Top drawer

Two cute

Emily Storrow and Aaron Gilmour

• Who they are: Emily Storrow and Aaron Gilmour

• What they’re wearing: On her, a floral dress she bought on a recent trip to California and a teal bag from Urban Outfitters. On him, a navy velvet newsboy cap from Head to Toe in Black Mountain.

• Why we love it: There’s a casual retro look to Emily and Aaron’s attire that seems so free of irony. Despite the way her dress, Keds and brightly colored bag reference the mid-’80s a la Drew Barrymore in The Wedding Singer (and, for that matter, his hat is pretty much circa-late-’70s Marc Boland), the result is totally fresh. And we don’t mean that in a Doug E. Fresh kinda way.

Try this on

Asheville's Goombay! festival

A recent prowl through Asheville’s Goombay! festival turned up plenty of inspiring sights. Vendors lined Eagle and Market streets selling paintings, carvings and fabrics — mostly with Caribbean or African themes. Some favorites: tables filled with glass and ceramic beads, lifelike wooden giraffe sculptures and the salespeople themselves dressed in elegant African attire and head wraps.

These dashikis — men’s shirts worn in West Africa — make a brightly colored display next to a collection of hand-woven baskets. The shirt was adopted by many African-Americans during the 1960s cultural struggles. Comfortable and colorful, it was also favored by ’60s-era hippies. These days, dashikis still represent African heritage, and they also work well with a plain skirt and wide belt for a Bohemian look.

Loose threads

For fashion-history buffs, Ian Kelly’s latest endeavor, Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style (Free Press, 2006), recounts the rise (and fall) of the first dandy. “Beau Brummell was the first person famous for being famous … the first metrosexual — 200 years before the word was conceived,” explains a press release. Chokingly high cravats, corseting and stockings with padded calves: and this was men’s wear. Add to that excessive spending, name dropping and an STD or two and you’ve got the perfect end-of-summer read.

For more Asheville fashion, visit www.topdrawerstreetstyle.blogspot.com. Send your fashion news to amarshall@mountainx.com or call 251-1333, ext. 124.

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About Alli Marshall
Alli Marshall has lived in Asheville for more than 20 years and loves live music, visual art, fiction and friendly dogs. She is the winner of the 2016 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize and the author of the novel "How to Talk to Rockstars," published by Logosophia Books. Follow me @alli_marshall

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