Category: Ladue News Feature Stories

Ladue News Feature Stories

Herb Your Enthusiasm

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According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, only 10 percent of Americans love cooking. Many see it as a chore and dread preparing meals for themselves and their families. Luckily, a Fenton-based company headed by nutritionist Hayley Sohn is on a mission to provide area residents with healthy options delivered straight to their doorsteps.

Sohn studied nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri and up until a few years ago was working as a nutrition educator, working with senior centers and children – teaching organizations like the Girls Scouts about healthy food habits.

“What I was always teaching people was that you need to be cooking at home if you’re going to be taking control of your health,” she says. “I realized people just don’t cook at home anymore. They’d tell me they only eat fast food and wanted to know the healthiest options there. I knew there had to be something else.”

As a trained nutritionist, Sohn was and is passionate about crafting healthy meals. She’d make and bring her lunch to the office every day, and her coworkers started to notice.

“They asked me if I’d cook a little extra, and they could buy it from me,” she says. “I realized this is the solution to what I was coming up against.”

When she was considering a career change in September 2017, she brought it up to her boyfriend, wanting to do something else.

“I think you’re already doing it,” Sohn recalls him saying.

Last January, Sohn officially started Basically It, a healthy subscription meal service company that delivers to the doorsteps of those in St. Louis County on Mondays. The ready-to-eat gluten-free meals range from $11 to $14 each (comparable to meal delivery services like Blue Apron and HelloFresh), with a one-week trial of five meals costing $70. Options include three-, six- and 16-week plans, along with a one-week trial option. Sohn and her chef, Shaquila Remtula, create four seasonal menus a year, with five menu options a week. Sohn serves as the nutritional guide, and Remtula crafts the tasty recipes from there.

“[Remtula] has an awesome culinary history,” Sohn says. “She’s lived all around the world and brings some of those flavors to the food.”

Right now, some of Basically It’s selections include options like chicken with Italian white beans, turkey meatloaf with cauliflower mash, cranberry-almond spinach salad, beef souvlaki (a type of Greek meat skewer) with charred broccoli, and a steak-and-asparagus quinoa bowl. Sohn and Remtula are currently working on their spring menu and have even put out a contest on Facebook to see what options their clients, often busy professionals or empty nesters, would like to see on the menu. Some that were brought into consideration include salmon cakes and an avocado-mango salsa.

“We try to showcase what’s coming out that season,” Sohn says. “For the spring menu, we’ll see a transition from winter to lighter foods. We’ll be phasing out the squashes and bringing in a lot more greens and pinks and reds, which I’m excited about.”

Sohn says vegetables are her favorite foods to experiment with because they have a “bad reputation.”

“I love experimenting with ways to use them that transform them into something you don’t expect,” she says. “Outside of that, I love exploring different flavor profiles from around the world and seeing how herbs and spices can work together. Those are so powerful and dense in nutrients.”

Sohn and Remtula’s flavor profiles and meal choices clearly have been working. In the year-plus since Basically It’s inception, customers have left rave reviews.

“The feedback about the food has been phenomenal,” Sohn says. “We’re really focused on making our food fantastic and good for you, too.”

In the coming year, Sohn aims to grow and expand Basically It to reach more people. She highlights the philosophy within the Basically It food: the “no diet” diet.

“You don’t have to be following a fad diet to be eating healthfully,” she says. “You should be eating in a way that fits your life. You can eat and be healthy and not be restrictive.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.

Ladue News Feature Stories

A Whole Llama Love

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Peru-born St. Louisan Daphne Benzaquen always thought she was going to be a doctor. She was on a pre-med track in college, and because her father’s a doctor, she figured she’d follow in his footsteps. But after college, she realized she wanted to pursue business instead and earned her MBA at Washington University in St. Louis. In her second year at Wash U, Benzaquen wanted a unique backpack to take to classes – one that no one else would have that also suited her needs. She was unsuccessful in searching for such a backpack, but her failure to find something just right sparked her curiosity. She’d always heard that the artisans in the mountains of Peru were known for their leather products, and she wondered if she could have someone make her the perfect backpack.

“I cold-emailed several eruvian] manufacturers I found online” she says. “I figured it was worth a try.”

With no design experience, Benzaquen did her best to communicate to the artisans what she was envisioning for her backpack and sent them makeshift designs. Since she often spends Christmastime in her birthplace of Lima, Peru, Benzaquen took a side trip on her next visit to the mountains of Arequipa to meet with five of the manufacturers she’d been in contact with.

“Some of the manufacturers had totally changed my design, and some had not worked on my design at all,” she says. “I didn’t even want to go to my last meeting because I was so frustrated but ended up going and that manufacturer had created a backpack that most closely resembled my design.”

Benzaquen liked that he worked with llama leather and baby alpaca fur – something that would be unique and different for the metro area. In addition to her backpack, Benzaquen realized she could make more designs to send to Arequipa and spent the next year sending designs back and forth. She procured her own hardware for the pieces, as the copper color she desired wasn’t common in Peru.

“I knew if I was going to put my name on it, it had to be me,” she says.

