Style Compass on Marcia Sherrill by Patricia Dobashi

Michaelangelo's prayer "Lord, free me of myself so that I may please you" could  be the mantra of the exceptionally multi-talented Marcia Sherrill. The gifted Ms. Sherrill is the possessor of boundless energy, brains and talent which fulminates into an artist who wants to repaint the Sistine Chapel in pyrotechnic-Marcia-inspired colors ... and finish by no later than lunchtime today.

This Confederate Daughter, Vanderbilt University grad, eighth generation Southern belle cum New York Junior Leaguer, mother of young Anabelle, prolific designer — the creator of two handbag and accessories lines, television personality, website creator, author of books and countless magazine articles, is also the writer of our weekly Style Compass column.

This month marks the one year anniversary of 1stdibs' launch into editorial, in which Marcia has played a significant role.  Over the course of the last year we've received emails from people all around the country who want to know — "Is this the same Marcia Sherrill ...?" that they know from all of her various endeavors.

Marcia admits her work ethic is "preternatural" and remembers when her daughter was 6 years old, being interviewed with Marcia on television.  Anabelle was asked, “Do you want to grow up to be multi-talented like your mother?” — to which the child quickly replied, “No, I would hate to work that hard.”  Out of the mouths of babes ...

Born and raised in the deep South (Birmingham, Alabama), Marcia Sherrill is an eighth generation American whose great-great-great grandfather was a surgeon in the Civil War.  "My family is teeming with doctors, with at least one in every generation.  My younger brother is like me, a designer, but my elder brother carries on the family legacy of being a physician."

Her mother, a former beauty queen and off Broadway dancer, originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota fell head over heels for Marcia's brilliant father, who Marcia reveals was known as "the handsomest man in Jefferson county.  My father was the epitome of the Southern swain, handsome and too charming for his own damn good.  A solid hobbyist pen and ink artist and an accomplished pianist (as was my mother); he would quote Omar Khayyam as he hunted, dogs at his side flushing out the pheasants."

Reading all of her mother's American and French Vogue magazines, the young Marcia dreamed of becoming Coco Chanel but with a quill in her hand, writing a new version of To Kill A Mockingbird.  Voted Best Dressed, Marcia graduated Magna cum laude from Vanderbilt, majoring in philosophy with a minor in math.

By 1984, the young Ms. Sherrill firmly planted her "Stars and Bars" north of the Mason-Dixon line, calling New York her permanent home.  Friends back home in the South referred to her as "a reverse Carpetbagger" but wished her luck.  It was by hard work not luck by which Marcia survived in those early years, working several demanding jobs: writing for shelter magazines, designing mens and boys wear,  designing interiors, representing clothing lines, and ultimately becoming the co-owner and chief designer of Kleinberg Sherrill, a luxury accessories company that became famous for its alligator bags.

Her warm and infectious Southern charm quickly made her a regular on the New York social scene.  Even her little French bulldog, Peach Blossom, became a mini celebrity as the pooch that appeared in the print-ads for Kleinberg Sherrill.  Now in 2007, Peach Blossom again appears as the official mascot for Marcia's new line,  Marcia Sherrill the Anabelle Collection: an affordable alternative to the $15,000 Kleinberg Sherrill bags — the Anabelle line will be priced between $35 and $225.  

Asked more about her trademark canine sidekicks, Marcia explains, "I am always photographed with my dogs; first, my super-sized Boston Terrier, Dixie Belle, who was so house trained that I would ring the doorman at 10 Park Avenue where eight of us fashion types lived — there was Richard Lambertson of Lambertson Truex, Maria Dzedic of Michael Kors, and Kim Zimmerman of Bill Blass — it was 'the Fashion Dorm.'  I never took that dog outside to 'go' but instead rang for the doorman to inform him that Dixie Belle was in the elevator and would be coming down.  The doorman would let her out and waited as Dixie Belle 'saluted the trees', and put her back in the elevator and pushed the button for her ride back up.
Each of my dogs is special.  Peach Blossom has been my little partner through trials and adversity, as she too has been at my side during my successes."  With the many coups and accomplishments in the Marcia's life, the little dog is living up to her name, as things seem pretty peachy for the duo.

Besides designing her new handbag line, working with 1stdibs in editorial and PR, Marcia is involved in major design projects in the South, designing her own line of furniture, and promoting her website Victoryoverdivorce — soon to be every divorcee's new best friend.

Having an almost unfair set of talents, Marcia Sherrill is a giver and is the happiest when writing, especially about her life in the South.  Being far too glamorous for it to be a good fit, Marcia says she likes to think of herself as "....a Southern Erma Bombeck who likes to give it and tell it all."

