Hi, it's Peter Ricchiuti. I’ve got a scenario I want to run by you, and I want your opinion.

Here’s the situation: It’s morning. I get ready to leave the house. I pick out an outfit, get dressed, I look great. Then my wife says, “You can’t go out looking like that. That shirt doesn’t go with those pants. That tie is hideous. And 1998 called and wants its jacket back.”

So, here’s my question. If I think I look great, do I look great? Or is there such a thing as objective, universally agreed style, and could I, in that case, actually look terrible? Not just to my wife, but to everybody. What do you think?

On this edition of Out to Lunch, I put that question to Tracee Dundas. 

Tracee is founder and Executive Producer of New Orleans Fashion Week. She’s the Fashion Correspondent at WVUE-TV, Fox 8, she’s the Program Coordinator at Dress For Success, and for the past 22 years has worked as a freelance fashion writer and editor at Renaissance Publishing. Tracee also produces fashion shows and other fashion events for regional clients, including Essence Festival.

If you’re a woman of color with larger breasts, and you want to wear certain fashion-forward clothes you see in stores, or on Instagram, you might run into a snag. And that is, getting your breasts to work with that dress. You can do it - but a bra is not going to work. You’re going to need something called boob tape.

There’s a good chance you already know what boob tape is. If you don’t – it’s tape. That holds breasts in place. It looks a bit like duct tape. But when you’re done with it, it peels off your breasts without peeling your skin off with it.

When Kaelin Bass went looking for boob tape, all she could find was tape that was too small to do the job for her breasts. And it was all made to match skin tones that weren’t hers. So Kaelin created her own boob tape. And in 2020 she started her own company, KM Boobies. Today you can find KM Boobies Boob Tape all over, including on Amazon and at Walmart. Kaelin is selling up to 4,000 rolls of boob tape a month.

In business – like pretty much everything in life – you enjoy the greatest security when things are predictable. When you know what’s coming around the corner, when you know what tomorrow’s going to look like, you can plan for a known future.

Well, fashion is the exact opposite of that. The only way fashion moves forward is by changing. And the only way to stay relevant in the fashion business is to stay ahead of the trend and embrace the unpredictable. It's not a business lifestyle for the faint of heart.

Tracee and Kaelin are both carving out successful careers in this world: they're both creating businesses and products that weren’t there before they came along. And they're both doing it from here in New Orleans.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.

Hi, it's Peter Ricchiuti. I&rsquo;ve got a scenario I want to run by you, and I want your opinion.
Here&rsquo;s the situation: It&rsquo;s morning. I get ready to leave the house. I pick out an outfit, get dressed, I look great. Then my wife says, &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t go out looking like that. That shirt doesn&rsquo;t go with those pants. That tie is hideous. And 1998 called and wants its jacket back.&rdquo;
So, here&rsquo;s my question. If I think I look great, do I look great? Or is there such a thing as objective, universally agreed style, and could I, in that case, actually look terrible? Not just to my wife, but to everybody. What do you think?
On this edition of Out to Lunch, I put that question to<a href="https://www.instagram.com/fashionablyyoursnola/?hl=en"> Tracee Dundas</a>.&nbsp;
Tracee is founder and Executive Producer of <a href="https://neworleansfashionweek.com/">New Orleans Fashion Week</a>. She&rsquo;s the Fashion Correspondent at WVUE-TV, Fox 8, she&rsquo;s the Program Coordinator at <a href="https://neworleans.dressforsuccess.org/">Dress For Success</a>, and for the past 22 years has worked as a freelance fashion writer and editor at Renaissance Publishing. Tracee also produces fashion shows and other fashion events for regional clients, including Essence Festival. If you&rsquo;re a woman of color with larger breasts, and you want to wear certain fashion-forward clothes you see in stores, or on Instagram, you might run into a snag. And that is, getting your breasts to work with that dress. You can do it - but a bra is not going to work. You&rsquo;re going to need something called boob tape.
There&rsquo;s a good chance you already know what boob tape is. If you don&rsquo;t &ndash; it&rsquo;s tape. That holds breasts in place. It looks a bit like duct tape. But when you&rsquo;re done with it, it peels off your breasts without peeling your skin off with it.
When Kaelin Bass went looking for boob tape, all she could find was tape that was too small to do the job for her breasts. And it was all made to match skin tones that weren&rsquo;t hers. So Kaelin created her own boob tape. And in 2020 she started her own company, <a href="https://www.kmboobies.com/">KM Boobies</a>. Today you can find KM Boobies Boob Tape all over, including on Amazon and at Walmart. Kaelin is selling up to 4,000 rolls of boob tape a month.
In business &ndash; like pretty much everything in life &ndash; you enjoy the greatest security when things are predictable. When you know what&rsquo;s coming around the corner, when you know what tomorrow&rsquo;s going to look like, you can plan for a known future.
Well, fashion is the exact opposite of that.&nbsp;The only way fashion moves forward is by changing. And the only way to stay relevant in the fashion business is to stay ahead of the trend and embrace the unpredictable. It's not a business lifestyle for the faint of heart.
Tracee and Kaelin are both carving out successful careers in this world: they're both creating businesses and products that weren&rsquo;t there before they came along. And they're both doing it from here in New Orleans.
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at&nbsp;<a href="https://thecolumns.com/">Columns in Uptown New Orleans</a>. You can find photos from this show by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lafleurphoto.com/">Jill Lafleur</a> at <a href="https://itsneworleans.com/2024/12/16/you-look-fabulous/">itsneworleans.com</a>.

