While the South by Southwest Conferences & Festivals is known for three main components — music, film and interactive — there’s another element that deserves some attention: style. This year, festival’s former Style X portion has broken off from SXSW and morphed into a separate new event, The Neighborhood, which will feature a wide variety of pop-up shops, panels and Q&A sessions from some of the leading names in the fashion, beauty and lifestyle industries.
Austin’s 2nd Street District will host The Neighborhood, from March 11 to 14, which will give fashion junkies free access to the daily events and after-parties. The daytime panels and Q&A portions boast an impressive lineup, featuring head honchos from major companies such as StyleCaster, Refinery 29 and Huffington Post. You’ll find a slew of topics discussed during The Neighborhood’s four-day period, including a panel on March 11 with StyleCaster, Neiman Marcus and Leandra Medine (of the fashion blog, The Man Repeller) to talk about what StyleCaster’s tagline “Style to the People” actually means.
Stop in on March 12 or 14 for the Huffington Post Style Sessions, where HuffPost Style executive editor Anya Strzemien will host a one-on-one Q&A with designers Billy Reid and John Varvatos. The topic? How relevant music is to their brands and how it inspires their collections and collaborations with Mumford & Sons (Reid) and Gary Clark Jr. and Jimmy Page (Varvatos).
Once you’ve had enough shop talk, head to Bollare’s Relax & Recharge Lounge (open daily from noon to 8 p.m.) to get pampered by hair stylists and makeup artists, sip drinks from Tito’s vodka or BluePrint Juice and listen to tunes by DJ Kane Fortune.
Photos Courtesy of Billy Reid, Billy Frey and Andrea Martin Photography