WHAT DIRECTION IS YOUR STYLE COMPASS POINTED TO?
FASHION: I swoon for Balmain and Lanvin.  I wear head-to-toe Jill Stuart most days because her designs are so spot-on girly and I love Rene Caovilla shoes.  I will eat crackers and cheese for fashion, and go on my version of a hunger strike for it. Since I am Irish I can go for a month if need be. I knew Roger Vivier — my girlfriend and I managed the store on Madison Avenue years ago where we would get all the shoes on sale for 40 dollars; I am still wearing some of them, but the rest I need to box up and send to my friend Harold Koda at the Met. When I was 18, I put a Louis Vuitton bag on lay-a-way at Rosen- berger’s in Birmingham and all my friends would go by and put 5 or 10 bucks down for my birthday!

FABRICS: I love fabrics, probably inherited from my weaving, sewing and quilting mother who was incredibly talented, and admired by everyone, including professionals clothiers for her sewing.  I like severe fabrics for fashion such as silk bombazine and ducape and zibeline — all the fabrics that apparently no one uses anymore. I can always have my mother whip something up for me, thank God, because last summer at the rinky dinkiest fabric store in Atlanta, I found a gauzy, heavy taffeta with tiny bows that my mother sewed into a fabulous shawl. I wore it everywhere and at a CFDA party, ten designers asked, ”Whose is that?” I answered,  "It's an original JoJo!"  Who knew that's my mother?!

COLOR: I am a huge fan of red but this week I was at the D & D and the NYDC and the blues at Nobilis and the grays at Jim Thompson thrilled me: that man died so that we could have great fabrics and divine color. Designers Guild is a riot of colour.

TRAVEL: I love Milan. Milan and New Orleans, and the Half Moon Club in Jamaica are my favorites.  But I do love China even though I am pretty much stuck at the factory most of the time overseeing the production of my Anabelle handbag line.  Nevertheless, it is an amazing country with such unprecedented growth.  I recently heard that something like 75% of the world’s heavy construction equipment is in China, and it feels like it too.  You should see and feel the whirl of energy there.

GARDENING: I do not share my Mother’s enthusiasm for gardening. I am at TWO with nature.  I did that whole country child, muddy rivers and estuaries thing as a youngster, so just give me some flowers from Preston Bailey and I am happy.

MUSIC: I love Hip Hop and Rap and anything written by my girlfriend's son, Bryan-Michael Cox who has won every major award.  Tyrese and Usher and Eminem.  Alanis Morrisette and Norah Jones are my new Joni Mitchell and Roseanne Cash.

ENTERTAINING: Not my long suit. I remember a long time ago, someone brought a guest from Atlanta over who confided to me in a letter, that she was quite nervous to come over to my apartment because it had been photographed and published in magazines.  She was afraid I would pull out Baccarat and George Jensen and Flora Danica.  I greeted her with a Big Gulp plastic cup with Diet Coke and bag of Cheetos and screamed, "Wait a minute I have Popeye's fried chicken! Do you need a plate?"

BOOKS: This is the best advice I can give any serious reader: I found a list of The 100 Greatest Books of the 20th Century and  have read them all, and let me tell you, there were many surprises. But at heart, I am still Southern, so I love the Agrarians, and anything by Robert Penn Warren, Walker Percy, and Carson McCullers.  Right now I am reading Louise Richardson’s What Terrorists Want, and Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky who wrote during WW II and died in a concentration camp… haunting and horrible.

RESTAURANT: In New York that’s easy, Giorgione on Spring Street owned by Georgio de Luca and David Burke and Donatella. In Birmingham: Highlands and Bottegga. In Atlanta: La Grotta and Hal’s.

MUSEUM: The High in Atlanta and the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto; in Washington, it's the Freer: the Peacock Room. And of course my all-time fave is the Costume Institute at The Met.

HOTEL: I am obsessed with 10 Corsa Como’s 3 room hotel in Milan called 3 Rooms.  I haven’t stayed yet in Carla Sozanni’s (the owner) new hotels in Japan with Issey Miyake, and in Paris with Azzedine Alia. In Milan, 3 Rooms is the height of chic with its giant rooms all furnished in authentic Mid-century furniture and furnishings by Sozzani’s partner designer Kris Ruhs — with additional  pieces from Charles and Ray Eames, Isamo Noguchi, Saarinen, and Arne Jacobson.  The hotel has a design library with thousands of design books, amongst them is my book, co-authored with Carey Karmel from Monacelli Press:  Stylemakers: Inside Fashion.  And I must go to The Half Moon Club in Jamaica whenever my pocketbook allows. In the summer it is paradise! I take figurative painting on the beach with a local artist, while my daughter Anabelle and her best friend there, Isobel, ride horses, sail and play tennis  In the afternoons, I work on the novel I will probably never finish.

GIFTS: I love to give men alligator belts and wallets.  For women, I hate to only give my handbags so I will pop in a favorite bottle of Creed Perfume.  It's like an instant potpourri! But for my best girlfriends, I scoop up jewelry from Martin-Schettini.

STORE: Collette in Paris. PERIOD.  Mayne, and also Joyce in Hong Kong.  Here in New York: Scoop.