Hannah Davis certainly didn’t, but it was her life that changed from the chance purchase. Those shoes would inspire her to create BANGS, a line of conscientious footwear with the sole purpose (get it?) of helping different non-profits ranging from disaster aid to clean water, development to hunger.

Say hello to Charleston’s very own philanthropic shoe line.

Hannah graduated from Clemson with a political science degree and decided to forego law school. With the usual questions of what to do with one’s life right after college, she chose adventure and ventured all the way to China to get it. She started teaching English, exploring, and, of course, reflecting on what she would do on her return to the States. Desiring to start a philanthropic company of some kind, the fateful trip to rural China shaped which one. She had discovered what she wanted to do, but it was the “how” she needed to figure out. The shoes provided that answer when they etched their way into Hannah’s mind and stayed there. She then knew that she would create a line of shoes to aid others based on this style, and BANGS, which is the phonetic sound of the Chinese character for help, was born.

BANGS is making a name for itself–and much of that is because of Hannah. She’s got the usual characteristics of a successful leader: organized, determined, charismatic, intelligent. But what really makes Hannah stand out is her ability to persevere. There are setbacks and then there are Setbacks. Hannah unfortunately knows the latter. Before leaving China, she found a business manager and ordered samples. Hannah arrived back in the States with a sense of relief and excitement. Three hundred samples were meant to arrive in August, but they never came.

Devastated. Frustrated. Defeated. Sure, Hannah felt those emotions, but instead of wallowing in them, she started saving for a trip back to China to right this wrong. She also learned from this experience and decided then and there to not put the fate of her dream in other people’s hands. On her return to China, she found a new factory, re-ordered her samples, and set BANGS back on track.

Back in Charleston, Hannah worked behind the bar at Southend Brewery to earn living wages before BANGS could fully support its–and her–self. One Valentine’s Day, Hannah met the man that would change her life. A former executive for VF, the company behind North Face and Vans, bellied up to the bar with his wife and started chatting with Hannah. After hearing of Hannah’s plan for BANGS, he offered his assistance. With the right righthand man, the samples, and Hannah’s determination, BANGS was officially on the way to success.

Pick your shoe based on style, color, or the organization it aids. Sold across the East Coast (with stores in New York and Boston recently stocking up), us locals can pick them up at Half Moon, Philips Shoes or online.

BangsShoes.com

Story by: Melissa Tunstall

This was advice from the mom of Stacy Huggins, exec director at Redux, when she first started sewing. She reminded her not to waste fabric, not to waste thread.

With the merging of instructional photography classes from the Charleston Center for Photography with Redux, Stacy has now applied this methodology to film. In the black and white photography class taught by CCP photographer Douglas Carr Cunningham, Stacy has 24 exposures. 24 moments that need to count.

As opposed to the constant clicking of digital film and endless filter options on a computer.

Local photographer Keven Bruce Parent says the same thing about using film in the pinhole cameras he makes himself: the film is expensive and he has to mean it.

He says about his pinhole camera, “It basically sat on the bookshelf for a year, until I got interested in some of the religious signs I would see. I figured the only way to photograph them was to use one of these, because you pretty much have to go on faith.”

By signs, he means billboards, not a calling. Though the first could have been considered both. “It said, ‘Why Jesus? Why you?’ And it could have very easily said, ‘Why pinhole photography? Why me?’ There is just no other format–it chose me.”

He pulls out some negatives. “I don’t know that I would still have the digital file, but here this is, almost 20 years later.” He’s sacrificed immediacy for permanence.

Douglas Carr Cunningham has two images that, to him, define his career as a photographer. He worked as a photojournalist in the Navy for 20 years, then as a freelancer and an instructor at Trident Tech. The first of the two images is of naval firefighters during the 1970s, whose haircuts, facial hair and fashion still seem relevant. The second is of a woman, Linda, posing in front of a VW Bug.

Both were shot with black and white film, and he processed both in a dark room.

Cunningham was one of the first local photographers to cross over into the digital age. He invested $25,000 initially into the endeavor. And now? Regrets it.

