An Interview with Dr. Rynetta Davis of Really Rynetta

Monday is International Women’s Day and I’ve teamed up with Kendra Scott for a week of interviews that celebrate the Kentucky women who inspire me. Today’s interview is with my friend Rynetta Davis of the fashion blog Really Rynetta.

Rynetta is so awesome, y’all. I’ve gotten to know her over the past few months and she is so smart and kind and has such a beautiful, positive outlook. Her background is in academia — she holds a PhD in African-American literature! — and her blog is full of beautifully-styled outfits that work for real life. I was first interested in her blog because she lives in Lexington and styles many of the same Draper James, Lilly Pulitzer, and J Crew pieces that I own and love. After getting to know her a bit, I found that she’s an incredibly kind and supportive friend, and so much fun!

Thanks so much to Kendra Scott for helping bring the Kentucky Women Who Inspire Me series to life — stay tuned to HerKentucky.com and my Instagram this week for previews of the newest Kendra Scott jewelry collection and a fun shopping event!

(All photos of Rynetta are © Kirstie Dunston Photography)

HerKentucky: Please tell me a little bit about yourself and how you wound up in Lexington.

Rynetta Davis: I am Rynetta Davis and I am happily married to my best friend, biggest cheerleader, and favorite person on the planet, Toby. We've been married for 18 of the best years of my life! I was born and raised in Columbia, SC. I attended Clark Atlanta University, a prestigious HBCU, in Atlanta, George. I earned a B.A. in English at CAU in 1998. After graduation, my parents packed up my belongings and moved me to Lexington, KY to start graduate school at the University of Kentucky. I earned a Ph.D. in English, specifically African American Literature, from U.K. in August 2006. We moved to Rochester, New York for two years (from 2006-2008) for my first job. I was a Visiting Assistant Professor/Presidential Fellow at SUNY-Brockport. We returned to Lexington in July of 2008 and I worked as an Assistant Professor in the English Department at U.K. from 2008-2020.

HK: Please tell us about your blog and social channels,  Really Rynetta.

RD: My blog originally started as jcrewismyfavstore in 2009. I rebranded the blog and my social channels and changed my name to "Really Rynetta" in September 2019 so that I would be the center of my brand. My blog and my social channels reflect who I am at the core: I am just a girl who loves her amazing husband and a cute, colorful outfit. My goal is to empower women to love themselves, to love their bodies, and to love what they wear without focusing on what everyone else is doing. I post my daily outfits on my Instagram page, really.rynetta, and I post reviews, as well as new arrivals favorites, and outfits on my blog, reallyrynetta.com

HK: You’ve recently included some really fantastic resources about racial justice on your social media accounts. I know that, as a blogger, the events of the past year have really made me more aware of the content I post and a little less concerned about offending anyone. What does being “authentic” or “real” about social and political issues on social media mean to you?

RD: As a Black woman, social justice is a lifestyle for me. Advocating for racial justice is interwoven into every aspect of my life. So, it's natural for me to talk about how daily events, systemic racism, and politics inform the way that I think, live, and move through the world. Discussing these topics allows my readers to see the "real" me. For me, authenticity is about pulling back the curtain and exposing issues and experiences that others are often shielded from (because of white privilege) even having to consider.

HK: How has your life — professional, personal, side hustle, etc. — changed during the past year? I’m so fascinated by how each of us are pushing through during “these troubled times.”

RD: During the past year, my life has not changed drastically because I have typically worked from home three days a week for most of my academic career. Moreover, being an academic often means spending lots of time in front of a computer or in an archive in isolation. What has changed is how I engage with others. I leave the house for quick trips to the mall, to the doctor, or to the hair salon (masked up, with sanitizer in hand, while adhering to social distancing guidelines). Other than that, I have spent the last year at home, which has been challenging because I am an extrovert to the core. I LOVE engaging with others.

HK: What is the best piece of advice you have for others?

RD: The best piece of advice that I have for others is to love yourself and to block out the noise from the outside. What matters most is what YOU think about yourself. Embrace who you are and live confidently.

Thanks so much to Rynetta for the interview, and to Kendra Scott for helping me bring this series to life!

