Shopping in: Chattanooga & Atlanta

Last week I visited Chattanooga and thoroughly enjoyed the city's quiet charm. Residents are justifiably proud of this city: a cultured and genteel berg just two hours driving from Nashville and Atlanta. If it's been several years since you visited, there's more to see than just the Choo Choo. There's a burgeoning arts community, beautiful riverfront parks, easy access to the outdoors and of course… terrific restaurants and shopping. I also ventured down to Atlanta for a quick spin through town to check out some shops.

Here's a quick overview of what I saw and loved:

Revival Uncommon Goods: Chattanooga's source for classic home furnishings with a modern twist. Owners Rodney Simmons and Billy Woodall have brought some fabulous brands from New York and Europe (Astier de Villatte, John Derian, Juliska and Simon Pearce) to appoint their gorgeous new store anchoring Warehouse Row. Also look for industrial antiques and hand-wrought light fixtures. The sale bin next to the cash wrap was a wonderland… I'm still regretting not picking up two charcoal alpaca throws with the red whipstitch ($62.50 marked down from $265.00) that were gone the next day. Lesson learned.

Nell's: Hollywood glamour has a home in Tennessee (and it's not in Nashville!) In 2006, Jimmy Adams moved his whole store from Beverly Boulevard to Chattanooga to raise his daughter, as well as the bar for interior design in Chattanooga. Everything in the store has a 1930s feeling, as though Katherine Hepburn might walk in with a drink and settle into one of the sumptuous Hickory club chairs. Adams has also brought in one-of-a-kind pieces from his travels. While it's not cheap, Nell's is another great place to look for sales: we saw a number of items marked 50% off.

Clement's Antiques & Auctions: Imagine that the contents of Versailles, Hearst Castle and Liberace's home were all emptied and put up for sale in a non descript roadside warehouse and you have an idea of what Clement's is all about. Serious Louis XVI and George III antiques mingle with kitschy Greek & Roman statuary and over-the-top pieces smothered with ormolu. If you have a large space and a love of ENORMOUS carved gold-leaf mirrors… this is your Xanadu. They also hold auctions 3-5 times a year.

Sid Mashburn: The founder and namesake cut his chops designing for Ralph Lauren & J-Crew before returning home to found his own label based on Atlanta's West Side. Mashburn brings back the classic haberdashery with a southern preppy flair. Many items are made in store (tailors are at work and on view) and he also carries classics "that can't be improved upon" like Levi's 501 jeans and Rod Lavers. Best of all was the service… they were friendly, intelligent, approachable and never overbearing.

Antiques & Beyond: If you're long on style and short on budget, A&B is your place. Every dealer in this antiques collective seems to have stepped up their game and wants to sell their wares. We saw a pair of Sherrill wingbacks upholstered in coral velvet for $950, generously proportioned mirrors for under $300 and too many great lamps to count for under $150. This being a collective, the list price is only the first offer in negotiation, so don't be shy about bargaining.

Amazon Saves Me From Myself

Let me state my bias upfront… I am a rabid fan of Amazon.com. It began with my love for reading and being able to find any book affordably… then developed into an obsession with the Kindle – which allows me to pack a whole library into a slim volume on travels throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe. I became a loyal Prime customer a few years ago when I started ordering more and more gifts for friends' weddings and random things for me (like luggage or linens) – paying upfront for a year's worth of shipping throughout the lower 48 on Prime eligible products. My obsession turned into evangelism this year with the introduction of Amazon's "Subscribe and Save."

Subscriptions aren't just for magazines anymore. On Amazon, I subscribe to things I regularly deplete and find myself regularly running off to CVS buy in a panic… like my favorite brand of razors, deodorant, toothpaste, battery toothbrush refills… and even my shower loofahs. I also plan to add toilet paper, laundry detergent and anything too cumbersome to schlep home from the store (I don't have a car.) Instead, all of these items show up on my doorstep while I'm at work or off enjoying myself. In return for the automatic interval order every one, three or six months, Amazon gives me free shipping and a 15% discount off the list price. Not only does the service eliminate excess trips to the store, I also don't find myself heading out for a week-long trip without deodorant or extra razors.

