Then paint my door green and call me Emily McCarthy!*
After eight years at her eponymous shop on Abercorn Street, coastal Georgia designer and lifestyle expert Emily McCarthy is now spreading her joy to 2237 E. Victory Drive. The former 2-acre, 14,000-square-foot, neon-lined American Car Center, which sat vacant for years, has been transformed in recent months into a bright, sleek showroom that houses McCarthy’s global headquarters. A sign outside the store features her inimitable logo—her initials in a classic Greek key design.
“Global” is no exaggeration. In the 15 years since McCarthy grew from a home designer of custom stationery to a store owner with an ever-evolving line of textiles, home goods and clothing, her online and wholesale business has grown into a mail-order giant. More than 400 stores across the U.S. carry McCarthy’s colorful seasonal caftans, ruffled blouses, cheetah-print maxi dresses and flowy skirts. And women of all ages in every corner of the world buy her cheerfully feminine dresses to add a little Savannah style to their wardrobes.
“Last year was a pivotal year for us,” McCarthy said in April, explaining that the move was less an expansion than an adjustment to the future evolution of her business. “We hit a big sales goal and even exceeded sales goals for our clothing line… We had to find a solution for our facility.”
The new space offers that solution, with a 6,000-square-foot warehouse to “properly and safely package merchandise and store items,” 6,000-square-foot retail space (more than double that of Abercorn’s previous location) to showcase all seasonal and core fashion lines, as well as accessories and home goods, a studio for catalog and promotional shoots, a station for wrapping and presenting gift baskets, a wine and champagne bar called the “Joy Club,” and offices where creatives, including McCarthy herself, can work alone and in groups on fabric prints, clothing designs and patterns, and home and entertainment products.
McCarthy said: “It has become a full-fledged lifestyle brand.”
Creating community, inspiring collaboration
Becoming a lifestyle brand wasn’t the big plan.
McCarthy opened her first store next to John Davis Florist to pursue and share one of her greatest inspirations: home decor. It wasn’t a big leap from designing custom stationery and monograms for weddings and homes to building a “store” full of high-quality items and gifts for newlyweds, new mothers and anyone who loves to entertain.
“I’m very inspired by interior design and fabrics and I look at beautiful spaces. What is it about that space that speaks to me so much? Usually it’s the print on the wall or the fabrics and textures,” mused McCarthy, who soon began designing her own prints, including a signature cheetah print in tropical blues, pinks and greens that appeared on note cards, ice buckets, beach towels and sofa cushions. Soon, clients were asking if she could make clothing with her prints.
“It’s something I’ve always loved doing or wanted to do. Once we found the right people to help us build this business, it really took off,” she said.
McCarthy’s small business now employs more than 25 full-time and part-time employees, most of whom are women – many of them young mothers. “I have to say that I never had a formal business plan for any of this. I just went with my gut feeling and most of the time it always worked out… We’re all learning to run this business together.”
McCarthy cites Diane von Furstenberg, the designer of the wrap dress, as one of the entrepreneurs who has inspired her in her business life. “She is all about women’s empowerment and balance. I have always loved and admired her and her messages.”
That message has found its way into McCarthy’s mission, painted on the green wall at the top of the stairs leading to her company’s colorful offices, which reads in part: “Our designs are meant to invite joy, inspire creativity, and foster a community where everyone feels encouraged to express their own personal style.”
Some former employees and friends have taken inspiration from McCarthy and started their own businesses, like Emily Grainger, a former manager who opened the children’s clothing store Littles on Liberty last year. And McCarthy is looking to other creative women for collaborations, like Lindsay Thomas, who turned her handbag obsession into Garland Bags, and Savannah artist Bellamy Murphy, whose paintings have been incorporated into fabrics for skirts and wraps.
Joy is more than your middle name
DVF influenced McCarthy in another way: by designing clothes for every stage of life.
“Because she really understands the woman’s body and the person she’s dressing as, and that’s a big part of our process, is thinking about every part of her that she wants to show and that she wants to hide,” McCarthy explained. “Who is this customer? What stage of life is she in? How do we cater to how she feels at this age? Do we accentuate things that she doesn’t want to accentuate? Is this for our 20-year-old customer or is this for a 70-year-old customer? These garments change depending on that.”
On the one hand, the new space offers a comprehensive personal style experience from head to toe, from children and teenagers to young professionals and hip grandmas. A customer can walk out with a complete ensemble from shoes to sunglasses.
Across the floor, high-end glassware, melamine outdoor tableware designed to look like Italian pottery, high-quality cheeses and cutting boards can be paired with delicacies from Stonewall Kitchen, a leather-bound copy of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” or a fine wine from a female winemaker. Across from the Joy Club, there’s a full champagne station, a chic and sparkling space where people can gather after work for a glass of rosé and do a little shopping, host an engagement or bridal shower or even a baby shower.
McCarthy plans to hold classes and events in the wine bar area and adjacent courtyard. It’s also a place to raise money, a philanthropic aspect that’s ingrained in her company’s DNA. Each year, employees choose a local organization to support through both fundraising and volunteer work. They’ve supported an employee who launched a campaign for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and donated more than 1,400 new pieces of clothing to Dress for Success, an international nonprofit that helps women interview and land jobs to become economically independent by providing them with professional clothing they might not otherwise be able to afford.
“It was a way to bring joy into our space – you can meet your girlfriend for coffee or a glass of birthday wine before dinner. Just anything that encourages spending time together and building a community.”
Amy Paige Condon is a content coach and editor for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at [email protected].
*For fans of Steel Magnolias: This line was inspired by Truvy.
