feature story "It's What I Can Do" Friday, Sept. 5, 12 08 p.m.
Two local artists give back to their community and its people by using art to fuel life. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments
feature Story The Imaginary World of Highlands Friday, Sept. 5, 12 06 p.m.
Best-selling novelist Cassandra King lets us a peek into her next book, Bridal Falls. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments delectable delights True Southern Spirit Friday, Sept. 5, 12 05 p.m.
We have enjoyed exploring, tasting, and celebrating with you and sincerely thank our loyal readers. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments A Lowcountry Life A Different Kind of Animal Friday, Sept. 5, 12 02 p.m.
Local vet Dr. Michael Forcier trades records and microphones for dogs and cats to live out a dream. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments Just dogs Bonkers for Bassets Friday, Sept. 5, 12 01 p.m.
These floppy-eared hounds are stealing hearts all over the Lowcountry. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments Essay Discovering the Sounds of the Lowcountry Friday, Sept. 5, 12 00 p.m.
Musician and professor Trevor Weston searches for "exotic" sounds and gets a lesson in Gershwin and Gullah culture. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments Feature Story Sustainable Seafood: On The Bubble Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Efforts to make sustainable food more visible and available are increasing. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments get outta town Kendall Lukas Visits Wilmington, N.C. Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Kendall Lukas has stars in her eyes and history under her feet as she explores the neighboring port city of Wilmington, N.C. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments A Lowcountry Life From Ballet Shoes To Bikinis Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Poland native Maria Dobrzanska Reeves uses her dance discipline to achieve success in Charleston. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments essay Splashing Through Childhood Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
Author Ron Daise looks for joy and finds it in remembering his children in their youth. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments homestyle Cooking in the Great Outdoors Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
More on Megan Westmeyer and Jennifer Smith’s visit to Swimming Rock Fish Farm Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments from the editor Water World Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
I love being in water. I love that clear, cool swishing feeling around my ears. In fact, on a warm, sunny day, I like to go outside and get as hot as possible and then dive into a cool pool. For me, it’s refreshment at its finest. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments distinctively charleston Beach Music Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
You can see the shrimp boats from your restaurant table, so that shrimp pasta on the menu has to be fresh and local. Right? Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments just dogs Water Babies Tuesday, July 1, 12 00 a.m.
We celebrate what we treasure in the Lowcountry and beyond that gives us an interior smile. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments from the editor Maxximum Style Thursday, May 1, 03 49 p.m.
My 14-year-old niece visited Charleston with her parents in March. She’s from Moscow, Russia, and I had not seen her in more than 10 years. There’s a big difference between 4 and 14! Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments feature story Holy City Style Thursday, May 1, 03 49 p.m.
When Nancye Starnes decided to move out of Memphis, she drew up a list of “must haves” for her new hometown: it had to be a walkable city, located on the water, and sizeable enough to support a vibrant performing arts community. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments just dogs Citadel Charmers Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Move aside – bulldog coming through. In January, the American Kennel Club announced that the Bulldog, one of the most recognizable and iconic purebred dogs, has muscled its way into the 10th spot on the organization’s annual list of the most popular breeds in America. Read More 2 comment(s) / read/add comments delectable delights Beyond Cookie Cutter Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Prime ingredients, Nostalgic tastes and creative bakers transform Lowcountry cookies into high-style confections. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments A Lowcountry Life Working for Peanuts Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Anthony Wright, the man known throughout the Lowcountry and across the nation as Tony the Peanut Man, never intended to make his living selling boiled goobers. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments get outta town Kendall Lukas Visits Charlotte, NC Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
I had never been to Charlotte … not really. Well, I’ve gotten my kicks at Carowinds because that was part of being a kid in the Carolinas, and I’ve been to concerts at the open-air Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre because it’s a large complex for big-time acts. I’ve visited my sister at UNC Charlotte and have flown through the city’s major transit airport many times. But as for the metropolis of Charlotte, I’d only ever viewed its high-rises from afar. This time I took an up-close look at the interior and found a lot of reasons to relish in North Carolina’s top travel destination. Read More 1 comment(s) / read/add comments distinctively charleston Turning Heads Thursday, May 1, 03 48 p.m.
Bessie is almost 50 and looks as good today as she did in her youth – maybe even better. After all, back then she was hanging from a pole. Now she runs circles around the rest of us, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments homestyle Café Comfort Thursday, May 1, 03 46 p.m.
Banquettes are big. Heidi Walker, Allied ASID, of Walker Design Group, is currently working on three different kitchens that have banquettes. For this kitchen in a young couple’s home on Sullivan’s Island, Walker created a café atmosphere by building on the existing element of the laminated floor. “This promotes a casual impromptu gathering space,” she says. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments ESSAY Lowcountry Style Thursday, May 1, 12 00 a.m.