From a few rough designs and countless emails from St. Louis to Arequipa, daph. was born. The company name, drawn from her own, also serves its purpose as an acronym: durable, authentic, polished and handmade – pillars that are most important to Benzaquen’s business. After two years of designing, communicating and creating and one year after her manufacturing trip to Peru, daph. officially launched online on Dec. 16, 2017.

“It was one of the scariest day of my life,” Benzaquen says with a laugh.

She hadn’t told many people about the brand she was building, keeping her work to herself outside of her immediate family.

“I got so many texts and feedback the day the website launched,” she says. “I even got one of the first purchases that day. That’s when I knew I had made something people like and that I had to keep going with it.”

Outside of the backpack, her first set of releases included bags like the anita., the angelica., the cristina. and the mosy. – a baby alpaca fur clutch. The original collection was inspired by the “cheerleaders” in Benzaquen’s life – like the best-selling nicole. belt bag, named in honor of her sister, which is a small and stylish bag that can be used as a crossbody, clutch or belt bag. The pieces showcase the high quality and durability of Peruvian leather, even incorporating design elements inspired by Incan ruins in pieces like the Moray Circle Purse. The bags vary in color and price range, from the $125 Nazca envelope case to the Mosy clutch, which retails for $425.

Continuing to expand on her original concepts, Benzaquen released an Exclusive Release Alpaca Fleece apparel line last October featuring three pieces: an alpaca zip-up sweater, an oversize alpaca vest and a baby alpaca layering cape. The alpaca textiles are out of her hometown of Lima and offer a more sustainable alternative to cashmere with the same soft feel. Benzaquen called the apparel release a test, but since she’s “basically sold out of all of them,” she plans to do more. She’s already started on her winter 2019 designs and is finalizing designs for this fall, as well. In the nearer future, she has a travel capsule planned for an April release.

Although she grew up in St. Louis, Benzaquen’s Peru roots are important to her, and she’s taken great care to incorporate the South American country into the mission of her brand. A portion of each purchase goes back to communities in Peru, with proceeds going toward a new cause each year. In 2018, Benzaquen chose Peruvian American Medical Society, and daph. helped fund a special needs school in Tarapoto, a town in north-central Peru.

“I had never been to the jungle, but I was lucky enough to go in August, and we were able to inaugurate this multisensory wing that part of the daph. purchases help build,” she says. “That felt so good … like I’m really making a difference.”

In 2019, she plans to work with an organization like Supporting Kids in Peru to help economically disadvantaged children in such Latin American municipalities as El Porvenir and Alto Trujillo get educational support.

Benzaquen says she would never describe herself as a risk-taker, but she’s proud of herself for taking the plunge and starting her own business.

“I always say, ‘Fail fast; fail forward,’ – if something doesn’t work, at least you tried and can move onto the next thing having learned something along the way,” she says. “As corny as it sounds, if you don’t try, you’ll never know.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.

Ladue News Feature Stories

Restoration St. Louis Has Passion For Preservation

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Amrit and Amy Gill started their careers in construction, but along the way, they became what Amy Gill calls “building huggers,” fascinated with architecture and the historic spaces around them. In 2001, the husband-and-wife team founded their own development company called Restoration St. Louis, with the mission of strengthening and enhancing communities by redeveloping neglected neighborhoods and making them great places to live, work and play.

“We get very entrenched in every neighborhood we renovate,” Amrit Gill says. In the years since the company’s founding, the Restoration St. Louis team has braved historic undertakings like restoring The Moolah and The Coronado in midtown St. Louis and dozens of projects in The Grove business district of St. Louis’ Forest Park South East neighborhood.

“We’re renovated over 400 historic properties in the Midwest,” Amrit Gill says. Along with the St. Louis area, the Gills have also done a variety of projects in Davenport, Iowa. Of those 400-plus projects, all have a common theme: They have soul. And they have to because historic renovations often cost at least twice as much as new builds.

“In a new build, you don’t have to get rid of lead and asbestos,” Amrit Gill says. “You don’t have to worry about how the column grids are. You do it the way you want it. But [historic projects] take a lot more day-to-day attention.”

One of the Gills’ recent labors of love is the brand-new Hotel St. Louis, which opened just before Christmas in downtown St. Louis. Originally built between 1891 and 1893 by Adler and Sullivan, Architects, the Union Trust Building underwent a $68 million facelift from the Gills and their team. It’s now a Marriott Autograph hotel – St. Louis’ first – and features 140 rooms, 14 apartments, one penthouse, two restaurants, a pool and a spa. It also features meeting rooms and a grand ballroom.

The building had been in the same family for 122 years and went up for sale quietly. The broker called the Gills and asked them to come look at it, and they jumped at the chance to lovingly restore the piece of St. Louis history. The Gills put in a bid, and though they weren’t the highest bidder, they were selected in April 2015 because the Cella family “wanted to keep it in the hands of a St. Louis family,” according to Amrit Gill. Although it took a while to get the financing and tax abatements together, Restoration St. Louis was able to start construction on what would become Hotel St. Louis in July 2017. Eighteen months later, it’s now open to the public. But during those 18 months, the team integrated as much St. Louis history, architecture, art and visuals as they possibly could into the space – while paying homage to its designer, the father of the high-rise.

