New Ms Fit Feature: DANIELA CORTE

We have been wanting to do this feature on the talented, stylish and gorgeous, Daniela Corte for almost as long as MsFit has been around. We are so thrilled that day has come, especially now that DC is including fitness pieces in her expansive collection. You know we love everything and anything that ties fashion and fitness together, and Daniela is a MsFit through and through!

We had a MsFit “dress-up” day at DC Studio last week and jaws dropped, eyes bugging out, loved seeing the collection made of brightly colored maxi dresses, painted print skirt and top separates and even bathing suits, just to name a few… and you may even recognize some of her pieces which were recently featured in Sports Illustrated and modeled by Gigi Hadad! Her pieces are unique, beautiful, and made with such great fabrics and cuts, she has an item for every occasion! We both were wowed by how her collections included so many different types of pieces that truly anyone can wear at any time and at any age. Not only is Daniela a fashion expert, she is so warm and kind, has such contagious energy, and just so fun to be around. She even managed to make trying on bikinis a lot of fun! We obviously wanted to take the whole collection (and Daniela) home with us but we chose a few beautiful gems that we can’t wait to rock this summer!

We can’t wait to see what she’ll create next. Thank you Daniella so much for sharing with us!

xo A&J

Daniela Corte, I’m president, design director, creative director, founder, and chief bottle washer of Daniela Corte.

 

WHAT IS KEEPING YOU BUSY THESE DAYS?

Life!!! Everything!!! My kids definitely keep me on my toes. But my husband, my family and my friends are also a huge priority! And every other free minute is spent on my business! The second I finish designing one collection, it’s time for the next one, but I love it!!! Play hard, work hard 🙂

 

WHAT ARE YOU LOVING IN FITNESS AND FASHION RIGHT NOW?

Fitness is my therapy. I love my trainer and friend Ildiko Varhelyi, she comes to my house and is the best way to jump start the morning as well as running on the Esplanande at the crack of dawn with my best friend! My latest fitness addiction is Anna Kaiser! She makes me want to dance! I just tried her treadmill workout. That was different and fun.

Daniela Corte with celebrity trainer and founder of AKT inMotion, Anna Kaiser. Both in Daniela’s new fitness line.

Fashion is my passion. Even though, I, along with the whole city of Boston waited so long for summer, I’m now laser focused on fall and for the launch of my new fall collection. I’ll be pleasantly distracted from all these fall thoughts by my swim photoshoot in the next week.

Daniela Corte Swim, Scuba top and shorts

The fashion item I love this week is my new denim rocker jacket. It is unlined and a prefect layering piece!

Daniela Corte Denim Rocker Jacket

HOW DID YOU START DANIELA CORTE DESIGNS? WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIECE FOR SUMMER?

Gosh, it’s a long story!! I started in 2000, in a tiny upper flow studio far down Newbury Street. At that time, it was all custom clothing made right there in the store. As time went on, we kept moving to bigger and bigger studios, growing the business one season at a time. Now we have a floor at 211 Newbury Street and although we still make some of the clothes in our Newbury Street operation, most of our production is manufactured in NY, LA, and Argentina. And although we still do some custom work for our VIP customers, the business is mostly our ready-to-wear clothes, and most of the sales are done by various small boutiques all over the globe.

My favorite summer pieces are my jumpsuit, maxi dresses and silk and cotton scarves.

 

Daniela Corte Magestic Maxi

TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW FITNESS LINE…

I’m getting a lot of love for it!! It’s crazy to sacrifice being sexy for being fit. And with our new fitness line you don’t have to.

Daniela Corte Fitness Line

HOW CAN WE KEEP IN TOUCH AND LEARN MORE ABOUT YOU AND YOUR DESIGNS?

My Website: danielacorte.com, my studio (617-262-2100), my instagram and twitter feed: danielacorte
and in specialty boutiques around the world!!

 

Daniela Corte’s  custom paint splattered jean.

 

Who What Wear at the MFA Summer Party

If there’s any big soiree in the city to mark the beginning of summer with a black tie, it has got to be the Museum of Fine Art’s Summer Party, an annual event raising vital operating support for the museum.

The sprawling front stairway, the perfect sunset evening, the grand entrance into the museum and of course, the tuxes and flowing gowns; we couldn’t wait to start clicking our cameras to find out what everyone was wearing.