Genius, huh?

Hipster Brides Rejoice

Five years ago, distinctions in bridal market were pretty clear: high end and low end. High end meant you were shopping at Saks or Neimans for Vera Wang and the like… low-end meant an affordable acetate taffeta dress from David's Bridal. Shopping in an intermediate category meant wearing brands you've never heard of – or haven't worn since prom. Bridal styles at both ends generally fell into three categories princess (poofy,) contemporary (form-fitting,) or casual (shorter hem.)

Thankfully, the options are now much more varied; several retail brands have added new energy to the bridal category. J-Crew's entrance into the wedding game brought a fresh dose preppy style at more affordable price points… now URBN (parent company of hipster brands Urban Outfitters & Anthropologie) is launching Bhldn (evidently, the only ownable url for "Beholden". From the looks of the preview site, Bhldn is aiming for the same handmade feel and urban style as Anthropologie.

Appropriately, the brand launches on Valentine's Day and plans to open two stores later in the year.

The Personal Catalogue

A new crop of social media platforms aimed at the arts and design cognoscenti have captured an expanding audience over the last few months. Polyvore, Svpply, FFFFound, TheFancy, Wanelo and Pinterest are all aimed at professional and amateur tastemakers who share products they love and organize inspiring images from all over the web. While the sites are all different from one another, it's clear that designers, buyers, editors and photographers are actively cataloguing images on all the sites. Each site has a different angle… some are more oriented toward fashion, graphic design, craft, etc. So far, my favorite of the bunch is Pinterest, for its large community and flexible interface.

Over the course of 72 hours in December, a curiosity for Pinterest snowballed into full-blown addiction. The site allows me to pull almost any image from the web using a bookmarklet and post them onto boards under any category of my choosing. For years, I've been clipping inspiring images from magazines and catalogues, so this is making my life a little easier and a lot neater. I have an enduring record of products I dream of owning or intend to purchase. It's also great fun to browse boards of my friends and design professionals – a big part of that fun is discovering images other users want to post to their own boards.

So how is this all useful? Well it remains to be seen… a lot of information is contained in an image (1,000 words) and it's still a little early to determine how retailers and brands can fully leverage these communities. There's the grandiose a dream that everyone with an internet connection will create their very own personal store filled with all their favorite things.  More practically, retailers and brands might be able to identify emerging trends or better estimate preseason demand by measuring enthusiasm among forward-thinking creatives.

At the very least, I've found the sites to be a valuable tool for saving and sorting compelling images.

What on earth is going on over at J Crew?

There is much to be admired at J Crew… however behind the preppy-boho façade and Jenna Lyons PR machine, corporate drama has been brewing.

It all started last November when the company announced it would be purchased for $3Bn in a leveraged buyout by TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners. J Crew has a long history with TPG, who took the company private in 1997 and gave management free reign to close underperforming stores, retool its product lineup and hire the brilliant Mickey Drexler (after he was fired by Gap.) In 2006, J Crew went public again and Drexler and TPG made a fortune. Now, it looks like they're aiming for an encore performance.

It seems that in this latest deal, Drexler and Leonard Green privately hatched the plan to sell the company without notifying the board for weeks… then the board signed on without a proper auction process. As CEO, Drexler has enormous incentives to take the company private and the potential for a conflict that compromises shareholders' interests is quite high. Activist investors thought J Crew could command a better price, smelled a lemon and sued… then J Crew started shopping the deal to other investors… then they settled… and now the settlement has fallen apart. The story has more twists than a telenovela.

So will the deal pull through? Probably. However, the clumsy deal process has been such a train wreck it's become a case study in bad board governance and has damaged Drexler's sterling reputation as the merchant prince.