Back in December, I stumbled across Vineyard Vine’s biggest competition: Tucker Blair, a preppy clothing line founded by Taylor Llewellyn that calls itself “classically casual.” The East Coast prepster answered a few questions for A-Line.

1. Why so into needlepoint?

Needlepoint was a great way for us to combine a preppy lifestyle brand with a cool handcrafted product.  I always loved getting needlepoint belts made for me and just saw a market that was ripe for a well-priced, high quality product.  So many of the other preppy product lines have become very commoditized with very minimal differentiation – getting in to needlepoint allowed us to be in a market where we could stand out.

Taylor Llewellyn: Founder of Tucker Blair

2. How did you come up with the name “Tucker Blair?”

Tucker and Blair are two family names.  If you check out the about page on our site you can click a link to two of my grandparents where the Blair part of the name came from.  The name also had the right kind of sound to it (plus the web domain was available)!

3. What is your own style like?

Definitely preppy.  I always get a lot of stares wearing Nantucket Reds in the middle of winter.

4. What is your favorite needlepoint belt?

Taylor's favorite? The American Flag Needlepoint Belt. What's yours?

I have a great nautical flag needlepoint belt with my initials that a good family friend made for me – it just has a lot of meaning because I know exactly what went in to making it.

5. You call Tucker Blair “classically casual.” Explain!

We think our belts are timeless and high quality, but at the same time it’s a weekend item for people that wear suits all day.  We want the brand to encompass quality and relaxation – classically casual just kind of sums that up for us.

6. You graduated from Colgate. What was your major?

Education. I’d love to teach at some point.

7. Favorite travel destination?

Anywhere in Europe.  I’ve also been spending a lot of time in Asia the last few years and that part of the world is becoming more and more interesting to me.

8. Biggest pet peeve?

Inefficiency! It drives me crazy.

9. Tucker Blair is growing quickly! Did you think this would be the case?

It was definitely the hope, but the early stage growth has exceeded my expectations.  I’m really excited about what the next 18 months hold for Tucker Blair.  We have a lot of exciting stuff in the works that we can’t wait to bring to our customers.

10. Okay- we have to ask- good-looking, preppy, entrepreneur– are you single or taken?

Taken. Sorry!

Interested in classically casual needlepoint? Check out Tucker Blair. Their products, available online only,  are half the price of competing needlepoint companies.  Above images from the Tucker Blair site.