An Interview with Danielle Rudy Davis of LouWhatWear

Next Monday is International Women’s Day and I’ve teamed up with Kendra Scott for a week of interviews that celebrate the Kentucky women who inspire me. Today’s interview is with my friend Danielle Rudy Davis, co-owner of Lemonade PR and blogger at LouWhatWear.

Danielle is so knowledgeable about PR campaigns and Internet trends. She always has the funniest takes on celebrity culture and especially on reality TV, and she knows absolutely everything that’s going on in Louisville! Danielle is a great friend and an absolutely invaluable professional mentor; I so value her input!

Thanks so much to Kendra Scott for helping bring the Kentucky Women Who Inspire Me series to life — stay tuned to HerKentucky.com and my Instagram this week for previews of the newest Kendra Scott jewelry collection and a fun shopping event!

HerKentucky: Please tell me a little bit about yourself and how you wound up in Louisville.

Danielle Davis: How much time do you have? No seriously, I’ll give the quick version. I was born in Louisville, but my parents got divorced when I was three years old and my mom packed up and moved to Miami, Florida. So I grew up and went to school in Miami but I spent a ton of time in Louisville visiting my Dad and grandparents. I lived here every summer, so it’s always held a very special place in my heart.

Loved it so much that I decided to go to University of Kentucky for college. Moved here when I graduated (during the great recession) thinking it would be for a couple years. Met a boy, got married, three kids and too many Derby Days to count later, it’s home.

HK: You are a seriously busy lady! You have a full-time job as the co-founder of a PR agency, you’re a wife and mother, and you have a side hustle as a blogger and influencer. How do you get it all done?

DD: The short answer is that I don’t. Truly, balancing it all is nearly impossible. Whenever one area thrives, another usually takes a bit of a backseat. I think our society puts such a premium on women “doing it all” and we’re expected to manage it all while looking perfectly put together. It’s a lot of pressure.


I try my best to keep juggling all the balls in the air but at some point, you end up dropping one. Right now, unfortunately that’s been the blog. I love it so much and it’s such a passion project of mine but with Lemonade being busy and trying to make my kids a priority, I’ve fallen behind with it. 


HK: Tell us a little about LouWhatWear, both how it started and how it's evolved.

DD: Before I started Lou What Wear, I had a blog called Secondary Embarrassment where I wrote long-form, snarky recaps of The Bachelor and Bachelorette. I was a journalism major/English minor in college, and I missed writing. It became an outlet to share my perspective outside of my 9 to 5 job. Honestly, at times I think I should have kept up with it because it was really growing but the recaps were LONG and they took three or four hours to write. It started to take the fun out of watching but it got me really into the blogging world.


I started following a lot of personal style blogs and loved the whole concept but one thing I noticed is that there wasn’t really anything here in Louisville. Lots of people were doing it on the coasts but no one was talking to our unique consumer. It was 2011 and the Courier-Journal had just shut down its style section, so I saw an opportunity. My friend Kelly came up with the name and from day one I invested in making it look professional. I hired a design duo to do the logo and website – I wanted to make sure it was something sustainable. I originally started by taking pictures of my friends at events and parties as well as sharing really locally focused shopping info.

I started it before Instagram, before being an “influencer” was a thing. It was just a way for me to connect with people, be a little creative and share my interests outside of work. Eventually I started sharing my own personal style and it’s grown and changed as my life has.

HK: I love that you include so much real-life, not-always-perfectly-curated content in your blog and social media along with the pretty pictures. Of course, I’m here for the #FREEBRITNEY and hard seltzer content, but I also love when you post about the often-hard realities of being a working mom or the hard truths of the racial, socioeconomic and political tensions here in Louisville. I know that, as a blogger, the events of the past year have really made me more aware of the content I post and a little less concerned about offending anyone. Tell me a little about what being “authentic” or “real” on social media means to you.

DD: Well first off, I appreciate that more than you know.

For a while, I tried to keep up with the Joneses but gah, it’s exhausting trying to be something you’re not. I’m sure this is something I fail at regularly but one of my goals is to be the same online as I am in real life. So yes, I will talk your ear off about Britney in real life, but I also want to go beyond that. I want to talk about how hard it is to manage the responsibilities of being a mother while also trying to excel in your career. I want to discuss the real issues in our city, the lack of funding and attention to underserved neighborhoods and the 9th street divide.

