Tula SUPing

I am kind of a SUP-a-holic. (SUP= Stand Up Paddle) Last summer alone, I stand up paddled so much, I tore some nasty stuff in my arms and was in rehab for the winter. All that meant was no arm sports, just leg ones. And luckily for me, I LOVE the leg ones.

So now I'm onto the leisure SUPing. And who better to paddle around with than Tula.
This is a slow sport that gives you an AMAZING core workout. And if your feeling frisky, Paddle Surfing is a bit more exciting...but less my speed.

We started out slow...after all, Tula is NOT a water dog.
I had to make sure she could float...

Then we moved onto the board and steady knees...

Then to a stand and sit position...

And finally it all came together. All I could wonder now was how on earth I was going to give her the dog treats I had stuffed in my wet suit without sending us both to an icy finish.

-Thank Heaven for Random Friends that Drive by in Cool Trucks with Great Cameras, Bradley.

New House...

Commitment SCARES me.

The boys who come in and out of my life figure that out pretty quick. But the animals I have acquired are slowly teaching me the ways of commitment. In fact, Tula has lured me into giving up my furnished church only to move into an unfurnished house... Oh how persuasive puppies can be!Minimum Commitment rules for decorating the new place: Only use fabrics and furniture that I already have. No investing in permanence!

I wanted valences in my bedroom. Wood is a commitment. Cardboard is disposable. So cardboard valences it is. I am not proud of this, but not ready for further commitment yet. So...the how to's of making your place look a lot better than it is...for CHEAP.
Cardboard from Michael's. $2.99. (foam core was $9.99 and didnt come big enough)
I duck taped sides to the front.

Then staple gunned batting and the fabric onto the cardboard and added more duct tape for a better hold.
I stapled ribbon loops that will hang on cup hooks that i have screwed into the ceiling.

This is the room post cardboard valences.
Post Valences. Big difference huh?

One project down, many to go.
-One Day I'll be able to Handle the Commitment of Wood over Cardboard, Bradley.

What I want to be When I Grow Up

It started out simple. I just wanted to grow up. And grow out. I can't tell you how many times my dad would catch me with tennis balls stuffed in my bathing suit.
Tennis was a HUGE part of my life growing up. I was always on the court watching my Dad, chasing balls...and wearing my favorite whites. I wanted to be Chris Evert Lloyd, and played tennis against a ball machine for hours.
In highschool it continued, and at this point I was pretty sure Tennis was going to be my life. It was my life in high school, with a side order of Salisbury boys.
When I was too old for Tennis camp, it was time for a 'real' job...and my first job at 15 was working at Minnewaska State Park on the Maintenance Crew. Finally being tall was good (it sucked at high school dances when all the boys were shorter) But now I looked older, and my Boss had me driving the Crew truck around assuming I was old enough! That in itself was HEAVEN. I learned to use a chainsaw, spackle walls and change the oil on a dozer, not to mention drive a big dump truck. Not exactly the background of a girl designing dresses for Black Tie and weddings...now is it?
By now I was at Columbia in NYC, still with no idea of what I wanted to do. I joined the sailing team, drank enough to damage my voice for eternity and took a semester off to write a children's book...in hopes of that getting me into Princeton where my Dad was class of '54. Only, I got my hands on my Dad's old Nikon F camera, and decided to photograph climbers in the Gunks instead. The Children's book could wait...and so could Princeton.
That Summer I life guarded on Fisher's Island and thus began the calling of the Ocean...
The following summer was life guarding in Newport at Hazards Beach...but life guarding wasn't going to turn into a profession unless Baywatch came my way, so onto sailing it was.

I crewed on the 12's in Newport, namely the beauty Nefertiti. Learned a lot, and realized I could do this for real if I wanted...as I was still unsure of what to do.
My last summer before graduating from Trinity I worked at Rockwell Group, a pretty incredible Architecture firm in NYC. David Rockwell, its namesake, rented a log cabin from us at our country place, Awosting. That summer I discovered I loved DESIGN. I loved architecture. I love the creative process that went into the details and how they affected those within a given space.

