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FeedEffortless
On-the-go style is the key for this busy mom.
(page 1 of 4)
The scene at Buckley’s Tavern in Centreville is de rigueur: hot cars in the parking lot, cold drinks behind the bar.
In the downstairs pub, a lone woman nurses a glass of white wine.
“You have no idea how relaxing this is for me,” says Carroll Ivy Laurence, a busy mother of two who serves the fashion world as the sales and marketing manager for Cass and Co., a luxury shapewear collection perfect for today’s women: they who go from “9 to jive.”
All around her, men in jeans and T-shirts talk sports, but Laurence, showcasing her effortless style in a chic frock and heels, doesn’t notice that one of these things is not like the other.
She has all the ingredients to be haughty fashion elite. Her resume boasts glamorous jobs with Michael Kors and Anne Klein in Manhattan and a stint in the interior design world with Sue Fisher King in San Francisco, which saw her trauling Europe for decadent design fixtures. Yet she remains down to earth. “I’m headed to a parent-teaching meeting at school after this,” she says with a laugh.
On New York: “I was just this little girl from Delaware, and then all of a sudden, I was out on the runways. It was just like ‘The Devil Wears Prada.’”
Before joining Cass and Co., Laurence did fashion marketing for woman-owned companies. “I have a passion for working with women who launch businesses,” she says. She counted among her clients Houppette in Greenville—“where I get all my little treats”—and Kara James, a luxury Canadian handbag label (Jill Biden just snagged one from Ellie in Greenville.)
“I was never a corporate girl,” Laurence says. “I like having my hands in a lot of things and watching it evolve.”
Always on the go—business trips to New York or everyday mom stuff—Laurence’s fashion M.O. is sensual and comfortable. “I wear what I’m comfortable in, and it’s fun to do the unexpected by adding a bit of flair,” she says. Since she’s never quite sure where her day will take her, she adores layering one great look after another.
“My goal is to feel confident and chic in my clothes all day long,” she says.
Laurence starts her day in Lululemon athletic, which outfits her perfectly for her daily four-mile run.
She’ll shed her Lululemon for a wrap dress (Donna Karen is a fave) and perhaps throw on an Etro scarf to complete the look. “It’s really all about one great thing,” she says. “If you have one great item, you can build an outfit around it. I usually start with shoes”—perhaps Pucci from one of her new favorite stores, Vivi G in Glen Mills.
Or 4-inch cork wedges, which she confesses to wearing even when she’s at her computer developing Cass’s online marketing.
And of course, the boots. “I love boots,” she says. “Boots with a dress is one of my favorite looks.”
She cops her looks from all over the state—Ellie for dresses, Downtown Cowgirl for Sweet Pea, Blair Elizabeth for unique jewelry finds and Houppette for the flirty Cosabella collection.
“I need something that takes me from one gear to the next,” she says. “I love shopping. I love that added pop. Do I love walking into Barney’s and seeing all the women dressed to the nines? Yes. But I love jeans and a T-shirt, too.”
For Laurence, it’s all about finding balance between family and work and, of course, looking fabulous.
“Every day is a marathon,” she says.
At least she has fantastic shoes to run it in.
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