“[Louis] Sullivan made tall buildings tall – those are Frank Lloyd Wright’s words, not my words,” Amrit Gill says. “He was doing things on the cutting edge. He didn’t know how everything was going to work out, so he overbuilt everything. Even the basement [of Hotel St. Louis] is crisscrossed with 30-inch steel I-beams. We had to cut through the steel to do things like put the elevator in.”

The original building already contained several aspects honoring the city of St. Louis, like the fleur-de-lis cutouts in the staircases. The Gills made it their mission to move what Sullivan had already done forward and give the entire hotel as much of a St. Louis feel as possible – down to the minibars stocked with local favorites like Billy Goat Chip Co. chips – just one of the 165 local companies represented in the hotel.

On entering, visitors to the hotel view a lobby that’s equally luxurious and welcoming. Deep blue hues serve as the accent colors throughout the hotel, and arch-shaped patterns can be found scattered all around. Stained glass is currently being installed in the lobby ceiling that paints a colorful canvas for all who enter. Upstairs, the rooms’ custom wallpaper pattern is taken directly from the architecture of the outside of the building, and windows look out to stunning views of Busch Stadium and other historic downtown St. Louis landmarks.

“I think it’s just beautiful,” Amy Gill says, looking out over the hotel lobby. “To me right now, it’s a moving piece of art. It’s changing every day.”

Although the hotel has been open for a little more than a month, features are still being finished and added every day. In addition to the lobby restaurant, Union 30, the Restoration St. Louis team is preparing a restaurant that will open on the rooftop at the end of February. They’re also finishing work on the hotel’s spa and ballroom.

But it’s not just the hotel keeping the Gills and the Restoration St. Louis team busy. Amrit Gill says they have 26 projects open right now, including working on the Seven Gables Inn in Clayton, as well as residential projects. No matter what they’re working on, though, the goal remains the same: Stay true to the mission.

“Most communities need strengthening and enhancing forever, so we want to stay true to that goal,” Amrit Gill says. “The young people within our organization are our future, so we want to make sure they believe in the mission as much as we do and are as passionate as we are.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.

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Provisions St Louis Offers Luxe Necessities

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When the Northern California wildfires struck Sonoma County in late 2017, Ross and Debra Hunter decided it was time to rethink their California lives. They had founded and operated a shop called Provisions 707 in the area, and although the shop remained intact during the fires, their customer base had largely been displaced. One of their loyal customers had packed up and moved to Kansas City, raving to the Hunters that it was the best thing she ever did. The couple thought it would be a good idea to check out Kansas City as a new place to live and decided to visit St. Louis, too, this past March.

“We just fell in love with St. Louis,” Debra Hunter says, thinking back to that initial trip. During their excursion, they dined at Brasserie in St. Louis’ Central West End neighborhood and knew it was the right part of St. Louis in which to start their lives anew.

“I remember saying, ‘We need to figure out how to relocate and open a business here [in the Central West End],’” Ross Hunter says.

In the final days of summer, the Hunters packed up their belongings and moved a few thousand miles across the country to become Midwesterners. Debra Hunter had fallen in love with the set of storefronts along Euclid Avenue and kept her eye on real estate opportunities in the area. When she saw a spot had opened up at 228 N. Euclid Ave. – the former site of faux leather company Fauxgerty, which recently relocated to the city’s Lafayette Square neighborhood – the Hunters jumped at the opportunity to lease the space for their business.

Provisions St Louis opened on Nov. 15, offering the “sights, scents and textures of life’s necessary luxuries.” Visitors to the natural light-filled space are greeted by inviting scents and the warm tones of a record player. Floating shelves display everything from leather carry-on bags to cookbooks, while the other side of the room offers skin care products, alpaca scarves and gorgeous ceramic dishware.

“Something we all have in common is giving – from birthdays to holidays and everything in between, we hope to provide a selection and user experience that exceeds our customer expectations,” Ross Hunter says. “We are a lifestyle store and want to offer the community usable but elevated goods.”

The shop offers brands from around the United States, including many products the Hunters have brought with them from the West Coast.

“We’re bringing our original aesthetic here, but we’re still finding our way with St. Louisans,” Debra Hunter says. “We want to make sure we’re offering things that resonate with our customers.”

One thing the Hunters are big on is skin care for both women and men, so Provisions St Louis offers it in many different forms. Men’s skin care was one of the original focal points of Provisions 707, so the couple knew it was important to bring some of the predecessor’s American-made, small-batch items to the St. Louis shop, as well. Visitors will find brands like California’s Birchrose + Co and Colorado’s Native Nectar Botanicals on the shelves, along with accessories like Timex watches, colorful pocket knives from Santa Fe Stoneworks and vegetable-dyed wallets from Il Bussetto. Tables in the middle of the room display picturesque books like Ian Schrager’s Studio 54 and William Claxton’s Jazzlife. More quirky offerings include Snoop Dogg’s From Crook to Cook (which the Hunters have already had to reorder) and Abby Reisner’s Ranch: An Ode to America’s Beloved Sauce in 60 Mouth-Watering Recipes.