Rockwell Group has done everything from Nobu, a fabulous sushi restaurant in NYC to the set of this years academy awards. When I left that summer with a job offer upon graduation, one of the sweet girls in the Interiors department gave me a cloth bag that looked like a brown shopping bag. I sewed some ribbon on it...and thus began the CK Bradley tote...THANK YOU ROCKWELL GROUP!

I was on my own from there on. And TRUST me...despite having a fashionable mother, I was one of the LAST persons at Trinity that you would have thought would go onto design clothes. Classmates would have bet more on my teaching at Outward Bound.

It's funny how things turn out. Variety can breed opportunity, it certainly did for me.

-Go Seize the Day, Bradley

Sneak Spring Peak!

I get SO excited for Spring and Summer...not only because I live by the beach and the sailors return, but mostly because I LOVE COLOR, and with Summer comes more color.

The design process happens much differently for me than for most who went to school for fashion design. I dream it up, chicken scratch it and play with it. Play with color, play with prints, play with vintage numbers hibernating in the warehouse...just plain play.

And this year we are manufacturing in Fall River, MA...good old USA! There will be silks, batistes, stretch sateens and prints in heavenly colors...and here's the sneak peak.

I always seem to gravitate to kelly green. It is fresh and I love it.
And who am I kidding...I LOVE corals and oranges
The main print in this drawing is one we call 'Moroccan Geo' inspired by all the geometrics in Morocco. I was in a wedding there a few years back, and was forever changed.
We sipped foreign concoctions in the most intricate tents...These guys played music while we sipped. It seemed everywhere you looked were more beautiful patterns and textures...and a few years down the road CK Bradley's Moroccan Geo was born.

The new Spring line arrives May 1.

-Finishing Touches, Bradley

Way Back When - How I got to Newport

This was my first post ever posted back in July of last year, but posts get buried, and I thought you guys might enjoy this story, since it will provide good background for ones to come!

It all started on an island called Sanibel at dawn, on the first day of Spring. If you like sea shell collecting, this is a great place to go. My Dad somehow convinced my Mom (his girlfriend at the time) and his colleague, Yusha Auchincloss, to get up at dawn so they could get the best shells. Barefoot and sandy, my father, John Atwater Bradley, proposed to AND married my mother, Marilyn Monteith Bower that day. Yusha (above in 2008 with Me) was the Best Man and became my Godfather.

Mind you, I am skipping A LOT on how this event came to happen....from my Dad spending the previous night in Jail, getting a last minute marriage license, not to mention finding a minister to perform the ceremony at dawn. But that is a story for another day. So we'll move on.

Why Newport? Well, with Yusha as extended family, we made annual summer trips to Hammersmith Farm in Newport, RI.This Pic is of my brother, David in front of the "Big House" at Hammersmith in the '70's

David Bradley, Jamie Auchinlcoss and Yusha Auchincloss: Windmill at Hammersmith Farm in background. 1970's

I didn't really understand the significance of Hammersmith Farm growing up, nor did I understand why buses and ferries full of tourists flailing cameras would pull up to the dock on a regular schedule. I do know now, and in case you don't, Hammersmith Farm was the Summer White House during the Kennedy Years from 1961-1963. Built in 1887, for John W. Auchincloss on Newport's oldest working farm, Hammersmith, was the summer residence for the Auchlincloss family for 4 generations. Jackie Bouvier's mom, Janet Lee, married Hugh D. Auchincloss after divorcing Blackjack Bouvier who took to the bottle after the market crashed (or so I was told).

1945, Newport. Jackie top left, Yusha top right, Janet Auchincloss in Lee's arms.

Here is where it gets cute. Yusha, a young boy then, attending Groton School, was SO very excited about Jackie becoming part of the family. He remembers thinking she could be possible girlfriend material...not really understanding that they were 'related' now that their parents were married. Love it Yusha. And you had good taste Yusha, Jackie sure was cute.

