Reese Witherspoon Says She Doesn't Do Black Clothing

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Unlike some celebrity website endeavors, Reese Witherspoon's Draper James is still going strong. The actress has big plans to open her own Draper James brick-and-mortar shop and now talks about the responsibilities she's undertaken and principles she stuck to in order to make her Southern lifestyle site a success.

"I work with the design team three times a month going through different collections, refining the samples, working on fit and color and trying to make the line cohesive," she tells the Wall Street Journal. "We look at what’s wearable and what’s selling. A lot of my work is traveling to factories in places like Georgia and North Carolina and encouraging people."

Witherspoon also talks about the Southern style principles that inform her designs. "[Southern women are] always dressed before 10am," she says. "We dress to sit on airplanes and to sit at the theater. Nobody wears sweatpants to go to dinner." This means lots of pretty and pulled-together looks. "We also do a lot with bright colors and patterns," she adds. "We don’t do black. Our black is navy... People wear black to funerals. I didn’t wear black at all when I was young and was only allowed to buy my first pair of black pants when I was 15."