Q&A | Carrie Eddmenson

Carrie Eddmenson and her husband Matt founded Imogene + Willie in 2009, shortly after Carrie's long-running family business of designing and manufacturing blue jeans shut down. Seeing the family shut the lights off was heartbreaking, and Carrie and Matt took that emotion and turned it into motivation. The Eddmensons wanted to keep making jeans, and they wanted to do it here. They started small with a limited run of 250 pairs of blue jeans sold online. Now they're a a global destination of American-made denim. Imogene + Willie has been on my radar for years now, not only for blog fodder, but because they are a very real reason that I want to get on a plane to Nashville. I was moved by their recent Tedx talk and just had to hear more. They tell their story beautifully in the video below, and it does a much better job than I could at conveying the American heart that is Imogene + Willie. It's a real inspiration. Hopefully one of these days I'll get to Nashville for a pair of their famous in-shop custom tailored jeans.

If not in Nashville, I would live in…Istanbul during the week and Fethiye, Turkey on the weekends.

My dream holiday would be to... lay horizontal in water for ten days.

    

My current obsessions are...

Food: Soba noodles with brussel sprouts and kale, from the Sprouted Kitchen.  And I am not ashamed to admit: Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing.

Music: James Blake, Phosphorescent's new album Muchacho, And Willie—this has been an obsession since childhood, but even moreso after just seeing him play at his 80th birthday with Neil Young 18 inches in front of my face.

Fashion: Vintage white t-shirts, the indigo Rhadi dress by Crippen, the summer '13 ankle strap sandal by Chloé, and my first pair of Imogene's.

Retail Stores: RTH in Los Angeles. Ironwood in Denver. Beam & Anchor in Portland. Kapital in Japan… and now in Venice, Ca.

I channel my childhood self when I... play the violin.

The fictional character I most relate to is... Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird.

If I had to be outdoors all day I would... hope that it's sunny and hot.

My favorite quality in a man is…humor.  Like making my face hurt because I'm laughing so hard.  And loyalty. (Matt.)

My favorite quality in a woman is...rawness and realness. A woman that pulls the weeds.

I'm terrified of...tampons.

My dream car is…an early 70's cream Porsche 911.

My cocktail of choice is…tequila, limes, and a dash of agave.

My celebrity crush is...Willie Nelson. And Adam Levine—just because of his vintage t-shirt collection.

My beauty product of choice is... Tata Harper Hydrating Floral Essence Spray and Omorovicza Perfecting Lip Balm (an amazing company out of Budapest.  Love everything that they concoct.)

My friends and I like to... sit on the porch.

If I could go back in time for one decade it would be... the 1940's. And to have been an adult rather than a child in the early 70's.

As a teenager I was totally into... big earrings and hairspray.

I tend to splurge on…lotions and potions and shoes.

Vintage muscle shirts (we have an imogene+willie one coming in a month) and dirt under my fingernails...is what makes me have Tomboy Style.