OTMJ OVER THE MOUNTAIN JOURNAL u OTMJ.COM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024
The Perfect Fit Birmingham Suits This Belgium-Born Designer
Photo by Blake Raymond
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Fashion designer Julie Maeseele will be participating in the Haute Pink Fashion Show, an annual fundraising event to benefit the Forge Breast Cancer Survivor Center on Thurs., Oct. 17, at the Red Mountain Theatre Arts campus. The event features 10 local women impacted by breast cancer modeling customized apparel created for them by 10 local designers.
By June Mathews
en years ago, Julie Maeseele learned she and her family would be moving from their home in Belgium to New York. At the time, she was working with a nonprofit organization on a social textile design project. She was also training to become a seamstress and beginning to seriously consider a career in fashion design. So, the idea of living in one of the fashion capitals of the world was not unappealing. “I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, fabulous. Let’s do it,’” Maeseele recently told Carrie Rollwagen on The Localist podcast. Then the location changed. Instead of New York, the family would be heading to a place Julie had never heard of before: Birmingham, Alabama. Disappointed, Maeseele was nevertheless looking forward to moving to the States, so she began researching the city she would soon call home. She googled “Birmingham fashion” and discovered the website for Birmingham Fashion Week, and she learned the event included an Emerging Designer competition. Flash forward to 2016: Maeseele, then a resident of Cahaba Heights for a couple of years, entered that competition and won. See MAESEELE, page 12
SPORTS
Community Mainstay Edgewood Elementary Celebrates 100 Years of Growth and Excellence By Anne Ruisi
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n the 100 years since Edgewood Elementary was founded in 1924, the Homewood school has weathered a major fire, restoration and expansion while remaining a mainstay of community life. On Nov. 17, students, alumni, teachers and staff – past and present – and city and school officials will celebrate the centennial of the beloved school with an afternoon party at its
Courtesy
SOCIAL
Founded in 1924 Edgewood welcomed its first students in September of 1926.
College Avenue campus. “I think we’re just really excited to be able to celebrate 100 years of Edgewood,” said Catie Seale, a parent who is coordinator of the school’s 100 Year Celebration Team. The idea for the school that became Edgewood Elementary got its start after the area was incorporated as the town of Edgewood in 1920. Shortly after the town was founded, its leaders decided the community’s children needed their own school, according to “Homewood: The Life of a City,” by Sheryl Spradling Summe. See EDGEWOOD, page 8