While most modern photographers solely shoot digitally, he believes that black and white analog photography is the future. “I say this, because of its archival nature.”

Along with another local photographer, Jen Ervin, who still shoots on a Polaroid, Cunningham hopes to start a Fine Arts Photography Guild where analog photographers can support each other.

Where is the line between artistic and art? Just maybe it’s in the process.

Story by: Elizabeth Bowers

As the only female professional woodturner in Charleston, Harwood feels a particular mission to turn women on to woodturning, by teaching classes and being an example to children that girls can grow up to do whatever they want, even if isn’t the norm. She says women make up only about 4% of wood turners in the global community, which is a small but tight-knit group, but that the skew is an advantage and something that gets her noticed.

Her childhood in Georgia brought forth mad talent for making dolls and doll clothes, painting and drawing, and she always knew she wanted to be an artist. Studying sculpture at Carnegie Mellon, she was working big: making a giant chrysalis installation out of saran wrap, and learning glassblowing and working with neon to construct a motion-activated sound installation. Tools don’t intimidate her and she never thinks there is something she can’t do, even if the work is loud, hot, sharp, scary or involves some muscle.

This attitude of success permeates her life. She has used her background in sculptural art to create a life as a maker that is purely her own, crafting even her schedule so that it is social enough not to bore her. Teaching workshops in her backyard studio, having an apprentice, and demoing, anywhere from her craft booth at the Marion Square Farmers Market to groups in Ireland and Belgium, are things that keep her life balanced and exciting.

A piano and microphone sit by her dining room table so that her #2 life goal, “lounge singer,” gets some focus too. For now though, she is finding success making functional work like salad bowls, delicately turned ebony earrings, baby rattles, and perhaps most impressive, tiny, perfect spindle ornaments with sea urchin shells. Ashley has found her joy working with her hands and after only four years of woodturning, she’s also turning heads with her stylish and original work.

AshleyHarwood.net

Story by: Dee Dee Arthur
Photos by: Olivia Rae James

Did you know that Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week is the largest regatta of its kind in the Western Hemisphere? Did you know that there will be 300 sailboats with competitors from all across the U.S. and from 15 countries around the world, all right here in our sweet harbor (and ocean)? Did you know that more than 11,000 rum drinks will be poured this weekend?

We know what you’re thinking. It’s cool, but it has nothing to do with you. You don’t have a a J/70 or Viper 640. You’re not crewing on Dauntless or Chicora. You’ve never even been rail meat. You don’t know how to sail.

Well lucky for us, Charleston is an inclusive town and wants to make sure that nobody is left out. Enter Sail Charleston, a free, one-day exhibition of sailing for non-sailors.

This Saturday, April 20, from 10:30am to 3pm, come down to the Charleston Maritime Center to get sailing into your life once and for all. You’ll talk with all the sailing folk, learn about all your local opportunities, check out boats from single-person dinghies to world cruising yachts, and get a bunch of swag (hey, you’ll at least look like a sailor!).

Best part of all? For just $10, Greg Fisher, the nicest-ever multi-time, multi-class national and North American sailing champion, will take you out on the water to go see the action of Race Week up close. We’re going to go ahead and say best way possible to spend 10 bucks.

It’s time you met sailing. We hope you’ll be very happy together.

Sail Charleston – Saturday, April 20, 10:30am-3pm
The Charleston Maritime Center (10 Wharfside St., near the Aquarium)

Story by: Caroline Nuttall
Photos by: Meredith Block

This is the way most professionals in Charleston think. They live this life, with the perfect temperature for happy hour, with Instagrams of a sunset from the Ravenel Bridge, with grits, friendliness and porches. All locals really complain about is a lack of bike lanes and the booze ban on Folly Beach.

Until: jobs.

When creatives get together to chat in Charleston, the job market comes up, and a roundtable discussion Tuesday night led by CHARLIE and Fuzzco on creative, digital, and the DIG SOUTH Interactive Festival was no exception.

