meredithmelling

How it started… It’s funny/annoying how few pictures I took in 2016 - the year we launched @lalignenyc - but I managed to find some gems… Slide 1: We launched La Ligne out of my living room. Valerie and Molly had this custom @francespalmer vase made for me when we finally secured office space. This vase now lives on our Madison Avenue store. Slide 2: Practicing wrapping orders for the warehouse. Slide 3: We asked @brycescarlett to give @lilyaldridge bangs for our launch campaign to make her look “more French.” Slide 4: My girls are still my best models. I love how they wear the clothes. @eloisehburke_ Slide 5: We hand wrapped baby baguettes for our launch press breakfast. Slide 6: A sweet note from my @voguemagazine boss @virginiafsmith Slide 7: @aw holding India in her Met Gala fitting. The dress was designed in collaboration with @peterpilotto.christopherdevos Slide 8: @michellemonaghan in her Met Gala afterparty look - a La Ligne tee and @rosieassoulin skirt. Slide 9: @eloisehburke_ #withlabande Slide 10: La team modeling our upcycled SOS (Save Our Stripes) Tees. Slide 11: La Bande member @frisbeemeyers modeling our straw tote. Slide 12: We tie-dyed our inventory ourselves in Molly’s backyard for our Hamptons pop up. Slide 13: Our summer outpost in the cabana behind @cynthiarowley Montauk. We hand painted the bicycles and the sign (on a piece of found driftwood). Slide 14: We brought our kids to work, and friends brought their kids to support. The kids stayed in the picture. Slide 15: La Bande LA. Slide 16: My heart @zachiscol Slide 17: Our inaugural Halloween-igne. Still my favorite day in the office. Slide 18: I’m with @hillaryclinton . Our PR advised us to not get political as a new brand. Oh well! Side 19: Je suis avec @mollyhoward and @valeriemacaulay - ALWAYS!!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! Slide 20: A failed attempt to La Ligne-ify my holiday card.

Spring Breakers 🤙

Florals for spring! Thanks for having me @lewismillerdesign @irini_arakas @kassatexnewyork

This one goes out to my sweet friend, the most amazing human @lilyaldridge ✌️ I first met Lily when I was at Vogue and Anna asked me to dress her for the Met… the morning of the Met. Now this might have been stressful had it been anyone other than Lily, but every dress option we had in the Vogue closet was stunning on her (duh) and she was graciously happy to wear whatever Vogue felt was right for the theme (in this case a distrssed sequin, backless Cavali). It was Lily’s first Met and she was understandably nervous, so we decided to attend together and get her comfortably situated inside. We soon found @carolynmurphy (and a splash of tequila) and off she went - it was the first of many Met Galas to come, and the start of a beautiful friendship. In 2014, when Valerie and I first left Vogue, we started styling. It was the early days of Instagram and after a long period of celebrities dominating magazine covers and ad campaigns, models were having a resurgence. Models were naturals at the visual language of Instagram and becoming brands unto themselves, requiring them to shape and develop their personal style. Lily was one of our first styling clients, and we certainly made some magic - from “bleaching” her eyebrows gold for the Met to glueing flowers on her for Save Venice, and many @victoriassecret moments in between. When Valerie, Molly and I brought @lalignenyc to life in 2016, we asked Lily to be the first face of our new brand. We shot her with a je ne sais quoi fringe compliments of @brycescarlett bringing our cool French girl aesthetic to life. Work aside, Lily and I have a shared love for @blackberryfarm . We are frequent guests (the first slide is of us at my unconventional “wedding” at Blackberry Farm in 2016) and recently recorded an episode together for the Farm’s podcast with @marycelestebf (stay tuned!). And today, in a full circle moment, we launched @lilyaldridge x @laligne - designed by Lily, photographed at Blackberry Farm, and feted last night at our store in Nashville. Check it out ✌️

Out of Commission! @zachiscol I am so proud of you and everything you accomplished in your four years as Commissioner of @nycemergencymanagement . You left a lasting mark on this city. We ❤️ NY! Now get some sleep.

“There are friends, there is family, and then there are friends who become family.“ John became family to me. He became family to so many of us. And how blessed so many of us were for it. Sweet, soulful, introspective, creative, empathetic, generous, vulnerable, curious, poetic John Forté. How blessed so many of us were to be in his orbit. John was an adoring father, an accomplished musician, an activist and an unparalleled model for my wares (especially when captured by the lens of beautiful @laratf ). How blessed I felt to collaborate with him. Three years ago, when we reluctantly said goodbye to my mother-in-law, we played John’s album Riddem Drive on repeat in her hospital room. Jill LOVED John. At parties, the two would sneak off, only to re-emerge in a cloud of smoke, giggling like school children. How blessed we are to imagine they are together somewhere now, taking comfort in one another, giggling like school children. Please consider donating to the Go Fund Me page (linked in my bio) to support his beautiful family. 💔

Ski-n-Sea 🎄

Californians really know how to Christmas 🎄

No longer my perfect teenager. Happy 20th (!!!) to the GOAT @eloisehburke_ 🎈

It’s almost midnight, so trying to get this out before it’s tomorrow because... TODAY was our official opening day for @lalignenyc retail baby #9 at 330 Bleecker Street in the heart of NYC’s West Village. We’ve long been looking for the perfect downtown location and it feels like we found it. All weekend, while we worked inside to prepare the space for opening, people would pass by and mouth through the glass windows, “Welcome to the neighborhood!” 🥹 So to all of our new friends and neighbors, we are so happy and grateful to be a part of this community. 🤗 And it goes without saying that the extraordinarily chic @tomjdunn was back at it, adding all of the finishing touches to the space, including nods to NYC like our teensy brass rat, our big brass apple, and books sourced at our neighbors @thebookmarc celebrating the iconic artists who have always called the West Village home. Tom’s fresh take on our Charleston store’s highly photographed rattan wall, is a vintage porcelain plate wall which was installed over several days with loving care and consideration. This nook will hopefully become a spot of respite for patient shopping partners, as it did for India who had to tag along with me on Sunday while I hosted our first @airbnb experience in the space. While today’s opening was official, we also consider it soft, as many decorative and functional elements are yet to come (like our racks which are delayed in customs). So come by and say hi 👋 and keep coming back to see the space evolve - plus we drop new styles every week. 😉

Plenty of coverage for Chicago 💨 3 days, 3 @lalignenyc toppers ( + a cameo by @megs.sullivan in our @diannaagron trench) ❤️

When @airbnb reached out about curating a series of AirbnbExperiences, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. You see, @lalignenyc is about to open our ninth store, right here in downtown NY on the corner of Bleecker and Christopher Streets. Our new Bleecker location, like all of our stores, is designed to feel like you are walking into someone’s very chic apartment. We often affectionately refer to our stores as jewel boxes, curated to feel inviting with seating areas, stocked bar carts and decorative nods to the cities they are in. So I hope you will join my upcoming Airbnb Experiences in early November and be some of the first to celebrate with me in our newest La Ligne “jewel box.” The focus? Fashion, of course! From my 16+ years as a Vogue Editor to my now 10+ years as a Founder, we have a lot of ground to cover. I’ll share stories from the front row, discuss the elusive “balance” between entrepreneurship and motherhood, and tackle some sweater weather styling ideas. We’ll work one on one to create personalized Fall looks for each of you. Plus, the bar cart will be fully stocked and everyone takes home a La Ligne goodie bag. What’s not to love? You can register at the link in my bio. Hope to see you there. 🎪