There was always a week or so growing up that my Dad, me, the bird and whatever dogs we had would make the pilgrimage to Newport for the 'social' part of our summer. This time for me was TRULY vacation. And I say 'social' because the rest of my summer was spent in the Gunks, at our place called the Awosting Reserve.
At Awosting, I slept outside every night, took baths in the stream, and had rigourous daily lessons and activities taught by my English Au Pair. Math skills never improved, I HATED swim time in our fresh water black bottomed pool, and washing my hair with the crayfish biting my toes was not normal.

The black bottomed pool...

Stream Baths with the Crayfish

So IMAGINE how excited I was to go to Newport where I got to put on pretty dresses, took a bath in a bath, got to sleep inside, and had going to the Beach and Cocktail parties on my schedule for the day. H E A V E N. My room was the top floor of the Windmill overlooking Narragansett bay. Mmmmmmm.

OK...might have chopped off the top floor, but you get the picture. It was a big change from my mountain top mattress beneath the stars.

And then came dress up. Newport meant no hiking boots, no sneakers. It meant party shoes and party skirts. It meant counting blades of grass instead of cutting and raking them. I loved Newport.

Hammersmith Farm, Windmill for Yusha's Birthday
Me(in a dress!), Dad, and Pyrma and John Pell

My passion for dress making certainly had a few of it's origins in this beachy leisure town...

And that's the story of how I got to Newport.

Yusha Auchinloss and Me: Awosting Reserve, circa 1982

-Still Wear my Dresses that Short, Bradley

Way Back When...Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali. Mad genius. Spanish surrealist. Wearer of pin stripe suits. Fascinating eccentric who had a 'thing' for my Mom.

They met one day through Carlos Alemany, who spun Dali's surrealistic creations into jewels. By their second meeting, Dali presented my Mom with one of Alemany's jewels...a ruby pin with a LIVE incandescent beetle attached...yes. LIVE. Beauty EXPONENTIALLY increases when it is fleeting I suppose....

In the early 60's Dali gained a lot of publicity in his search for the last color to finish his Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. For weeks he searched the sewers of NYC hoping to find the missing color! Oh eccentrics....

Then Dad gets a call at home.

It's Dali. He wants to see Mom and Rudy, the parrot. He always ignored Dad completely.

Mom and Rudy

Dad had had enough of Dali and his enormous entourage coming into the apartment, and suggested they meet at Rumplemeyers, a fabulous ice cream spot at the St. Moritz. It was Sunday afternoon, and Dad, Mom and Rudy often shared an ice cream after bicycle polo in the park. (yes, bicycle polo...)
Rudy would perch on the top of the tall sundae cup in absolute ice cream parrot heaven, and lick it clean.
Just as they finished, Rumplemeyers went dark...Dali and his entourage had arrived. The cloud of people stayed outside as Dali swept in through the revolving door.

And what was sewn into Dali's right shoulder of his pin striped suit? A bird perch!!! After all...how else would you meet a parrot on a Sunday afternoon...

He cupped his hand beneath Rudy now sitting on the pin striped perch and directs him to 'pew pew'. Dad has had about enough of this, and directs Rudy to 'poo poo'. Sure enough, Rudy ruffles his feathers, and dumps right in Dali's hand. (This was surely inspired by the 18th Century artist, Jauques Louis David, who finished his last great painting with the caca de dauphin, or the crown Prince's poop color...Dali might have thought Rudy's poop was a worthy 20th Century adaptation. )

Dali disappears through the revolving doors as fast as he came in, and it is suddenly light again outside as the cloud of onlookers follow him down Central Park South.
The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is announced as finally finished soon after. And in the Bradley family, we like to think it was Rudy that did the trick...or at least got Dali OUT of the sewers.

-Love Eccentrics, Bradley.