A strategist on the team at Fuzzco, Jon Yarian, was a force in this conversation. He plans. He writes. He wants to know what fuels Charleston’s work force. He wants to know if we’re really that happy and if we plan to stay here forever (he will).

He compared finding a job in Charleston to finding a unicorn.

Yarian brought up happy hour networking, which has been damn near perfected in Charleston, and the room’s attention went straight to Jay Fletcher, a graphic designer who accredits a fair amount of his success to socializing.

“When I was young, I met a lot of people. This is a very social town, so my local freelance took off that way.”

Now, Fletcher designs the logos and websites of the bars where he spent time. Though his national career has been helped along through digital space, like Twitter and Dribbble. In this way, Fletcher is one of the best local examples for the DIG SOUTH vision.

But not everyone is that lucky. To stay or to go is one of the biggest professional questions in our city.

Cator Sparks, a men’s fashion writer and editor-in-chief of The Manual has one answer: “It’s hard for a New Yorker to move down here and get paid as I do in New York. For that reason, I can’t be a full-time Charleston resident.”

But still, he’s watched Charleston change after attending the College for two years in the ’90s. “I got my nose pierced for $5 at Star Beauty Supply. I remember what Upper King Street was like. There wasn’t that buzz about Charleston.” He went on to London and New York, and now, after making it his New Year’s resolution, he’s back.

Talent acquisition manager at Blackbaud–read: recruiter–Joe Keith loves bringing people to Charleston, but he thinks traveling is essential too. “You have to go do other things and then come back to be successful–I don’t care if it’s in Charleston or somewhere else.”

Gray Anderson, public relations and social media account coordinator at Rawle Murdy, is trying to skip that step. The 23 year-old South Carolina native and CofC grad says, “The city is the main attraction for me, but I’m happy to be a part of a growing industry while we try to put our name on the map. Even more so than it already is.”

He thinks staying has given him time to focus on other aspects of his industry, like certifications, to broaden his skill set. Charleston’s entrepreneurial spirit pushes him: “You can’t be just a one trick pony, you have to be a Swiss Army knife.”

Local style maverick Ayoka Lucas was a huge fan of that analogy. “The Swiss Army knife: When I’m sitting around with media folk and fashion people, and they say, ‘Well tell us what all you do in Charleston,’ and at the time I would say, ‘I’m the style editor from Charleston Weddings, Charleston Home and Charleston Magazine, and I’m also the visionary behind Charleston Fashion Week, and I do this and I do that,’ and they look at me and go, ‘Why are you doing all that?’ If you go and interview with Time Warner, they want you to be one thing or the other. But we work hard here. We wear many hats.”

In Charleston, it takes us a solid minute to tell someone what we do. All of it. We’re freelance writers who throw pop up art shows and nanny too. We’re general managers of award-winning restaurants who own a small batch tonic company, and we’re the bar manager starting a ginger beer company. We’re sales directors at national retail shops who work as stylists on photo and magazine shoots.

This similarity, this hard work, is what cultivates community in Charleston.

Taylor Sanchez, Fuzzco’s new brand strategist in town, said she noticed an “overwhelming love and dedication to a place over individual interest that was unique to Charleston” when looking to leave New York City after an 11 year run there that included Parsons School of Design and Estee Lauder. Sanchez and her husband moved to lead a more grounded life, as opposed to her more career-centric lifestyle.

Her advice? “Revisit nontraditional career paths. If you’re on a PR track in New York, but working as a waiter, you’re blacklisted. Here, my husband and I were visiting and we met with Steve Warner from CRDA, and he said he moved to Charleston and got a bartending job. He did that until he got the job at CRDA, and he’s VP now. There’s no stigma around just getting a job and being here and talking to people.”

Keith of Blackbaud said there are two types of people that migrate to Charleston: “People that say they want to be in Charleston–they don’t know what they’re going to do, but they’ll get to Charleston and figure it out, which is why I think there’s a good entrepreneurial group here, because a lot of people just end up starting things on their own. And there’s this other group that’s never even thought about Charleston, so they take a look at it. Once they look at it, they say, ‘Wow, this is impressive.’”

