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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2006 > May > 04
Thursday, May 4, 2006
Skirt! magazine hopes to turn women’s heads
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Continuing Atlanta’s magazine-palooza, a launch party was held Tuesday night for Skirt! at the Globe in Midtown.
The free monthly aimed at soothing the hectic lives of busy working women has a fanatical following in Charleston, S.C., Columbia, Charlotte and Jacksonville. Skirt!, under an Atlanta licensing agreement with Cox Newspapers (which owns the AJC), marks its local debut with the May issue.
Star 94 “Steve & Vikki in the Morning” shopping correspondent Alisa Henderson emceed the evening, telling the guests sipping wine and nibbling Parmesan risotto spheres that Skirt! founder and publisher Nikki Hardin founded the company with “$400 and a dream.”
Skirt! has a readership of 300,000.
“When I started Skirt!, I was so broke I couldn’t pay the rent,” Hardin told the crowd. “So this is just amazing for me. This isn’t a corporate concept. This is done from the heart… . Skirt! is made in love, and I hope you all come to love it as much as I do.”
A dozen or so Skirt!-ed mannequins (the
creatively designed frocks on the department store dummies were devised by fashionable local business folks) and the restaurant’s large olive-hued couches restricted the party’s flow at its height. Guests included: 99X’s Leslie Fram, Star 94’s Vikki Locke, Ray Mariner and Jonathan Hyla, jewelry designer Mark Edge, Captain Planet Foundation chair Laura Turner Seydel, A Legendary Event owner Tony Conway and Atlanta publicists Kristen Cowart, Mary Reynolds, Tara Murphy and Meg Reggie.
So with the launch of Skirt!, along with the recent addition of the glossies the Atlantan and Atlanta Peach, are there officially too many Atlanta-centric magazines to read? “Well, some I read, and some I just flip through to look at the pictures while I’m at the doctor’s office!” conceded Turner Seydel wryly.
The designer skirts on the mannequins, meanwhile, were sold for $100 each, benefiting Dress for Success Atlanta.
Things temporarily turned ugly as we were exiting. One clearly over-served mannequin had taken a tumble onto the floor, lost an arm and was wearing nothing but green panties.
Week at Woodruff: Day 3!
Lunchtime listeners enjoyed the funky and straight-ahead sounds of singer Tammy Allen at the kickoff of “Wednesdays in Woodruff,” a weekly free music offering this month in the new, improved downtown park.
Office workers lunching at the new patio tables and chairs commingled with the park’s trademark urban campers during lunch hour. Two sets of Atlanta police officers on horseback patrolled mere feet away from folks sleeping undisturbed in the shade, atop their personal effects.
According to the park’s news release, the week’s worth of celebrations continues today: “Wonder how the lush landscape stays so beautiful? Stop by on Thursday as new plants and greenery are continuing to be planted throughout the park.” And no, we didn’t ask about the park’s fertilizing
techniques.
The dish on Star, Rosie?
At the Skirt! launch, Buzz also bumped into Rachel Giordano, Star 94’s new morning show producer. Regrettably, for fans of the Buzz column mainstay, “A Moment to ‘Shine,’ ” the former assistant to Star Jones Reynolds on “The View” was disgustingly diplomatic about dishing on the diva. Responding to our query about Star critic Rosie O’Donnell being added to the ABC daytime hen party this fall, Giordano told us: “Barbara Walters made an incredibly smart choice adding Rosie. She has the potential to bring a lot of her old viewers when she starts on ‘The View.’ “
Thankfully, attendee Turner Seydel came equipped with scoop. She spilled that her Captain Planet Foundation has selected Dec. 8 and the Tabernacle downtown as the date and venue for the eco-friendly nonprofit’s annual Christmas Party. Last year’s wild, disco-themed event with K.C. and the Sunshine Band is still the subject of cocktail party chatter.
Broadway tunes on stage
Music man about town Robert Ray and Atlanta pal, singer Courtenay Collins, are getting ready to hit the road, but not before tonight, when they premiere “2 for Broadway.” The three-night gig at the Atlanta Lyric Byers Studio Theater — at Bellemeade at Northside Drive — includes 30 Broadway tunes from such beloved shows as “Cabaret,” “Chicago” and “Ain’t Misbehavin.” Tickets start at $25. 404-284-0967.
Then it’s on to Charleston, S.C., where the duo has been chosen to reprise their musical revue at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, June 5-11. Finally, they will take the show to Highlands, N.C., for a three-week run at the Highlands Playhouse July 26-Aug. 13.
But Ray won’t have much downtime to do his laundry. He will produce entertainment for the May 21 UNICEF gala at the InterContinental Buckhead hotel as well as for the opening night gala of the National Black Arts Festival July 12 at Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery.
Celebrity birthdays
Jazz musician Maynard Ferguson is 78. Surf guitarist Dick Dale is 69. Singer Oleta Adams is 53. Country singer Randy Travis is 47. Actress Mary McDonough (“The Waltons”) is 45. Bassist Mike Dirnt of Green Day is 34. Singer Lance Bass of ‘N Sync is 27.
Contributing: Marylin Johnson and news services. If you have a tip, 404-526-2749. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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