I think working in a field where you’re required to stay up to date with the latest news has made it feel more natural for me than maybe for others. I think everyone has their own unique perspective and I do my best to share mine. I will say though, people on the internet have OPINIONS. And all of that commentary certainly elicits some strong, even mean, responses.


At the end of the day, I try to be myself. I’m irreverent and depend on humor to make it through tough times. I’m also brash and certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve realized being everything to everyone is something I am terrible at and instead, I try to lean in to who I am and hope people will appreciate it.

Danielle and her husband Drew love Derby more than just about anyone you know!

HK: For anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of meeting you, I don’t know how to describe how much your face lights up when the word “Derby” is mentioned. Please tell me a little about how much you and Drew love the Kentucky Derby and the role that Derby fashion plays on your blog in spring months.

The Kentucky Derby is simply the best. It’s my absolute favorite time of year and there’s just something so special about our city at Derby time. And actual Derby day is the cherry on top.

I went to my first Derby in 2004 and I’ve been to the track on the first Saturday in May every year since but two. My daughters were both born in mid-May and even being MASSIVELY pregnant couldn’t stop me.

I think people outside of Kentucky have a perception of Derby but you can’t really understand it until you’ve been here. There’s so many ways to experience it and enjoy it. You can go absolutely wild partying in the third turn of the infield, and you could be surrounded by actual royalty in certain areas. There’s something about being there, singing ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ with 100,000+ people with a Mint Julep in hand that is so unique and special. It’s unlike any other sporting event.

And then the fashion! It’s not all floral dresses and church hats, it’s so much more. I realized early in my blogging career that there weren’t many resources out there showing how people really dress at the track. And nothing breaks my heart more than seeing a girl dressed to the nines realize she’s going to be up to her ankles in mud in the infield. I wanted to be a resource for everyone from people coming for the first time to people going for their 21st time.

My Derby series has really been what set me apart initially. Now there are so many more bloggers and many of the amazing local bloggers here do such great Derby content but when I started, it was a chance to really share that true enthusiasm with an audience that was being totally ignored or pandered to with stereotypical choices.

HK: How has the past year changed your blog and life? I know you added Red the dog to the family, and he’s pretty adorable!

DD: The past year has been a lot. I love my kids but there’s a reason why I never stayed home with them. I am TERRIBLE at being a stay-at-home mom and even worse at being a teacher. I lack the patience, creativity and motherly instincts to fill their days in a way that fills their minds and imaginations. So that whole thing was really tough in those early days… which is probably why I broke down and got a dog!

One thing I did on the blog side was to check in daily on IG for my Corona Captain’s Log posts. It was a place for me to talk really candidly about everything from my kids driving me crazy to registering to vote. As with everything I do, I tried to bring some humor to the situation especially since most of the time, laughing was the only thing keeping me from crying.

As tough as it’s been though, we’ve been incredibly lucky throughout this and I have no place to complain. After a couple tough months, our business Lemonade (that I co-own with my business partner Lynsey Trager), is doing really well and my kids have been lucky enough to be in school on-and-off for the last year. I’ve pivoted a lot of my content on the blog to be more focused on who I am now and not who I want to be. It’s given me more leeway to be myself, share my true passions and connect more deeply with people (and I guess, piss some off even more!)

HK: What’s the best piece of advice you have for others?

DD: Those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. A lot of times when I doubt myself or start having anxiety about what I should be doing, I go back to that saying.

That and - “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Whenever I get overwhelmed (which is frequently), I go back to that and instead of getting into a worry spiral, I try to do something productive towards solving the problem that’s stressing me out.

Thanks so much to Danielle for the interview and to Kendra Scott for working with me to bring this series to life. You can find Danielle on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog.

The Hat Girls

Kentucky Derby hats are a tradition as old as the race itself. Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. organized the race in 1875 based on the Epsom Derby, and Kentucky ladies looked to their British counterparts for fashion inspiration, including the formal hats of the day’s fashion. Over a century later, the tradition remains.

