SoLost: Billy Reid at Home in Alabama

So how many people do you know that are equally at home shooting the breeze with fashion grand dame Diana Von Furstenberg or just plain shooting....a deer? As in from a blind? And, of those, how many have shot to the forefront of the fashion world, designing elegantly post-modern Southern threads in a style described by one publication as "Tom Wolfe-meets-Spike Jonze"? And of THOSE, how many decided to place their headquarters not in Paris, Milan or New York, but in Florence? No, not Italy -- Alabama. Florence, Alabama. We're going to hazard a guess that your answer was zero or one. One is correct. One Billy Reid in particular. And there's certainly nobody else like him. Reid hails from tiny Amite, Louisiana. He's been working in the clothing business since he was a teenager and in the past year his star has certainly been on the rise. Within a matter of months he has been given two of the industry's most prominent awards; first being named GQ's Menswear Designer of the Year, and then walking home with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize of $300,000. Not bad for a quiet family man living on Walnut Street in Alabama's eleventh-largest city. It's been a long road to the top for this incredibly likeable master of fabric (and savvy music aficionado) and SoLost decided it was high time we got to know him a little better so you could too. Producer / Director: Dave Anderson Photography Editing and Postproduction: Jonathan Childs Motion Graphics: TJ McCoy Executive Producer: Warwick Sabin SoLost is an Oxford American production. (c) 2011 The Oxford American Literary Project