The women of Houston’s chapter of the Ellevate Network enjoyed a dazzling evening of fashion-forward networking with leading like-minded business women at Tootsies. There was much mingling as the event previewed fall fashion trends and demonstrated how to incorporate those into a professional wardrobe. Following champagne and hor d'oeuvres provided by Bryan Caswell, entrepreneur Rebecca Lankford discussed her creative journey to creating Rebecca Lankford Jewelry Designs. A preview of fall’s top picks was presented by Tootsies’ buyers, John Maguire and Kyla Phung. Hope Ewing, the founder of The Diaper Foundation, also spoke about her non-profit and their work to help women and children.

The Ellevate-oriented conversations were complemented by desserts provided by Petite Sweets, and swag bags sponsored by women-led companies SoulCycle River Oaks (note: SoulCycle CEO Melanie Whelan is an Ellevate Gal and SoulCycle just opened 2 Houston locations in River Oaks and Memorial), The Blonde Pantry, Bar Bleu, Glow MedSpa, and Zalla Massage, and Healing Acupoints. Guests included event chairs Jessica Nicolayevsky and Mariam Jacob, Luanne Jones, Trinh Abrell, Mathilde Leary, Amanda Cotler, Judith Anderson, Emilie Cooksey, Shannon LeMaster, Kara Hoffman, Laura O’Connor, Melissa Villamarin, Liz Hartwig, Jennifer and Marilynn Barber.

We love that Ellevate is a global professional women’s network dedicated to the economic engagement of women world-wide. The most expansive and diverse of its kind (with over 40,000 members and 40+ worldwide), the community is made of passionate, successful and motivated professional women with the common belief that investing in themselves and others is good business. Started as “85 Broads”, the organization was originally created in 1997 as a networking space for women at Goldman Sachs (whose NYC address is 85 Broad Street), by the first woman ever promoted into sales management at the firm. The Houston chapter launched in February 2015. For more information, visit www.ellevatenetwork.com