The Hat Girls, the Official Hat Designers of the Kentucky Derby Festival, put a hip couture spin on the traditional Kentucky Derby hat. The Hat Girls’ creations are stunning and unique and often unpredictable, but what can you expect from a duo who cite Lady GaGa as an inspiration and who debate the merits of the color pink? I caught up with the Hat Girls – Louisville natives Rachel Bell and Kate Welsh – to talk about their design inspirations and the best looks for Kentucky Derby 142.

Kate Welsh and Rachel Bell. Photo via The Hat Girls.

Heather C. Watson: How did The Hat Girls get started?

Rachel Bell: We started off making hats for ourselves, and people liked them. We incorporated as a business in 2013 and here we are.

Kate Welsh: 60% of our business is custom work, which wasn’t in our original business plan. We find that, typically, a lady wants to pick out her clothes around the hat. Others want a custom design made from dresses they’ve already picked out.

RB: And, then we have the customers who have an eye for design, and they want us to be their hands.

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A customized Hat Girls creation.

HCW: So, it’s a lot of interaction with the customer, and a lot of customization?

KW: A lot of times, we get into a text chain with the customer, and we give them ideas. This year, we’ve gotten really good at reading the customers to see what they want and what will flatter them. When we don’t have to work around a strict vision, those hats usually turn out the best.

HCW: How long does it take to make a Hat Girls hat?

RB: It depends on the day and the hat. It can be anywhere from one hour to thirty hours, depending on the level of customization. If we’re sewing on individual beads or sequins, it can take a while. But, on a good day, each of us can make two to three hats.

HCW: I always feel so bad for those women you see at the track who chose a hat that’s too big and drooping in her eyes. You know they’re going to have Facebook profile pictures that completely block their faces.

KW: And they’re miserable at the Derby because they couldn’t see the race. We’re very honest with customers about what works for them. People try the hats on, and they don’t always realize that an adjustable hat brim only helps them so much.

RB: You go into a department store, and you only see the pretty hat, not how it’s going to work for you.

KW: As designers, we try to limit how many feathers or sequins we add to the hat so thatit’s not sagging down into the customer’s face.

RB: But, at the same time, the hat usually is the focal point of the outfit.

KW: And, a lot of people go for the goofy, big hat look!

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Hat Girl Kate demonstrates a custom order

HCW: What trends are you seeing for the 2016 Kentucky Derby season?

KW: People ask us all the time “Are fascinators still in style?” Yes! Of course they are; look at the styles in Europe! We love fascinators for three reasons: your face isn’t shadowed when you wear one, you look great, and a fascinator is light and comfortable to wear.

RB: We always tell people who are scared to try a fascinator, “Put it on the side where your hair parts.” Fascinators don’t always sell as well in retail stores because people don’t always know how to wear them. We put photos of a lot of our fascinators on social media so that people know how to wear them.

KW: Also, about 90% of our fascinators are adjustable, to accommodate deeper partlines.

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HCW: What colors do you predict for this Derby?

KW: Yellow

RB: People want a lot of navy.

KW: And light blue!

HCW: Right, fitting in with the Pantone Color of the Year, serenity?

RB: Absolutely. We overstocked rose quartz, the other Pantone Color of the Year for 2016, but we just aren’t seeing people choose it.

KW: We do always know to have a lot of pink; it’s like black and white. So classic, and so feminine. Plus, we need a lot of pink for Oaks hats.

RB: I’m the wrong one to ask; I hate pink. It’s just not my thing.

A wall of feathers at the Hat Girls' studio.

HCW: What makes a hat a Hat Girls hat?

KW: At first, we only wanted to do funky, Lady GaGa types of hats. We’ve had to tone that down over time, sticking to our aesthetic, but knowing what sells. We’re both such perfectionists. We know how we want things to be. For us, we work better with a higher-end, custom vibe.

RB: Each hat is a work of art!

Learn more about the Hat Girls’ custom works of art on their website, and visit their Facebook and Instagram pages for daily millinery inspiration.

This post also appears on the Kentucky Derby Book Blog. Check out The Kentucky Derby Book for an interactive look at the Greatest 2 minutes in Sports!