There are those special events that are permanent on my calendar that just move from year to year and I never miss…..the Tootsies Summer Soiree WOW Event benefiting Dress for Success for me is one of those. I feel like I’ve never missed but was astounded to hear Emcee and co-founder of WOW, Mia Gradney say to the crowd that this was their 16th year! Really!!? Wow (no pun intended) time does fly when you are having fun and doing good.
This year’s event chairs, Amanda Boffone, Julie Longoria Chen and Daniella Rodriquez are all members of WOW with one of them, Courtney Campo being this year’s President of WOW. All gals were stylin’ looks by featured designer of the evening’s event, Hunter Bell. Also highlighted for the evening were curated collections from CQY Denim and Mignonne Gavigan jewelry Some of the bites and spirits that we all loved to nosh on were from International Smoke, Armando’s, Macaron by Patisse, Green Fork, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Black Eyed Distilling Co. and many more.
The Levicki’s, Nancy and Lauren, founders of Dress for Success and the Lewis’s, Norman and Donna, welcoming the 300+ of Houston’s haute philanthropic ladies to Tootsies, in celebration of the long collaboration between them. How amazingly loyal of Tootsies to have started this back with original founder Nancy Levicki and continued it all these years later with current President and daughter,-extraordinaire Lauren Levicki Courville……all should be commended for keeping this legacy going for such an awesome cause for women in our community.
The event has always had a great end-of-summer party atmosphere and a strong fashion vibe as all of the young style savvy gals in town get to step out of their summertime super-casual gear and put fashion back in their lives for the night!!! The WOW Summer Soiree which raised $22,000 for this evening announced that it has raised over $200,000 over it’s life. DFSH has celebrated its 21st year of serving more than 43,500 Houston-area women. Lauren spoke to the way this group has evolved to not just be about “suits” for women to interview in but as dress codes have softened, so have their guidelines to assist all women in all walks of life to feel empowered as they seek jobs to support their families.
Lauren Levicki Courville, Shelley Taylor Ludwick, newly appointed Tootsies Store Director (Photo by Daniel Ortiz)