Just weeks after opening, the Hunters got to experience the unrivaled enthusiasm the Central West End has for its businesses with the return of the annual Window Walk. Ross Hunter estimates that he and his wife had a few hundred people through the store on Dec. 8 – with a few returning the following day to re-examine and purchase more goodies and gifts from the shop.

“It was really awesome and fulfilling at the same time,” he says.

In the few months it’s been open, Debra Hunter notes that feedback on the shop has been “so great.”

“We feel strongly about being a brick-and-mortar shop and not selling online right now,” she says. “We really like the sense of community and enjoy talking with people.”

In the coming months and years, the Hunters hope to expand their outreach into the community and start teaming up with nonprofits – something they had done and were passionate about in Sonoma County.

“Right now, everything is so new and fresh,” Debra Hunter says. “We want to know if we’re offering what our customers need. But it’s just been so cool already. I just feel like this is the best place for us.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.

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Period Restoration Revamps History

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Since 2009, Period Restoration has been making a name for itself for its team’s ability to respect and restore the historical integrity of the Gateway City’s older homes. Co-founder Randy Renner Jr. has been passionate about breathing new life into these grand traditional houses for years, but nothing could’ve prepared him for what would become his largest challenge to date: the restoration of 4969 Pershing Place.

It all started in the summer of 2015, when Renner and his team were invited to take a look at creating luxury condominiums just off Kingshighway Boulevard.

“I thought the concept was incredible,” Renner says. “The space lent itself to what we were envisioning.”

The property at 4969 Pershing Place sits just inside a gate in St. Louis’ Central West End neighborhood, boasting a gorgeous façade and nearly 11,000 square feet of living space. It was built for a widow and her four children in 1902 – just in time for the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis – and was designed in the hôtel particulier style as a grand sort of town house. About 30 years later, the woman’s grandson designed what was later turned into three apartments – one on each floor of the house, with living quarters in the basement for a caretaker.

It was fortunate for the Period Restoration team that this division and conversion had taken place many decades prior, as the historic neighborhood otherwise wouldn’t have allowed the company to develop what would become three luxury condos with the guidelines set by the Central West End Historic District.

“This was kind of a one-time shot,” Renner says. “This was already set up as apartments, so we knew we could make them really special luxury condos.”

They began the tremendous project in winter 2015, starting with demolition.

“We reconfigured every floor to accommodate the new floor plan,” Renner says. “We wound up doing a lot of structural work.”

Perhaps the biggest undertaking was a $300,000 custom-built, four-stop commercial elevator and a 35-foot-tall deck that features space for every unit off the back of the building.

“There’s not a deck in St. Louis like it – and not just structurally,” Renner says. “We did the ornamental ironwork to match the Juliet balconies on the front.”

While creating a match like that can be tricky, for Renner, it’s just part of the job.

“Our specialty is old restoration work just like this,” he says. “We retrofitted new mechanicals and did all new plumbing and complete rewiring … new components that can be difficult to do in an old house.”

Another time-consuming aspect of the project was the building’s windows, all of which were restored. Renner notes that it took about 15 months to take out every window to be reglazed before rehanging it.

Though its architectural presence on the street is in itself stunning, the inside features even more unique and historical offerings. The first-, second- and third-floor condos are 2,209, 2,508 and 2,748 square feet, respectively, and feature intricate crown molding, open floor plans and ceilings that reach as high as 14 feet. Wood flooring has been meticulously restored throughout, and Period Restoration wowed with custom cabinetry and elegant marble countertops.

Renner and his team completed the restoration of 4969 Pershing Place in the fall of 2017. Open house attendees were wowed by the floor plan, bathrooms and kitchen spaces.

“It’s always rewarding when someone wants to purchase one of your products,” he says. “Everybody loved that building.”

The second-floor condo sold right away, and the third floor followed soon afterward. The first-floor unit was the last to sell, this past summer.

“We really pride ourselves in not just talking the talk,” Renner says. “A lot of people talk about doing preservation work, but we do it well and put in the money to do it. It’s very rewarding for us.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.

Ladue News Feature Stories

Game on at Saint Louis Science Center

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In October, the Saint Louis Science Center revealed its latest offering: a 7,500-square-foot free interactive exhibit called GameXPloration. The exhibit focuses on how games affect all of humankind and how aspects of psychology, neuroscience and technology each play a role in the world of games.

Found around the left corner from the main entrance, GameXPloration immediately draws in the museumgoer with its cool-colored lighting, reminiscent of arcades and retro-style video games. Although it’s designed to be particularly enticing to teenagers, project manager Christina Carlson notes that there’s something for everyone within the exhibit.

GameXPloration takes the visitor through five different “worlds,” starting with the early days of games all the way up to gaming as it is today. Visitors have the chance to explore what the games are, who plays them and why they’re important.

