With the launch of our new fashion publication, Atlanta Magazine Style Book, we decided to round up the top twenty locals creating online eye candy that inspires us. Below, the full list, in no particular order.
Asiyami Gold
Nigeria native Asiyami Gold Wekulom is a lifestyle-focused art director—and it shows in her stunning photo collection on her website and Instagram. The feed features Wekulom’s talented eye, often on her travels—a basket of croissants, an old Portuguese door—but more often than not, she herself is the star, say, wielding a straw hat among perfectly placed palm fronds. Any one of the shots could be plucked from the pages of the highest-end glossy.
In Honor of Design
Cumming-based mom of four Anna Liesemeyer makes life look like a beautiful breeze on her blog and Instagram. Not only do her outfits and interiors always look impeccable, but she somehow manages to make her little ones carved-out pineapple bowls filled with fruit, yogurt, and nuts for breakfast.
Marjorie Harvey
We can’t think of any other Atlantans who sit front row at the Chanel shows in Paris. Wife of TV personality Steve Harvey and a mother of seven, Marjorie inspires fashion lovers everywhere with her website, the Lady Loves Couture (which is surprisingly accessible, with oodles of budget picks under $100). But when it comes to Instagram, we prefer her personal feed, which includes plenty of fashion pics, but also an inside look at the Harvey lifestyle (Steve asleep on a mink getting a manicure).
Gunner and Lux
Six-year-old Riley may be Atlanta’s youngest creative director, running a line of wildly popular kids necklaces, Little Lux, with her dad, John Petersen. Their Instagram features pint-sized fashionistas around the world wearing their creations, and stars Riley, who has been known to sport vests and bellbottoms, assorted eyewear, and a DIY spring 2016 Gucci ruffled dress. Her dad does some pretty cool manipulations with the photo layouts—and oh yeah, he has his own line of handmade adult jewelry too (the original Gunner and Lux).
Little Barn Apothecary
This luxurious local line of beautifully packaged scrubs, oils, and balms has one of the most sublime Instagram feeds around. Founders Joshua Morgan and Brad Scoggins pack it with clean, crisp shots: their goods on marble vanities or nestled among succulents and flowers; botanical wonderlands that inspire them. It’s no wonder they’ve been featured on sites like Vogue, Glamour, and the Coveteur.
Ginny Branch
Prop stylist and Atlanta native Ginny Branch Stelling has worked in retail and visual merchandising for Marc Jacobs and Maison Martin Margiela. She loves soothing neutrals. Patina, linen. Shadows on a sunny wall, odd curiosites, an interesting texture on a rock. You’ll find all this, plus still lifes of shoots in action, and a few romantic snaps, on her totally dreamy Instagram feed.
Cobbler Union
There is no polite way to say it: This Instagram feed is shoe porn for guys. The locally based company (with a storefront in Inman Park) sells handmade men’s loafers, lace-ups, and boots made in Spain; the bulk of their business is online. It’s not hard to see how they attract customers from their feed—mostly close-ups of the handmade beauties, highlighting Italian calfskin, wingtip detailing, and their signature red quilted insoles.
Millennielle
Twenty-eight-year-old Nigerian native Coco Bassey shares her cute but cool personal style, favorite trends, and healthy lifestyle tips on her blog and Instagram. She does a mean high/low, from Asos to Acne, Topshop to Saint Laurent.
Cool Atlanta
Cool Atlanta began as a blog for this Los Angeles transplant to document everything, well, cool, in Atlanta, but is now best experienced via her Instagram feed. As she does, we’ve kept her identity out of the spotlight, but we watch her hands and feet and artistic eye explore shops, eats, cool local stuff—making us fall in love with the city all over again.
Lookbook Atlanta
Tova Gelfond is the mastermind behind this stylish city guide (which, in addition to a robust website and fun behind-the-scenes Instagram, has a quarterly print edition that can be found around the city). We like Lookbook’s mini Instagram videos that feature the week’s best local news and events.