“I think we could do a better job of telling the story of Charleston’s creativity outside of Charleston,” said Erin Watson, VP of marketing at Kaleidoscope. “Our food industry, as a tourism destination, as tech–as Silicon Harbor–we’re getting our kudos in fashion, but I don’t know, from a marketing standpoint, that we’re getting the credit for what we really feel is going on here.”

Take the Bravo reality television show that was just announced locally; in a conversation of broadening the scope and reach of Charleston’s creative commerce, a national program focusing solely on the Southern gentleman and the Southern belle only prolongs the nation’s stereotypical perception.

How do we modernize?

Conferences like DIG SOUTH are a start. So is Boeing announcing 2,000 more jobs in Charleston. Garden and Gun’s rising clout and popularity. A migration up King Street. James Beard Award nominated restaurants. A local magazine dedicated solely to celebrating progressive culture in Charleston.

A creative ecosystem with the perfect climate.

Sparks asks, “Why aren’t we getting the buzz for this, instead of the Real Housewives of Charleston? How do we get that promoted?”

DIG SOUTH – April 12 – 14 – Get tickets here and continue the conversation

Story by: Elizabeth Bowers
Photos by: Karson Photography
Wine by: Grassroots Wine
Hosted by: Fuzzco

And while there’s nothing wrong with chowing down solo in your cubicle, when it comes to lunch in the workplace, The Farm Stand has a different idea in mind—one that can come to an office near you, so long as you have an electrical outlet and a 6-by-8 foot space.

The Farm Stand, a custom-made—and mobile—kiosk that comes equipped with a variety of healthy lunch options (think veggie hummus wraps and fresh build-your-own salads) came to life after Lowcountry native, John Moye, began toying with the idea of opening his own restaurant. After joining forces with local businessmen Charlie Wonderlic and Steve Jungmann, the three gave life to a new dining concept: a mobile restaurant that provides healthy and affordable options all within the comforts of your own workplace. The bottom line? “We want people to have healthier lives,” says John, who notes that it can be frustrating for employees when healthy dining options aren’t accessible from the office. As in, always the case.

Currently, The Farm Stand has set up camp at the South Carolina Federal Union in North Charleston. There, employees have the option of choosing from a menu that includes a variety of fresh wraps, soups, salads and fruit that will change seasonally. While worker bees are enjoying the new lunch options, John says they’re also incredibly pleased to notice an increase in employee interaction. In the end, “it’s not just the food,” John explains. “We want people to connect with one another.”

Connect, be healthy, and get out of your cubicle. Three thumbs way up.

TheFarmStandCo.com
Email johnmoye@thefarmstandco.com to get The Farm Stand near you.

Words by: Evans Craddock
Photos by: Olivia Rae James

“I graduated on Saturday, moved to on New York Sunday, and started work on Monday,” Duplantier tells us. “It all happened so quickly, but I never questioned any of it—the timing or the pace.” And she’s still not. Cut to this month, when Kendra will send her first complete collection down the runway at Charleston Fashion Week’s Emerging Designer Contest, known for showcasing talented up-and-comers.

“I’ve always had this innate ability to express myself through what I wear,” says the 23-year-old designer who was given complete creative control over her wardrobe at the tender age of seven, though it wasn’t until late in her high school years that she realized she could turn her passion into a career.

Working in design for Macy’s—not once, but twice—allowed Duplantier to settle in to her new life in New York, but ultimately her heart wasn’t in it. She traded that steady paycheck for a series of coveted internships instead. She went first to Diane von Furstenberg, and then to 3.1 Phillip Lim, where she’s still an intern. “I really wanted to get my hands dirty and see what design and production would be like for an independent brand rather than a huge corporation,” she explains.

Like her arrival to New York, Duplantier’s decision to apply to show in the Emerging Designers category at CFW was a whirlwind. “I literally turned in my application with hours to spare. I saw it as an important opportunity and decided I had to take it.” The road to CFW has been paved with nervous excitement—the grand prize winner receives marketing and promotion, mentoring, professional lookbook photography, and $5,000 in cash, a boon to any designer trying to scrape a business together. Duplantier admits that her biggest challenges have been time and money (let’s not forget she’s still pulling long hours at 3.1 Phillip Lim) and that the prize would make a huge difference in her life, but the lack of either has done very little to dampen her spirit or work ethic.

