Ladybelle Profile: Reese Witherspoon

And here it is, the inaugural Ladybelle Profile of the lovely Miss Reese Witherspoon.

Southern born and raised, smart as a whip, funny as hell, an Academy Award who contemplated med school, Miss Reese stated in an early interview that the first thing she bought herself with her film proceeds was a set of monogrammed towels. Now that, my friends, is a ladybelle. Her recent divorce has left her no less graceful, and she has continued to impress with her style and grace, avoiding insult to her ex in the press and continuing to raise her children in as normal a life as possible in Hollywood.

For more on Miss Reese check out this interview, where the New York Times describes her best: “She projects a fundamental niceness that makes it impossible to begrudge her all the goodies that flutter into her lap like candy sequins down from Barbie doll heaven.”

Manners for the Modern Ladybelle

How does one develop Impeccable manners if not raised at the knee of a Southern belle like your own Miss Impeccable? While challenging, all of us can strive to become a ladybelle, even in these modern etiquette-challenged times. If you are not a lady now, don’t despair. Books, my dear, are your little pocket-sized Southern mamas.

My suggestions:

The classics are classic for a reason-

• Etiquette, by Emily Post (Miss I. has a first edition, but you can do just fine with this newer version)
• Amy Vanderbilt’s Everyday Etiquette (mine is (c) 1954- this one is a good new edition)

And some more modern ideas:

• The Art and Power of Being a Lady, by Noelle Cleary and Dini Von Mueffling
• Better than Beauty: A Guide to Charm, by Helen Valentine and Alice Thompson
• How to Be a Lady, by Candace Simpson-Giles

In the coming weeks, Miss I. will be providing reviews and useful tips from all of the above and more. In the future, I hope you will all join me in my Ladybelle Book Club, where we will choose books on modern lady-hood and get our brains wrapped around the challenges of seeking style, grace, and class in these busy times.

If you need manners and you need them now, go here where you can read Miss Emily’s original book in its full text online. While you may not need calling cards or guides to how to treat “the help” (and if you do… bless your heart), the basics haven’t changed- thank you cards are non-negotiable. Period.

Who Is Miss Impeccable?

The royal We would like to say We are impeccable. But little in this life is impeccable. Being impeccable is a Lifelong Mission requiring excellent taste, perfect manners, good stationery, constant maintenance, and a little Panache. But can We aim at being impeccable? Yes we can. There are tools of impeccability. There are guides to impeccability. There are films which can aid one in their search for impeccability. And here, I will begin to explore impeccability in its many facets. We hope that you will find this adventure toward impeccability as riveting and divine as We hope it will be.

Impeccably Yours,
Miss Impeccable

Miss Impeccable is a Southern belle living in the North, but still striving to meet the standards of ladybelledom set for her by the women she was raised with. She is a collector of vintage ettiquette books, a classic style afficiando, a watcher of great films starring ladybelles past, a decent cook, and a poet. When she is not being a lady or writing thank you notes, she is also a legal advisor by day and freelance writer by night. She has also been known to complete major construction projects in three-inch heels and lipgloss.

Miss Impeccable is glad to take style questions, gifts, and press requests and beauty and style samples at missimpeccable (at) gmail.com.