The MsFits are here! On Jessica, Alice and Olivia dress, Gucci bag. On Alisa, Versace dress, Arm candy, Jessica Diaz. 🙂

With Bill Brett, my Boston love

Ben and Tonya Mezrich~ On Tonya, Michael De Paulo Gown.

Paul and Ashley Bernon~ On Ashley, Parosh gown from Alan Bilzerian, Christian Louboutin heels.

David DiSimone and Gina Morda~ On Gina, Nicolas Ghesquiere dress, Stuart Weitzman heels.

Jonathan Rubenfeld and Hillary Goldy~ On Hillary, BCBG Runway gown, Turquoise earrings, Grandma’s vintage bag.

Daniela Corta and Ricardo Rodriguez~ On Daniela, Preen Dress, Preen heels. On Ricardo, Balmain tuxedo, Ann Demeulemeester scarf, Chanel brooch, Louis Vuitton shoes.

A huge thank you to Isabella Bulkeley for all the help!

Joshua Janson~ Maison Margiela tux jacket, Ralph Lauren shorts, Hermes bow tie, Yohji Yamamoto shoes.

Rocio~ Carmen Marc Valvo Collection gown, Gucci clutch.

Marsha MacLean~ Diane von Furstenberg gown, Stephen Dwek jewelry.

Gina Morda and Kelsey Riggs~ On Kelsey, Nasty Gal dress, Handmade Tibetan nacklace, Saks Black Label shoes.

 

Thank you to our amazing and talented photographer Jenna Darcy.

Judging This Book by its Cover

Our summer social calendar kicked off with one of our favorite get-togethers, a book signing by the wonderfully talented Ben Mezrich, for his newest non-fiction book, Once Upon a Time in Russia.
Owners of the Boston Red Sox, Linda and John Henry and Restauranteur Seth Greenberg and his wife Sasha hosted an exclusive VIP Launch Party at Serafina to celebrate the publication of Mezrich’s 16th book. This is the first time in two years that Mezrich has released a non-fiction book, his last non-fiction title, Straight Flush graced the bestseller lists, and Russia is slated to do the same… we can’t wait to dive in!

The food, the wine and especially the company made this the perfect night to kick off the rest of what the summer has to bring. And Ben’s new book is the read to rev our beach summer reading engines.

 

All stacked up, ready to go!

A huge thank you to our beautiful hosts, Seth and Sasha Greenberg, John and Linda Henry and Tonya and Ben Mezrich!

Ben Mezrich and NECN Meteorologist, Nelly Carreno.

Alisa, Jessica, Tonya Mezrich, Sofia Ostrer and Abby Cushman.

 

Get your copy of  Once Upon a Time in Russia here. Enjoy!

All photos by the amazing, Russ Mezikofsky.

Open During Construction

Over the past several months, Jessica and I have been riding the crazy roller coaster of life. We have both coincidently embarked on life projects that have taken us up and down and through mazes of excitement and valleys of apprehension and back up to elation and stars in our eyes and it’s only the beginning.

Both of our projects are something we have always wanted to do and we just can’t believe how lucky we are that we get to embark on our journeys at the same exact time. For me, I have left my beloved city life and moved with my family to the “burbs.” We bought a house in a storybook neighborhood that I couldn’t be happier with, but the house has not been touched since 1951. As a designer, my creative juices started flowing, my eyes bugged out of my head and my brain has been overdrive since the second I saw this house. And thus, we started a major renovation on my family’s first real house.

To say it’s a full time job is an understatement, to say I’m not a stress ball is a lie, but to say I’m beyond excited as to the final outcome is putting it very lightly! We have moved out (again), and I have been project manager of this mid-century disaster ever since. My time is spent looking for rough-in valves and deciding where to put electrical sockets and ground wires and whether I want a in-line fan or exhaust fan… and somewhere in all of that jibber-jabber I get to envision my Scalamandre wallpaper and gold sconces and the kitchen I’ve always dreamed of. And somewhere in those hours, I’m still a mom and wife and stylist; running around with my kids and dogs and helping my clients and trying to upkeep my social life and keep you guys, our amazing followers, in the loop of what these Ms Fits have been up to.

 

As for Jessica….