If you want to experience real Lowcountry style, you need to come to the Hebron Saint Francis Senior Center. Its members are long time Johns Island residents, a hardscrabble group of African-American women who meet every Wednesday for devotion and quilt making. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments homestyle Jewel Box Saturday, March 1, 12 00 a.m.
Although one of the smallest rooms in a house, a powder room is nonetheless important since most of your guests will pay it a visit. Jennifer Rhodes, ASID, principal designer of J. Rhodes Design, took the popular concept of making this room a “jewel box” and ran with it, creating a luxurious surprise in this 3-foot by 7-foot Daniel Island room. Read More 0 comment(s) / read/add comments
Recipe box On the table or on the rocks, Firefly Vodka is HOT, HOT, HOT!
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Poland native Maria Dobrzanska Reeves uses her dance discipline to achieve success in Charleston.
Provided by Maria Dobrzanska Reeves
Maria (far right) poses with her classmates at ballet school in Poland.
Entrepreneur Maria Dobrzanska Reeves – Marysia (Ma-REE-sha) to her friends – is used to overcoming life’s hurdles to pursue her passions. From aspiring ballerina to Charleston businesswoman, she’s come a long way from her native Poland to make the American dream her own. Listening all the while to her inner voice, she has learned to focus on her strengths and parlay talent and discipline into a successful career in fashion.
Q: At the age of 10, you were among the select few chosen out of hundreds of aspiring dancers to attend professional ballet school in Warsaw, Poland.
Reeves: Yes, I was a little girl. I knew I was going to miss my parents, but it was something I really wanted to do – it was like an honor to be chosen. Nobody wanted me to go, but I said if they didn’t let me try out, I’d cry for the rest of my life. Three days after I entered ballet boarding school, my parents left Poland for the United States so my dad could run in the New York City Marathon.
Q: Why did you give it up?
Reeves: I realized over the next four years, I was growing up, and I saw the ballerinas didn’t have much of a life, and their education was not on a par with normal schools. I left a very harsh system. I’ve met some of my friends who went on and they’re so drained. And I was excited about living in the States, starting something new and being with my parents, who had come for just a year, but kept staying on.
Q: How did you make the leap from ballet to fashion?
Reeves: When I first came to the United States I didn’t speak any English. We left everything in Poland and had to basically start over. We shopped in consignment stores, and everyone wanted to know where we got all these great clothes. My mom’s very stylish – always had everything perfect. I remember her red nail polish and perfect hair and makeup. I always had a flair for it.
Photography by Peter Frank Edwards
On Model: Many of Reeves' designs have a classic look, such as this contrast waist suit from Marysia's 2008 Summer/Resort Collection.
Q: Where did you go to school?
Reeves: I went to the University of Delaware and majored in biology to satisfy all the requirements for physical therapy school. It was what my mom and both my brothers did so I always thought that’s what I wanted to do. In my senior year, my boyfriend, Nathaniel Heyward Reeves – the great-great-great-grandson of the Revolutionary War patriot – proposed to me, and I looked into the physical therapy program at MUSC because he’d always wanted to come back to Charleston.
Q: How did you and your husband meet?
Reeves: I met Nathaniel in a surf shop looking for a surf board. I was a lifeguard in Dewey Beach, Delaware. I had 18 saves in two years. I surfed with him almost every day.
Q: So you moved to Charleston after the wedding?
Reeves: We’d looked at homes a couple times when we were in Charleston, but Nathaniel asked me if I was sure this was what I really wanted to do. Then, on the way back from a vacation in Hawaii, I visited a friend who went to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising [FIDM] in Los Angeles. When I saw the school, I thought, “oh no, this is what I want to do!” Right after our wedding we drove cross-country to L.A. School started one week after our wedding.
Q: How did you get back to the East Coast?
Reeves: Towards the end of the one-year program, my husband found a house here online in a neighborhood we really liked near Folly Beach, so we settled on Charleston – it had a city, the beach and is not too far from New York. After I did an internship there with the Milly fashion designer, my husband and his family were very supportive and encouraged me to start my own business.
Q: Why is the marysia CHARLESTON line exclusively swimwear?
Reeves: I only did a short internship; that’s why I started with only bathing suits, and I’ve always been in a swimsuit or leotard for most of my life.
Q: What advice would you give someone hoping to start a business of her own?
Reeves: Go to school first, that gets you ready for life. My mom has been an example – at age 50 she started her own business. I thought, if she could do it I could definitely do it. And as far as the fashion business side of it goes, if I hadn’t gone to FIDM in L.A., I wouldn’t have known where to start. I’m still learning every day.
I know what kind of product I want to put out there, I just have to work hard to get it into the store the way it looks in my mind. You need determination. My parents always taught me if you really want something, you’ll be successful.
Lowcountry Living is a bi-monthly magazine of The Post and Courier, 134 Columbus St., Charleston, S.C. 29403-4800. Copyright 2007 by The Post and Courier.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without express written permission from The Post and Courier. Printed by R.L. Bryan, Columbia, S.C. Click here to email the editor
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