year.



The Great Southern Fraternity Hunt 2008 In 2008, the company held a competition to find the nation's "frattiest" southern gentlemen and crown them the top "frattiest" southern fraternity chapter. They invited fraternity men to submit information about their chapter, a short explanation of why the chapter felt they were the best southern fraternity, and "fratty" or preppy pictures or videos of the brotherhood.



Tailgates & Ties Another form of marketing the company uses is integrating fashion with a southern tradition - football . Southern Proper hosts trunk shoes at different universities throughout the south, setting up stands in small fashion boutiques off-campus; a small custom-item, usually croakies or coozies, are given away.



Belles for Beaus A elle is an archetype for a young woman of the American Old South's upper class. eau is the word the company uses to refer to southern gentlemen; beau is usually a synonym for boyfriend. 2008-2009 was Southern Proper 2nd year doing their elles for Beaus campus ambassador program. The company has 54 elles representing 30 different Southern universities. The program is a marketing venture the company uses to include female undergrads in their demographic. The elles job description entails dressing eaus, or gentlemen, in a southern-style. Southern Proper uses an application to offer the positions to the elles and utilizes the program in hopes maintaining Omni-presence on the college campuses of their target market. The elles help to organize and coordinate fraternity fashion shows, tailgates, and other events throughout the year.



Represented Colleges for 2008-2009 Include:



College Name



Number of "Belles"



University of Alabama



3



Appalachian State



2



Auburn University



2



Clemson University



2



College of Charleston



3



College of William & Mary



1



East Carolina University



1



Elon University



2



Florida State



1



University of Florida



3



Furman University



2



University of Georgia



2



University of Kentucky



2



Louisiana State



2



Mid Tenn State



2



NC State



1



University of Oklahoma



2



Ole Miss



1



Presbyterian College



1



Sweet Briar College



2



University of Tennessee



2



University of Texas



2



Texas A&M



1



University of North Carolina



3



UNC-Wilmington



1



University of Virginia



2



Vanderbilt



1



Virginia Tech



3



Wellesely College



1



Wofford College



1



Products



Southern Proper uses a southern-themed play-on-words for their different lines.



Their bowties are called "Beaus"; neckties are "Gents"; pocket squares are "Proper Pockets"; and business ties are dubbed "Field & Fancy". Neckwear has prints of southern staples such as crabs, crawfish, Carolina lighthouses, oaks, palmetto trees, pheasants, azaleas, dragonflies, mint julep, shrimp, cherry blossoms, steam boats, quail, bushels of cotton, hounds, various labrador retrievers, and magnolias. Their formal line of bowties and cummerbunds are called "Southern Stars" and cater to those attending weddings, cotillions, and dubutante balls.



Along with knit shirts, Southern proper has a "Sweet Tee" line of t-shirts (after the drink popular ) for both men and women.



There is also a line of "Frat Hats" further solidifying the company's bond with fraternities.



Mascot



Beau, a Black Labrador Retriever, has been with the company since he was about 12 weeks old (ca. Christmas 2006). He is seen modeling bowties, makes appearances at Southern Proper events, and is the logo of the company. Recently, the company acquired two other labs - a black lab named Gent and a yellow lab named Belle, keeping the names in line with the company's product-line names.



Locations



Southern Proper does not have retail stores. Instead, they operate via internet sales and through boutique stores primarily in the South and off-campus of southern colleges and universities. States that sell Southern Proper Products are:



Arkansas (1 store), Alabama (16), California (1), Connecticut (2), Delaware (1), Florida (3), Georgia (34), Kentucky (5), Louisiana (1), Maryland (6), Massachusetts (1), Mississippi (11), Missouri (1), New Jersey (1), New York (2), North Carolina (25), Oklahoma (1), South Carolina (21), Tennessee (8), Texas (6), and Virginia (8).



Press



Southern Proper has been featured in magazines such as Southern Living, Georgia Living People & Places, internet articles, internet television, and newspapers every month since March 2006 .



^ http://http://www.southernproper.com/belles.html



^ http://www.allyall.tv/video-232-Southern%20Proper



^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_hospitality



^ http://www.ivy-style.com/southern-gentleman.html



^ http://www.sacscoc.org/



^ http://frattinghard.com/fratty-attire/



^ http://www.dixiefriedsports.com/Top_Southern_Traditions.html



^ http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31K1RPS8NEL._SL500_AA280_.jpg



^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_koozie



^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_tea#History



^ http://www.southernproper.com/meet_beau.html



Categories: Clothing brands of the United StatesHidden categories: Articles with a promotional tone from May 2009 | All articles with a promotional tone