The plan is to bring a little of her New York life down South with her collection, made cohesive by a theme that draws parallels between downtown chic and sophisticated minimalism. “I was inspired by the masculinization of women during World War II, so I’ve created this modern uniform for the girl that appreciates quality and clean lines, and has a keen eye for details,” she explains. If it sounds like something you would wear, that’s because it is. The mini collection (20 pieces) strikes that perfect balance of masculinity (bold, tailored pieces) and ladylike femininity (luxe fabrication and rich tones), and is indeed the embodiment of a “shy, cool girl.”

While winning the competition is of course the goal, and would be the launch pad into the industry, Duplantier is keeping her feet firmly on the ground. “This is the beginning dream. I’ve learned you can’t predict the future. I mean, a year ago I was at Macy’s worried I was losing my creative juices, and now look at where I am.”

Poised for her moment in the sun, that’s where.

Buy tickets here to Kendra’s show, Friday night, March 22 at Marion Square.

Story by: Allison Beale
Photos by: Cyle Suesz

With both a highly skilled engineer/producer and a multimillion-dollar world-class studio, the Truphonic experience has musicians raving. Twisting knobs is a complex art form itself, and that talent comes from years of experience combined with the sensitivity of someone who has been a songwriter as well. Majeed says, “Really what I am here to do is help others gain a respect from the masses. If I can help an artist raise their career or raise the bar so that the next record they do sounds a little different and more open than their last record or challenge them to write a little bit on a higher level, then I am contributing way more to the music industry as  a whole than just being a monkey turning knobs for famous people. I’m not going to bring an ego just because I’ve got this experience and my name is on a hit record. That doesn’t really mean anything in the here and now. Where my expertise comes in is listening to an artist speak. Sometimes they are describing colors or a feeling they had as a kid, and that is what they want to come out of the speakers, and I think that emotionally I am able to use my expertise to accentuate those feelings and emotions. So if it’s sadness, I know how to make sadness sound like sadness.”

He continues, “I view myself as a collaborator, more than anything, that has a really good idea of the history of music, how this works, and this comes from getting burned. My first experience with the music industry at age 19 was as a songwriter with a label and I ended up having a song that placed number 54 on the Billboard charts and ended up making like $8,000 and the label made $800,000, so I was thrown into the fire and definitely felt the burn. I was overwhelmed with what had actually just occurred in my life and how easy it is to be brushed off to the side because this is an industry that is a corporate monster. That is the biggest thing that I as an artist didn’t expect. I thought people where going to love me for my music and that’s just not the case.”

After working at The Hit Factory and Lenny Kravitz’s studio, Setai Recording in Miami, “MJ” went searching for the next big music town, and he likes what Charleston has going on. He says, “It’s open season here..if artists were deer and I’m a hunter, this is where I ‘d set up. It seemed like this place was bustling with talent but didn’t have a whole lot of infrastructure or more business-minded music people putting into the music scene. I see a lot of artists here who are struggling, who in my opinion should be flourishing. Especially because of the area and what we have to offer as far as tourism.”  His personal work ethic allows for little sleep and no alcohol, but he does get out to see local bands quite a bit. He even tells his clients that every time they’re drinking a PBR, it’s slowing them down from making it to the Grammys, his master plan.

Anybody with a cultural pulse knows that Charleston is in the middle of a real musical renaissance, with a few of our most-loved local bands shooting toward national fame. A random Tuesday night might have you choosing between a televised “Eclectic Evening” at the Royal American, a showcase of local chanteuses at the PourHouse, or a smokin’ Cuban jazz show at The Mezz, among many other options. Majeed says, “corporate music America has caught wind of the scene we’ve got going on down here and they are gunning for it.” But MJ is already in the lineup and we’re stoked he’s got a big head start.