Way Back When: Ralph before 'Ralph'

Back in the early 80's before Ralph Lauren (at least in my mind) had really made it BIG, he and his wife Ricky were looking for a rustic escape from NYC. They happened upon our place in the Hudson Valley, the Awosting Reserve...then began the fun.

One day my Dad said 'we're going to Awosting for Lunch with Ralph'. Now Awosting was 1.5 hours away by car, and we'd go up there for the weekend...NOT for Lunch. For lunch we'd go to the hot dog stand which we called the Umbrella Club on 5th and 62nd, or SoupBerg around the corner, but not Awosting. I was confused.
I (about 6yrs old) squeezed into the seat on the back of Dad's fold up Raleigh bike and he rode us to the 63rd Street Heliport. Ralph arrived in his black limo, we boarded a Helicopter, and 20 minutes later we were at Awosting. I could get used to this!
One of the reasons I am posting these pics, is I adore looking at Ralph's clothing...what he wore when he was casual...these look like khaki riding pants..and that BAG! To DIE FOR.

He and Ricky came up several times for hikes...love Ralph's belt buckle...

Ricky....you are SO elegantly casual...This is the bedroom Ralph and Ricky would stay in when they were round for an overnight... Ralph fell for this bed and 'Log Cabin' feel, and his installations in Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus for that season were inspired by this room. And in true Ralph fashion, he brings back the "Log House" look...

What fun we had with the Laurens. I actually went to a Tom's Shoes event at Bergdorf's and ran into David Lauren who I hadn't seen since I was maybe 6...I went up to him and introduced myself, and he definitely had NO IDEA who I was. Oh well.

I met with Ralph in 2000, the first year of CK Bradley, and he gave me what I consider to be great advice. 'Don't design what other people want you to design. Design what you love and you will succeed.'
Thanks Ralph. and PS. I could use some more advice now!

-Doing What I Love, Bradley

Ski Boogie

I'm back.
And so is Ski Boogie.

Ski Boogie is what happens when Warren Miller inspires, CK Bradley provides onesies from their vintage collection, and a few good friends get together in a in a skiing paradise armed with Speedo's, bikinis, onesies, hair pieces AND a video camera.

Click here to watch Ski Boogie

-Anyone have a place for me to live in a SKI TOWN?, Bradley

Charlie's Goes Proper

Foxfields 2006. (Outside of Virginia for those of you who haven't experienced it yet...) It was a day filled with Beirut challenges and frozen drinks made with our 2 stroke, pull start blender. I was tired to say the least.

Cleanup is never any fun after a day like this...but on this particular day, the HANDSOMEST of boys comes up and starts asking me questions about CK Bradley. All I could think was DAMN I'm in the right business! I'm not sure what lured him in..the smell of oil and gas from the 2 stroke, the sticky beaten up Beirut table, the skulls on my cowboy hat...Next thing you know, he was helping ME CLEAN UP!!! Southern boys I LOVE YOU!!!
His name was Charlie Holderness. And he will go down as one of my favorite CKB fans. In fact...he is one of the reasons I love what I do SO MUCH. (Charlie on the Far right in CKB Bowtie and belt)

Charlie entered a CK Bradley contest and won a spot in our Newport Scavenger Hunt in 2006. Then in 2007 he came on our race from NYC to Tennessee in CK Bradley's Banditball.

Charlie and the Judges

Charlie in the beginnings of his modeling career...

Why is it that my version of a 'Charlie photo shoot' is him in orange Dickies and NOT CKB Men's stuff? Arghhhh. One day I will learn....because look at him NOW!!!

Oh Charlie!

Charlie is featured in this months Southern Proper Catalog. I am impressed with SP...they have an original flare that blends Preppy with a side of European. Great cuts, more sophisticated prints...and good looking models.

From Dickies to Southern Proper...Charlie you make us all look good!
(Charlie is tying the knot in June 2010...Congratulations C-Holds!)

-Still Loving Dickies, bradley