{"id":16394,"date":"2020-02-01T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T14:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sasee.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=16394"},"modified":"2024-03-26T15:08:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:08:45","slug":"creating-a-life-of-beauty-deborah-mayberry-mandrell","status":"publish","type":"essay","link":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/essay\/creating-a-life-of-beauty-deborah-mayberry-mandrell\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Life of Beauty: Deborah Mayberry Mandrell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With her signature eclectic and stunning style, Deborah Mayberry Mandrell makes a dramatic entrance wherever she goes. From her closely cropped hair to her signature jewelry designs to her fabulous outfits, Deborah is a woman who gets attention when she enters a room. A professional model for many years, an artist and personal stylist, Deborah has spent her life creating beauty \u2013 and having lots of fun along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI became a professional model at age 13,\u201d Deborah began. \u201cI always wanted to model, and started work with an agency in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I grew up.\u201d After several years, the young model\u2019s agency sent her photos to Eileen Ford, who asked her to come to New York for a fashion show. \u201cMy dream was to model for the Fords,\u201d Deborah remembered. After the fashion show at the Waldorf Astoria, Eileen and Jerry Ford approached her, asking young Deborah to call them the next day. If this wasn\u2019t enough, when Deborah arrived at her hotel, Wilhelmina Cooper, and her husband Bruce, were waiting to talk to her about modeling for them as well. It looked like Deborah\u2019s career was about to take off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter I thought about leaving my family, my high school \u2013 and my boyfriend, I decided I couldn\u2019t move to New York,\u201d Deborah told me laughing. \u201cI was 17, and even though it was my dream to model for the Fords, I said no!\u201dBack in Charlotte, Deborah continued modeling. \u201cIn the 1970s, Charlotte was starting to boom,\u201d she remembered, while telling me about her career. \u201cI became a popular model, and worked in New York, Dallas, Los Angeles and Europe, but I was able to still live at home.\u201d At the time, Vogue Magazine did traveling shows, featuring some of the world\u2019s top designers, and Deborah had the opportunity to work with Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, Geoffrey Beene, and others. One of her favorite designers was Donna Karan. \u201cI remember one morning she had all the models meet at 7 am to be fitted for her big segment in a fashion show. She had us strip down to undergarments, line up by weight and height, and then gave us outfits to try on from a rack, switching them back and forth, and changing them around until she was satisfied. That\u2019s how she figured out what looked the best on each of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBecause of my modeling career, I was often invited to meet famous people when they came to Charlotte. In the \u201870s, the Rolling Stones were doing a world tour and came to the Charlotte Coliseum.\u201d With a far-away smile, Deborah recounted being invited to meet the band in their dressing room before the show. Arriving early, she was waiting, alone, for their arrival. \u201cI was dressed to the nines, as you can imagine,\u201d Deborah laughed. The band was running late, so someone from Stevie Wonder\u2019s entourage (Stevie was opening for the Stones) invited her to hang out with them while she waited. Finally, the Rolling Stones arrived, and Deborah was ready to meet them when they came through the dressing room door. \u201cThe first person to come in was Keith Richards, and he fell flat on his face! He got up cursing and shouting, not realizing I was even there. The rest of the band came in and went right to their dressing areas, but Mick Jagger came straight over to me and introduced himself, like I wouldn\u2019t know who he was!\u201d Deborah and Mick talked for nearly an hour, and she remembers him as a gentleman, a \u201csolid kind of person.\u201d During those years, Deborah met many of the day\u2019s most famous rock stars including Alice Cooper, and even \u201870s heartthrob, David Cassidy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she traveled to New York for modeling jobs, Deborah was often invited to parties. \u201cI met Truman Capote, Andy Warhol\u2026that whole group of people.\u201d Only once did she get in over her head and was saved by two male models she had befriended. \u201cI was young and didn\u2019t know how to drink, I had too much, too fast, but luckily my friends took me back to my hotel. I was so innocent \u2013 I didn\u2019t realize what could\u2019ve happened to me until later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a lot of fun during those years,\u201d Deborah said as she reminisced. \u201cI always felt lucky to get the work \u2013 runway was my favorite, it puts you on the spot, and it\u2019s never boring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deborah always loved everything about the fashion business, and in addition to her talent as a model, became known for her ability to coordinate clothing \u2013 both for fashion shows and personal clients. \u201cI love menswear and had men call me to redo their wardrobes. I helped coordinate outfits for fashion shows featuring Geoffrey Beene and Alexander Julian at different times in my career. Geoffrey offered me a job in New York, but I was married to Carl Peverall by then and didn\u2019t take it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day of our interview, Deborah had on a fabulous outfit, soft pants with a top and vest, along with menswear inspired lace-up boots, all in patterns and colors that coordinated perfectly even though everything was a little different. She topped it off with a gorgeous scarf and, of course, jewelry she designed and created herself. I was surprised when she told me that much of her wardrobe comes from consignment and thrift stores. \u201cIt\u2019s like treasure hunting!\u201d Deborah laughed. \u201cMy boyfriend of ten years, Tommy Nicholas, teases me about wearing so many menswear pieces. But I wear both and see myself as androgynous. We all have male and female tendencies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very fortunate that I was always around a lot of creative people. Betsy Johnson probably influenced my personal style more than any other designer. She started doing crazy things like mixing stripes with flowers or prints and had such an eclectic style. I met her when I was working as a buyer for a clothing store.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After traveling around the country, and the world, Deborah eventually made her way back home. She lived in Taos, New Mexico, for ten years, an artist\u2019s enclave that was perfect for this creative fashionista. \u201cTaos is where I met and married, Michael Mandrell,\u201d Deborah said, telling me that she is still close friends with her former husbands and learned something from each one.Deborah\u2019s deep love for her parents helped her make the decision to live and work in our area. \u201cI never had children, even though I wanted them,\u201d she said, expressing the only regret I heard from this upbeat, positive woman. \u201cSo, when my parents\u2019 health began to fail, I came home to help them.\u201d Her mother and father had moved from Charlotte to the family beach house in Surfside Beach, where Deborah still lives since her mother\u2019s passing in 2015. \u201cThey were very blessed to be able to retire and live in their beach house for 30 years before they passed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deborah refuses to let the negatives in life get her down, not even her successful battle with cancer 20 years ago or her diabetes diagnosis that she manages with diet and exercise. \u201cI try to be positive, no matter how sad or bad life gets. I try to look at what good might come out of it. Embrace your situation. Take it on. Once you embrace it, figure out what you\u2019re going to do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Deborah works at Christopher\u2019s Fine Jewelry in sales, designs her own jewelry, does fashion consulting and is a local star of the cat rescue community. She has recently expanded her fashion consulting business and is taking new clients. \u201cIf someone wants to learn how to put their current wardrobe together in new, creative ways, I can come in and help them. Or I can help them create a new wardrobe, putting together outfits from shoes to jewelry. I work with both men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To work with Borah Designs or to see Deborah\u2019s jewelry, call 843-814-4553.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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