“We want to look behind why games are so central to humankind,” Carlson says. “What’s the reason games are so compelling? What do they teach us? What do they tell us about technology, and how is it being harnessed for games?”

The first world contains areas to play traditional board games, along with exploring chess in a different way – vertically. From there, visitors to the second world consider the word technology and how its use in games has morphed over time: from ancient civilizations creating rubber balls out of tree sap to games on mobile devices. This world contains a massive two-person Nintendo Entertainment controller where visitors can play Super Mario Brothers and a chance for museumgoers to experience the first widely known video game, SpaceWar! They’re also able to peek inside a variety of game consoles to gain a better understanding of how the complicated devices operate.

“We have all these devices, and many people have no idea what’s in them or how they function,” Carlson says. “This is one way to get people to start thinking about that.”

GameXPloration also has an entire section dedicated to the “rise of the arcade,” which constitutes world three. According to the center’s website, games satisfy many core human needs and motivations, including autonomy (desire to have freedom of choice), competence (desire to control outcomes and master skills) and relatedness (desire to be connected to others). This third world explores arcades through these needs and motivations while allowing the visitor to play favorites like Atari 2600: Pitfall, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, table tennis played through a tube and an eight-player version of foosball.

From these classics, the visitors move into the fourth world: “a new reality.” This section is where the center has integrated some of recent years’ most cutting-edge technology including virtual and augmented reality – which Carlson says people often confuse. Virtual reality, defined as an artificial, computer-generated simulation or re-creation of a real-life environment or situation, provides a more immersive experience, according to Carlson. Augmented reality layers computer-generated enhancements atop an existing reality in order to make it more meaningful through the ability to interact with it.

“There’s the opportunity to learn about how both can affect your perception of the world,” Carlson says. “We really wanted this exhibit to be a chance for people to experience technology they might not get to try in their everyday lives.”

Beyond a world created for the gamer to experience, GameXPloration also features a section for attendees to become a game creator. And no, learning to code isn’t part of the requirement! In the fifth world, visitors will learn how game developers approach designing games and even get the chance to play games developed by local companies, like Pixel Press’ Bloxels.

Overall, the exhibit features more than 30 interactive components and games – many of which will be changed out at least quarterly in its yearlong run so no two visiting experiences are the same. Plus, it’s the only gallery at the museum to be co-developed with the center’s audience members: Center staff engaged teens from their Youth Exploring Science Program to help develop the exhibit from its early stages. The teens played an integral part in making sure the exhibit featured places to just hang out and play popular games like Rocket League – along with its many educational components.

“Everyone involved was passionate about some aspect of putting this exhibit together,” Carlson says. “We really harnessed the staff’s interests in what they loved, and it all came together in just six months.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.

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Evocative Aromas

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Grandma’s house when you were younger. A freshly picked homegrown tomato. That boutique hotel where you stayed on your favorite vacation.

Particular smells are instantly transportive, summoning places and memories often long-forgotten. This element is something St. Louisan Natalie Van Hee set out to pursue, and she started Glow Candle Co. in 2014 in hopes of re-creating some of her favorite and most nostalgic scents.

She had been working for a large company that downsized, and she found herself at a crossroads.

“I’ve always worked for someone,” she says. “I was at a point where instead of pursuing someone else’s passions, I wanted to do something I was interested in and could grow.”

Van Hee didn’t have a particular path in mind at first. She was a few months away from getting married and spent some time contemplating her passions. After she and her husband got married and did some traveling, an idea sparked. On returning home from different places, Van Hee found herself searching for fragrances she had encountered along the way to help reminisce about her travels. She would find herself gravitating toward particular scents depending on what was going on in her life at the time. Thus, she began experimenting with creating candles of her own, wanting to capture memories in their scents.

It wasn’t easy, though.

“I can’t say I had a background in making candles,” she says with a laugh. “I figured it out after testing, research and plenty of trial and error.”

From the get-go, however, Van Hee knew going the all-natural route was important to her. She was disheartened about the number of companies that use an array of additives and chemicals, so she stayed away from them. In Glow Candle Co. candles, she uses soy wax from American-grown soybeans, cotton wicks, premium-grade fragrance oils and no dyes. The candles burn for 70 hours and are nontoxic.

Her current line features two collections: the classic collection and the holiday collection. The classic collection consists of scents including Van Hee’s favorite – white tea – along with heirloom tomato, arugula, Himalayan pomegranate and more.

“White tea is my favorite because it reminds me of my favorite hotels when we were in Kauai,” she says. “I searched for a long time to try to find the right combination of fragrance oils for it. It’s a clean, refreshing fragrance, and I have it burning 24/7.”

The holiday collection brings the smells of the season with fragrances like pumpkin spice, white pine and aspen embers. One of her holiday best-sellers is called The Saint Nic, and Van Hee says she started pouring them in June in preparation for the holiday season.

She also speaks fondly of more unique-sounding scents like the heirloom tomato candle. She says she has a customer who often buys it for its nostalgia factor.

“His family owned and ran a tomato farm growing up, so you can tell the fragrance is very nostalgic to him,” she says. “I really enjoy seeing customers connect with a fragrance.”