Sweet Peach
One of the best scouts for Southern makers, Pamela Berger (also a TV producer) rounds up the best of local art, jewelry, accessories and more. On her blog and Instagram, she tells compelling stories—both written and visual—of the artisans behind the goods. Look for her free newsprint Sweet Peach “Sweet Spots,” or read it online.
Waiting on Martha
Waiting on Martha is much more than a blog. Founder Mandy Kellogg Rye has turned it into a veritable enterprise, with a team of six and more than 70,000 Instagram followers. Her online shop, which has regularly popped-up as a brick-and-mortar, offers Jonathan Adler home goods, entertaining essentials (er, non-essentials, like pineapple tumblers), and preppy tchotchkes. She’s also a stylist, and her feed features the platinum blonde displaying her clothes, tabletops, and highly curated life.
Mattieologie
Mattie James—“your favorite Liberian girl”—has run her Atlanta-based blog for six years, creating beauty product reviews, outfit posts of her modern-elegant looks, and cute lifestyle posts (see: “Three Ways to Eat Toast in the a.m”)—plus practical tips for aspiring bloggers. Find a visual synopsis on her Instagram.
The Love List
Jess Graves (a sometime contributor to this magazine) launched the Love List ten years ago, making it one of the most long-lived, enduring lifestyle sites in the South. She covers style, music, and food and booze with a knack for approaching the classic with wit and attitude (she calls her domain “cool Southern sh*t), and creates sophisticated style edits and eclectic playlists. Follow her Instagram for a little behind-the-scenes action.
Caviar and Catwalks
With her purple hair and killer style, it’s hard to miss Teodora Nicolae. She has a background in fashion and luxury PR in New York, and her cool girl edge is punctuated with covetable handbags from her days as a publicist for the local Bella Bag. Lately, her blog and Instagram have been populated with wanderlusty pics (like her recent trip to fashion-world fave, Tulum)—a trend she says to expect more of.
The Spin Style
For more than 20 years, Darcie Adler has been a photo stylist and art director for brands like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Turner. In 2014, she and wardrobe stylist Molly Webb (who once worked for the creative director of Elle) founded this boutique agency of stylists, hair and makeup artists, and creative directors. Last year, they launched their blog, Spin Point of View, to document their fashionable comings and goings (we also recommend following their Instagram.
The Urban Realist
Three years ago, Danasia Fantastic launched the Urban Realist, a digital lifestyle magazine aimed at all city-living (or loving) millennials; it counts contributors from L.A., Miami, and New York. TUR keeps its finger on the pulse of fashion (posting lookbooks from brands like Kenzo), the local (a review of Georgia State Parks yurts), and millennial-specific issues (“4 things to do after you’ve been ghosted”). Its fashionable Instagram features mostly editorial snaps from favorite artists and magazines.
It’s Arkeedah
Atlanta native Arkeedah McCormick features style both local (what to wear to a Braves game) and national (Beyoncé launches Ivy Park) on her blog, It’s Arkeedah, and her Instagram. Hair and beauty is a focus, and she’s known for her reviews of new products—or those new to Atlanta.
Lush to Blush
Megan Elliot is a web designer and co-founder (with fellow Atlanta blogger Lauren Price of Fashionably Lo) of a digital marketing firm, Adorn Media Group, which consults with bloggers and lifestyle brands like her own. On her Instagram she features beauty, style, travel, and a stellar assortment of flowers.
Res Ipsa
Two local lawyers, Joshua Moore and Odini Gogo, run this company of handmade “travel and leisure goods” known for its kilim loafers, chukkas, and weekend bags. Their Instagram features their colorful products on treks around the world—patterned kicks on a dock in Santorini, the founders in front of a mosaic tile window in Istanbul (where they source many fabrics). But you don’t have to go far to find their wares; they’re set to open a showroom in Inman Park this June.