We are incredibly excited to bring you the first all-fashion issue of West Chester & Liberty Lifestyle. Our team has never worked harder on an issue, but we’ve also never had this much fun.
We started by looking for local models—real women living right here in our community. Two ladies featured in our May issue blew us away at their “Women to Watch” photo shoot, so we brought Jenny Gutman and Kara Lyons back to strike a pose for us. We added Melissa Askren to the mix, a local working mom who has dabbled in modeling and is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. These three ladies did a stunning job—especially while donning heavy fall coats on 90-degree July nights.
Once we had our models, it was time to find our looks. We leaned heavily on four local experts to guide us: Felisa Insignares from Designer Items and More, Sherry Armstead from Art on Symmes, Tracey Schneider from Liberty Center and Richard Lanthorn from Dillard’s. The stores they represent are vastly different in style, which provided us with the variety we sought to fill our pages. Thank you also to Bill Welling from Welling & Co. Jewelers for helping to provide a few finishing touches.
Next, it was time for the photo shoots. Pure Concept Salon + Spa at Liberty Center made our models photo-ready by providing beautiful hair and make-up. And one of the photographers on our team, Len Kaltman, spent many years in New York doing fashion photography, so we knew right away he would be up for the challenge. He accomplished our vision.
When it came to finding the setting for our photo shoots, Liberty Center made the perfect backdrop. Thank you to all the shop owners and shoppers for being so accommodating during our many nights of shooting. Add in a beautiful car courtesy of Tom Fiehrer from Fiehrer Motors, and our backdrops were complete.
Last, my editor, Abbey McMahon, and I learned that our roles expanded far beyond just the organization of these complex photo shoots. We fixed stray hairs, buckled shoes, fanned overheated models, powdered faces, pinned dresses, rolled around heavy bags overflowing with clothing and accessories, and finally collapsed in exhaustion at the end of some very long nights. But all the while we smiled and laughed more than we have on any previous issue.
What you see inside these pages is a labor of fashion love, and we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed creating it.
Michelle Moody, Publisher
Michelle.Moody@LifestylePubs.com
ON THE COVER:
Local mom Jenny Gutman shines in a red pantsuit and black blazer from Dillard’s. Photography by Len Kaltman-West Chester Corporate Photography