Right now, Van Hee is in the midst of the holiday season – a busy time for her business. She’s been running operations from her home since its inception but hopes to find a small storefront to work out of in the future. Her gift boxes for wrapping up the candles recently debuted, as well, adding another angle of beauty to her creations.

“I have put a lot of time and focus into creating packaging that is classic, clean, can fit into anyone’s home, yet does not go unnoticed,” she says. “All of my labeling includes some type of pressed gold foil. The boxes I’m introducing in November will be perfect for holiday gifting and feature the same pressed-gold foil elements.”

Glow Candle Co. candles are available on her website for $30, with select bundles available at discounted rates. Area residents can also find her products locally at The Rusted Chandelier, Paisley Boutique, The Gifted Gardener, Mister Guy Women’s, Klutch, Mary Tuttle’s Floral and Gifts, Buoyant Float Spa, There She Goes and Gin & Kin.

In each candle she pours, Van Hee strives to have each customer connect with a scent.

“Each candle purchased should connect consumers with an experience, person or place,” she says. “Whether it be something from their past or a new fragrance they can’t get enough of … this is really important for me and is a big part of what keeps me inspired.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.

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Agents of Change

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With a mission to inspire and enable all young people to reach their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis has started an incredible new endeavor: the Ferguson Teen Center of Excellence.

Just one year after celebrating its 50th anniversary in St. Louis, the organization took the first official step in launching a $12.4 million facility that will house everything from a nutrition-education center to a maker space. The sum involved includes construction and three years of operating. President Flint Fowler and nearly 150 other community supporters broke ground on the 26,856-square-foot building in September on the site of the former Ferguson Ponderosa.

Once a plan was formulated, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis launched a $25 million campaign to operate and partially sustain programs and services in north St. Louis County. As of Oct. 24, Fowler says the group is at about $17.7 million – all from a mix of private donations and corporate sponsorships.

After the official groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 13, workers started initial foundation and cement work before winter arrives. They plan to open the facility at the start of the 2019-20 school year – in September or October of next year. The building’s design, done by local architecture and design firm ARCTURIS, includes a gymnasium, a teaching kitchen, a garden, a maker space/innovation center, an auditorium, a recording studio with video equipment, a game room, an art room and a fitness area. It will also include a counseling office, where a social worker can do intake work and meet one on one with individuals, small groups and families. It will offer after-school and summer programming to teens ages 12 to 18 in the North County area.

“We think it’s going to be a great attraction to the neighborhood,” Fowler says. “It’s one of the pieces it’s going to take to really transform that area. This is one of the first – if not the first – freestanding teen centers within the Boys & Girls Clubs family.”

But it’s been many years in the making. The idea of a Boys & Girls Clubs facility in the Ferguson area first surfaced around 2012, and Fowler and his team had been working on a growth strategy to start some clubs in North County with the Ferguson-Florissant School District. However, they couldn’t find a lot of traction. When Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson in August 2014 and rioting began, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis began to get phone calls from concerned community members wanting safe spaces for their children to spend time outside of school. The organization received an initial call from the Ferguson Youth Initiative and opened a club in Ferguson Middle School in 2015.

“We expected around 110 to 115 kids, but we had about 260 that first year,” Fowler says. “That told us there was a major need.”

They subsequently opened a second club at a neighboring school in order to house the middle school kids and the elementary kids separately. The following year, the group opened a club in the Riverview Gardens School District and Highland Elementary – two of the schools that were impaired by the rioting.

“More needed to be done,” Fowler says. “We always had it in the back of our mind to build this facility.”

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis found that the missing element to these school-based clubs was the opportunity to serve teenagers. They decided to keep the school-based model for younger children and work on developing a space for teens that would be safe, attractive and pressure-free.

“In our research, teens like having their own space,” Fowler says. “They want to learn about career opportunities and get a chance to veg out with their friends. A number of teens in the area who aren’t participating in sports or other after-school activities are basically on their own until their parents get home from work. We wanted to be more intentional about serving that group.”

The location selected for the center gives the club an opportunity to serve not only Ferguson-Florissant teens but also those from Dellwood, Normandy and Jennings, as it sits equidistant among all those cities. Fowler and his team then set out to build a space that allows teens to prepare for careers, teach them about leadership and give them a chance to practice healthy lifestyles. The St. Louis club convened a group called Great Think to “facilitate innovative public-private collaborations,” according to the organization’s website. Great Think brought together community leaders and representatives from colleges, the military, law enforcement, nutrition, education and health care, to name a few.

“We broke them up into groups and talked about what the club should look like if you’re doing it through a teen’s eye,” Fowler says.

The groups brought up incorporating all aspects of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), along with providing the young people with opportunities for careers and broadening their understanding of what’s available to them.

“We plan to assess each member’s career interest and aptitude [to] align work experiences, speakers and other activities with the education and training necessary to that field,” Fowler says. “What do they have a knack for, and how can we match that up to long-term career interests, and what educational experiences or training do they need to get there? We want to line up their interests and skills and flood them with opportunities to learn more.”

