In celebration of Birmingham Fashion Week 2012, Lifestyle Public Relations is featuring writers and bloggers who help make Birmingham the truly fashionable city that it is.

First up are sisters Shermika and Tamika Dunner, also known locally as the ArtBelles. They’re featured lifestyle bloggers at AL.com, online home of the award winning Birmingham News. Shermika also writes for the Magic City Post which was recently voted “Best Website” by Birmingham News readers.

We’ve been following them for several months now and have really enjoyed their unique take on the arts, life, love, food and fashion from places like Birmingham, Atlanta, Jamaica, Mexico, Japan and all points in between. We asked for an interview to find out more and they’ve

Without further ado, the ArtBelles interview:

How did you get started blogging? Shermika had the idea to do an arts blog and Tamika put the plan in motion and brought it to fruition. We both love to write, but I [Shermika] am a freelance writer. Tamika has a BA in Communications, so we each decided to use our respective talents to create a well rounded blog that showcased our personalities. We decided it would be fun and unique to share our love of art, travel, fashion, music and more, with the world.

How do you decide who writes the posts? Do you take turns? Ha! We’re really supposed to have editorial meetings weekly (and we live in the same house so I don’t see why we can’t), but posts come up from ideas in the car, when we’re putting on makeup, or just out of the blue. Occasionally one sister writes more than the other, particularly if the other has something going on.

Describe your fashion sensibility/style. Our styles are VERY different. I am more over the top, whereas Tamika is more casual. Give me a great heel and I’m a happy camper. I’m not big on purses, but I LOVE a great shoe. Tamika LOVES purses and think they (along with makeup & accessories) make the outfit. Our fashion style is unpretentious. We don’t wear a name just because it’s a name. Both of us are big fans of classic pieces (regardless of their cost). We each like to spend money on items that will last. And both of us love to accessorize the heck out of an outfit. We really like mixing high end with low end.

How do you stay informed about Birmingham art events? Social media, ArtBLT’ers (our readers), and we get press releases from arts venues. Sometimes we just happen to find out about an event at the last minute.

Where does an ArtBelle love to shop? Belk & Macy’s. Macy’s has a great women’s department. We’re also fans of Brighton, Coach, Nine West, Aldo, Off Broadway Shoes & JC Penney. Shermika loves shopping on the street when we’re traveling. We’ve also gotten into thrifting, especially for home items. We’re big on customer service, so we like to shop at places where the service is top notch.

What makes the ArtBLT blog different? For starters, we’re real people. We don’t allow stats, followers, or likes to dictate our personality or how we treat people. If someone reaches out to us, we always thank them and do our best to help artists we promote. We don’t put our name on anything we do not like/would not buy. We strive to build genuine relationships with everyone we work with. Also, we are arts bloggers. We allow our love of various types of art to influence our blog–and that includes fashion.

Thank you Tamika & Shermika. We enjoyed interviewing the ArtBelles!

 

The ArtBelles will be Tweeting live from Birmingham Fashion Week 2012 (#BFW2012) so follow their highly entertaining Twitter and Facebook options. Also, be sure and check the Art Belles fabulous blog, ArtBLT.com, for their fresh interview with romantic visual artist and Birmingham Fashion Week 2012 featured designer Jeff Garner – including can’t-be-missed insights and pics of this intriguing fashion celebrity and his sustainable, organic label Prophetik.