Truphonic.com

Story by: Dee Dee Arthur
Photos by: Gregg Lambton-Carr

- Jennifer Baker is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the College of Charleston with an interest in applying ancient ethical standard to modern day life.

- Eve Blossom, a trained architect and designer, founded Lulan and WE’VE as a unique for-profit social venture, a collaboration between designers and gifted artisans to create contemporary products and produce stable jobs and economic options.

- Teresa Bruce is a one-time Olympic hopeful turned writer, broadcast journalist and former Ogilvy PR executive who now lives in Beaufort, SC.

- Dave Dawson is the president and founder of The Urban Electric Company, which embraces the return of the craftsman-style approach to lighting design in America.

- Ricky Hacker is the chef and co-owner of Extra Virgin Oven (EVO) Pizzeria and Craft Bakery located in Park Circle and supports using sustainable ingredients from the surrounding land, sea and air.

- Winslow Hastie, a 13th-generation Charlestonian, is the Chief Preservation Officer at Historic Charleston Foundation, managing all of its preservation programs and two historic museum houses.

- Brendan James, a contemporary American singer and songwriter with a critically-acclaimed, piano-based style, is on tour with his third album “Hope In Transition,” which includes a special ode to his new hometown, Charleston.

- Michael Messner co-manages Seminole Capital Partners, LP, an equity investment fund founded in 1995, and is a trustee (along with his wife, Jenny) of The Speedwell Foundation, which supports urban parks and education.

- Justin Forest Nathanson is a filmmaker with his own company, which specializes in video and photo advertising, marketing and production.

- Tiffany Russell, Ph.D. is an educator at Georgia State University with expertise in multiculturalism, African American studies and womanism.

- Michael Schmidt is Professor and Vice Chairman of Microbiology and Immunology at MUSC with a focus on translating the microbiological results from the lab into practical solutions.

- Simran Singh, the publisher of 11:11 Magazine and the host of the syndicated 11:11 Talk Radio and On the Lighter Side Radio, specializes in metaphysics, spirituality and motivation.

- Rev. Bill Stanfield is a founder and CEO of the Metanoia Community Development Corporation, a grassroots movement of people focused on the holistic redevelopment of some of our region’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

- Lua Martin Wells works at the Mount Pleasant Regional Branch of the public library and has a passion for the interest-driven, child-led, organic learning style known as “Unschooling.”

TEDxCharleston is Wednesday, May 15 from 10am-4pm at PURE Theatre. Due to audience capacity limitations, you must apply to attend. Tickets are $75, which includes the speaker program, five performances, a sit-down lunch and a networking cocktail reception. Click here to apply.

Well, we’re about to drop the biggest name of all. Google. Yeah, that’s right. CHARLIE and Google sitting in a tree.

We are so excited to be one of the original publishing partners for Google’s new app, Field Trip, which just launched its iOS version yesterday. Meaning all you iPhoners can join the Droiders and get the app to start playing!

So what is Field Trip? Think of it as a friend in your pocket (i.e. your friend CHARLIE) that pops up to tell you interesting tidbits as you walk near points of interest in the city. Walking down Church Street? A whistle from your phone gives you the inside scoop on Goat. Sheep. Cow. On East Bay? See the boys from Reclaimed DesignWorks.

Whether you’re in Charleston or visiting a new city, there’s always quirky scoop and a hidden gem to discover, and Field Trip helps you do just that. It’ll turn a casual stroll into a fun, guided exploration of the city around you.

“Google and the developers at Niantic Labs are excited to have CHARLIE as a local publishing partner in Charleston,” says Lili Sirota, Field Trip Business Development. “CHARLIE is a trendsetter in Charleston and gives readers the inside track on the latest Charleston has to offer. We envision Field Trip being like a friend in a new city who knows everything about it from the history to the newest restaurant. CHARLIE is that knowledgeable friend.”

So download the free app and come explore with us! We’ll be with you all the time, and when you pass something cool, we’ll let you know. We’ll just pop up on your phone like magic. You can do those kinds of things when Google’s your bff.

Click here to download Field Trip. Happy Field Tripping!