Another important component that came out of the planning was the leadership and civic-engagement aspect.

“One of the great things we saw come out of [the Ferguson riots] was the large number of young people [who] wanted to become active in their community,” Fowler says. “We see a lot of leadership coming out of young people in these communities where safety and opportunity are at risk. They’re holding officials accountable and are understanding how their voice can be heard. We want them to think about the things they can do to make their neighborhood better.”

Personally, Fowler hopes the center brings hope to the young people who access it and will help them be more successful in school, pursue their interests and be agents of change.

“If they are hopeful and inspired, they can carry what they’ve learned out into the larger community,” he says. “I hope the center brings about a sense of community that we’re all there to work for the betterment of each other.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.

Ladue News Feature Stories

Little Darling Duds

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Kinnari McDevitt grew up at a crossroads of cultures. She was born in India and lived there until she was 14 years old before her family immigrated to Chicago. She and her family adapted to life in the States, and McDevitt came to St. Louis to earn a master’s degree in engineering before going to work for a major corporation. During her time as an engineer, she longed for a creative outlet and began creating clothing for her two nieces. The girls wanted to wear dresses, but didn’t want to wear the traditional Indian garb McDevitt was often inspired by.

“I felt like there was a middle ground there that all kids could enjoy,” she says. “That’s where it all started.”

After she and her husband, Greg, got married in 2011, the pair took a trip to India the following year. McDevitt had always been inspired by the vibrant colors and textiles of her homeland and was interested in seeing the Indian culture from his American perspective.

“In America, people have tons of clothes and go buy new things every season,” she says. “It’s a very different way of consuming. In India, people have a lot of respect for types of fabric. They’re more aware of what they’re wearing – who made it, where they bought it. We have no idea where our clothes come from here.”

Inspired by what she’d seen on her trip and the desire to create “clothing that had soul in it,” McDevitt started Lali Kids in 2013. Lali means “little darling” in Hindi, and McDevitt has made it her mission to create fair-trade children’s clothes out of the company’s home base of St. Charles. She spent months developing the brand’s first collection: a small set of 15 pieces of little girls’ clothing that launched in 2015. Since then, McDevitt’s been developing new collections for each season – most recently, the fall 2018 line. She bases each collection around a memory or feeling, gathering images over time that capture that state in her mind. From there, she develops a color palette for the season. The current line, for example, is based around the Nordic concept of hygge – the feeling of coziness and comfort that comes with the colder weather.

“Hygge is the underlying theme of the entire collection,” McDevitt says. “We had a print designer design a print that looks like a watercolor painting of a magical forest. If you look closely at it, it give you the sense of a walk in the woods.”

Another piece from the collection is a double-layered dress that has two different fabrics layered together.

“It’s so unique in that there’s a playfulness to it,” McDevitt says. “There’s one pattern on one side, but if you roll up the sleeves, it’s another pattern. It’s very festive and fun for the season.”

New to the Lali Kids line is the boys’ collection, which recently launched. McDevitt notes the popularity of the collection’s arrow pants, which are garment-dyed. During the process, the garment is made first and then dyed, instead of vice versa, like most pieces.

“There’s some color variation there, and they’re a soft knit cotton,” she says. “They’re fun and interesting in the way they look. They check all the boxes I try to accomplish in my pieces.”

Nearly all Lali Kids pieces are made in India – aside from a set of fur vests that McDevitt made herself here in St. Louis and alpaca wool pieces from Peru. She says she chose to have her line manufactured in India because that’s where all the fabrics she wanted to use were, and she wanted to make a difference in the lives of the makers.

“I’ve seen the struggle of what women in India often go through,” she says. “They often lack education and don’t have autonomy to leave their [low-income] lives. It’s important for me to find people who would benefit from what I’m doing.”

McDevitt found a small factory in India that employs mainly women who are provided fair wages and have flexible hours to make her pieces. She designs the patterns for her fabrics herself and provides measurements to the weavers and printers in India, who turn around samples for her to review and photograph. Once adjustments are made, the pieces are manufactured and put out into 60 boutiques both nationally and internationally.

The line was picked up by notable national retailers like Anthropologie and Maisonette and can also be found in Ladue at City Sprouts. McDevitt says City Sprouts owner Molly Curlee has been a Lali Kids supporter “since the day we launched” and was so excited to carry the line and give feedback. Aside from City Sprouts, Lali Kids can be found at pop-up shops throughout the season, including a holiday one at the Saint Louis Galleria’s Anthropologie in early December.

These developments have led McDevitt’s once-small concept to take off more than she had anticipated. Luckily for McDevitt, each season and collection brings new opportunities to be creative.

“Creating is a reward in itself,” she says. “I love seeing children enjoying the clothes and getting comments on Instagram about ‘This is my daughter’s favorite dress!’ It’s fun to know the intentions are coming through in what we’re doing.”

One of the best parts of being the Lali Kids founder, though, is McDevitt’s chance to spend time with her 2½-year-old son, Aiden.