It has been a year of yet again, a lot of change. But as they say when one door closes, another one opens. This has been very true for me these past few months. The studio that I loved, where I began my teaching career, and where I created the Barre program closed and moved earlier this year. This was very hard for me. I loved bringing Barre to this studio so much, and teaching and getting to know so many amazing people… it was my second family. I loved putting together new choreography, new music, finding new ways to challenge my students, so saying farewell was very difficult. But in the midst of this, I discovered a new opportunity to take my fitness career to a new level. A very exciting fitness opportunity, filled with wonderful new challenges, and a whole lot of new things to learn. This new project is what I have been focusing my attention on lately. It is still in the early stages but I am hoping to have more to share in the next few months!

As our journeys continue, we are so excited to fill you guys in on our progress!

We love communicating with you, so please keep sending us your comments and notes or even suggestions on people that you would love to see us write about in our features. Keep em’ coming!

xoxo A&J

New Ms Fit Feature on the Booty-Beautiful, Kelly Brabants:

Kelly Brabants, fitness instructor and founder of the Boston based fitness and fashion brand, Booty By Brabants.

 

Ms Fit for Society loves everything Fitness and Fashion, so when we heard about Kelly Brabants, we had to learn more! Kelly just embodies Fit-Fashion (literally). We love the fit-lifestyle brand she is creating and her glowy- healthy energy. Thank you so much for sharing with us Kelly!

WHAT IS KEEPING YOU BUSY THESE DAYS?

Busy would be an understatement when it comes to my life right now,  but I could not be happier! I am now working for my business full time as well as teaching my “Booty By Brabants” classes & boxing classes at BFX Back Bay, Equinox Franklin St, and The Club by George Foreman III. I am teaching 14-15 classes a week right now and I LOVE it! I am so grateful to be able to work at 3 of the most amazing fitness studios in the city! My classes are my passion, teaching and motivating others is what I love most about my job! When I’m not teaching I spend my time working on growing my business & my brand, whether it be through social media, trunk shows, fitness events, meetings, I am taking every opportunity I can to learn and grow as a business owner and fitness professional. I am very lucky to have my family working with me to keep the business running. my dad and my brother do all of the shipping and handling, and my mom is in charge of the inventory. The whole Brabants clan is involved and on board with the booty business!

WHAT ARE YOU LOVING IN FITNESS AND FASHION RIGHT NOW?

Right now I am loving the new BFX studio in Back Bay. I love the facility and the classes are killer! I also LOVE boxing, I try and take at least 2 boxing classes a week. Boxing is definitely a great stress reliever for me. Fashion wise, I love my Booty By Brabants apparel, of course. My go-to- outfit is usually a bright colored BBB legging, my  BBB sports bra and a tied up oversized tank. I’m also a huge sneaker junkie, I can never have enough Nikes! How I dress directly effects how I feel, so it’s super important for me to always look cute at the gym (hence why I started my BBB Workout line).

 

Kelly in Booty by Brabants

 

 

TELL US  ABOUT HOW YOU STARTED YOUR COMPANY AND A LITTLE MORE ABOUT YOUR PRODUCTS?

I started my business with the intention of it just being a workout. When I decided to start my own brand, I had been personal training at Equinox on Franklin Street for 2.5 years. I also have 15 years of dance experience. I wanted to create and teach my own class that was 100% designed by me. When creating my brand, I was inspired by the Brazilian booty (my mom is from Rio de Janeiro), and I love the Brazilian culture! I designed a 60-minute high intensity booty-shaping workout with unique moves derived from my dance and fitness background. I wanted this class to be fun and innovative, and really give women real results! The class started growing rapidly.  I was constantly getting asked about my clothes/style– it took a couple of months before I realized the huge demand for fun and sexy fitness apparel in Boston. So I reached out to a designer and manufacturer in Brazil to see if they wanted to partner with me. In December 2014, I launched my legging line known on social media as #BBBleggings.

While my leggings are without a doubt flattering, the Booty by Brabants brand is still based off of working out, and keeps exercise in the forefront of all things. To get the booty you desire, you need to work out and put the time and effort in. In return, these leggings will showcase your hard work. When I teach classes now about 80% of the girls are wearing BBBleggings, I still can’t believe it sometimes! (side note/this happens all the time: I was in whole foods the other day and two girls were wearing my leggings and I almost stopped to take a picture, but then my boyfriend called me a creep so I walked away. I swear it will never get old!!!! (Hahaha)

 

BBB Leggings

 

HOW CAN WE KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOU?

You can reach me via email @ info@bootybybrabants.com & shop on my website bootybybrabants.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/bootybybrabants/