“We were able to keep him in our studio and work around his nap time,” she says. “It’s really rewarding because I’ve gotten to spend those two years with him. Even now, he only goes to school part time. I feel like I didn’t miss anything, and that’s the biggest reward for me on a personal level.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.

Ladue News Feature Stories

Cut From the Same Cloth

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Grandmas are the cornerstones of many families. They’re often the ones who bring everyone together and are the matriarchal foundation for generations to come. In the case of sisters Jenny Chao and Emily Duddy, their grandmother is not only one of their greatest inspirations but also the reason their monogramming business, Gin & Kin, exists.

Chao and Duddy have always been each other’s closest confidants. The pair were inseparable even when Chao moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to start a monogram and embroidery business, Initially Yours, with a friend in 2013. Duddy and the rest of their St. Louis-based family missed Chao and constantly asked if and when she was coming back to the area. The two sisters had kicked around the idea of pursuing a monogram business in St. Louis in the distant future, and Duddy told her sister that if she came back to St. Louis, they could start in on their ideas right away. Ginny, the girls’ grandmother, was an avid supporter of the idea, and said that if Chao came home, she’d help them get started.

Chao agreed and made the move back to St. Louis in 2016 after being away for four years. Duddy, who went to school for textiles, was excited to start combining her keen eye for fabrics and colors with Chao’s enthusiasm for monogramming in all forms. Though she went to school for child and family development and early childhood education, her passion for monogramming led her to teach herself how to use embroidery machines and how to operate a business. Duddy and Chao decided to call their venture Gin & Kin, named after Grandma Ginny, and started creating in late summer 2016. For two years, they operated out of both of their homes, creating vibrant, beautiful monogram pieces amid the chaos of their lives. Duddy had just had her son, Miles, and Chao has three large rescue dogs. Then-87-year-old Grandma Ginny assisted her granddaughters in their work, helping in the cleanup part of the process by removing the backing and trimming threads. Working out of their homes weighed on both of them, and they considered looking for a storefront where their clients could see their creations in a professional, laid-out manner. In love with the Skinker/DeMun area, they would walk by what was then Dot Dot Dash Boutique, admiring the small but modern space.

“We knew we didn’t want a huge space, but we wanted a space where people could come see our products without having to come to our house,” Chao says.

They had decided to wait to open a storefront until Miles was in elementary school; however, in June of this year, opportunity came knocking.

“We knew the owner of the building [at 6334 Rosebury Ave.], and she called us to let us know the former tenant had decided not to re-sign their lease,” Duddy says. “She told us that we’re what she wanted in the space. Were we interested?”

Chao and Duddy’s years-off plan kicked into overdrive when they accepted and signed the lease. (Dot Dot Dash moved to a new storefront down the street off DeMun.) They moved their embroidery machines into the 362-square-foot space and opened their doors to the public at the beginning of September.

“It’s been a great outpouring from the community since we opened,” Duddy says. “We’ve had a lot of foot traffic, which has really helped us launch. We had good business and clients before, but it’s hard to take something super-seriously when you’re doing it out of your home. This makes it more substantial.”

Gin & Kin embodies its “personalization redefined” motto by offering luxe custom monogramming and personalized embroidery services. But they don’t just offer the basic three-initial scroll script. The sisters have an entire book of sample monograms that come in a range of fonts, numbers of initials, sizes and shapes. Customers can bring in everything from sheets to napkins to towels to have a monogram stitched on. Chao and Duddy also offer a variety of towels, blankets and other wares that can be embroidered. One of their favorites is the fouta, a Turkish towel that “gets softer with every wash,” Chao says. They also offer a variety of baby products, like swaddle blankets and heirloom gift sets. Monograms can be added to all items for $12 to $15, priced by scale of design, with one week to complete. The sisters are also able to turn an order around in 24 hours if needed.

“Jenny’s the monogram expert, and I help customers choose colors and fabrics,” Duddy says. “We make a great team.”

In addition to monogram and embroidery services, Gin & Kin offers leather stamping, vinyl decaling and art digitizing. They’re also looking to work with more engaged couples for all their wedding needs – from brides’ and bridesmaids’ getting-ready pajama shirts to cloth napkin embroidery.

As they grow their business, the sisters are passionate about carrying products from women-owned, ethically made lines. They are also excited to partner with other St. Louis businesses down the road and have already worked with local designer Blair Dobson of Hello Dobson for embroidery.

In the end, though, their entire venture comes down to family. Duddy says she and her sister are “truly inseparable” and couldn’t imagine pursuing this project with anyone else.

Chao agrees: “We’d be with each other anyway, so we might as well be doing something fun with the community and small businesses.”

Gin & Kin is also about making their 89-year-old grandma proud. She sewed their graduation dresses when they were younger and taught the girls how to sew and crochet. When the sisters held a sneak peek opening, Grandma Ginny sat in a chair at the front of the storefront all day, making sure every person who walked in knew that she was the “Gin” of Gin & Kin.

“A lot centers around her and making her proud,” Duddy says. “This is her legacy.”

This story was originally published at laduenews.com. Read it on LN’s website here.