OUT TO LUNCH finds economist and Tulane finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Olreans. In his 14th year in the host seat, Ricchiuti’s learned but uniquely NOLA informal perspective has established Out to Lunch as the voice of Crescent City business. You can also hear the show on WWNO 89.9FM.

OUT TO LUNCH finds economist and Tulane finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Olreans. In his 14th year in the host seat, Ricchiuti’s learned but uniquely NOLA informal perspective has established Out to Lunch as the voice of Crescent City business. You can also hear the show on WWNO 89.9FM.

Tulane finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch at Commander's Palace restaurant.

It's New Orleans: Out to Lunch

OUT TO LUNCH finds the country's most entertaining finance professor Peter Ricchiuti conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch. Each week Peter invites guests from the New Orleans business world to join him for a midday bite. CEO's, startups, managers, musicians, biomed needle-movers, tech success stories and entrepreneurs of all stripes put aside the elevator pitch and talking points and actually enjoy themselves. It's business, New Orleans style. 
You can also hear the show on WWNO 89.9FM.

OUT TO LUNCH finds the country's most entertaining finance professor <a href="https://freeman.tulane.edu/faculty-research/finance/peter-ricchiuti">Peter Ricchiuti </a>conducting business New Orleans style: over lunch. Each week Peter invites guests from the New Orleans business world to join him for a midday bite. CEO's, startups, managers, musicians, biomed needle-movers, tech success stories and entrepreneurs of all stripes put aside the elevator pitch and talking points and actually enjoy themselves. It's business, New Orleans style. You can also hear the show on <a href="https://www.wwno.org/show/out-to-lunch">WWNO 89.9FM</a>.

You Look Fabulous

When you’re talking with someone and they want to know what final conclusion you want them to draw from your conversation, they might ask you, “What’s the bottom line?”

The origin of the term, “the bottom line,” is business accounting. It refers to the literal bottom line of a financial statement - a company’s profit or loss. This literal bottom line is what we typically regard as the sole point of a business: the bigger the profit, the better the business.

But today there are also businesses we refer to as Triple Bottom Line. These companies have three equal categories of success: profit, people, and purpose.

Both of Peter's guests on Out to Lunch today have founded triple bottom line companies here in New Orleans.

Along with his partner, Charon Flowers Maple, Spencer Davis co-founded Bypass Lines in 2020. Bypass Lines works with local restaurants, caterers and retailers. It promotes them to customers who support non-profit causes. Each time Bypass Lines delivers food or products to these customers, they give a portion of the proceeds to the customer’s chosen charity.

As of right now, Bypass Lines report they’ve supported over 100 catering businesses, delivered over 1,000 online food orders, and over $1m has been processed through their platform.

Lauren Darnell founded her company, Porch & Okra Consulting, in 2023. Porch & Okra’s clients are mainly restaurant owners and other hospitality industry leaders looking to expand diversity, and improve conditions for employees in the hospitality and restaurant business - one of the most vital sectors of the New Orleans economy. 

How many of us care enough about other people to devote our professional lives to helping them? Not many. Spencer, Lauren and their companies, Bypass Lines and Porch & Okra Consulting, are exceptions to the rule. Making other people’s welfare the focus of a business - and putting people and purpose on an equal plane as profit - is ambitious. It’s hard work that requires multiple levels of planning and execution.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.

When you’re talking with someone and they want to know what final conclusion you want them to draw from your conversation, they might ask you, “What’s the bottom line?”
The origin of the term, “the bottom line,” is business accounting. It refers to the literal bottom line of a financial statement - a company’s profit or loss. This literal bottom line is what we typically regard as the sole point of a business: the bigger the profit, the better the business.
But today there are also businesses we refer to as Triple Bottom Line. These companies have three equal categories of success: profit, people, and purpose.
Both of Peter's guests on Out to Lunch today have founded triple bottom line companies here in New Orleans.
Along with his partner, Charon Flowers Maple, Spencer Davis co-founded <a href="https://www.bypasslines.com/">Bypass Lines </a>in 2020. Bypass Lines works with local restaurants, caterers and retailers. It promotes them to customers who support non-profit causes. Each time Bypass Lines delivers food or products to these customers, they give a portion of the proceeds to the customer’s chosen charity.
As of right now, Bypass Lines report they’ve supported over 100 catering businesses, delivered over 1,000 online food orders, and over $1m has been processed through their platform.
<a href="https://laurenakdarnell.com/">Lauren Darnel</a>l founded her company, <a href="https://www.porchandokra.com/">Porch &amp; Okra Consulting</a>, in 2023. Porch &amp; Okra’s clients are mainly restaurant owners and other hospitality industry leaders looking to expand diversity, and improve conditions for employees in the hospitality and restaurant business - one of the most vital sectors of the New Orleans economy. 
How many of us care enough about other people to devote our professional lives to helping them? Not many. Spencer, Lauren and their companies, Bypass Lines and Porch &amp; Okra Consulting, are exceptions to the rule. Making other people’s welfare the focus of a business - and putting people and purpose on an equal plane as profit - is ambitious. It’s hard work that requires multiple levels of planning and execution.
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at <a href="https://thecolumns.com/">Columns in Uptown New Orleans</a>. You can find photos from this show by <a href="https://www.lafleurphoto.com/">Jill Lafleur</a> at <a href="https://itsneworleans.com/2024/12/02/profit-people-purpose/">itsneworleans.com</a>.

Profit People Purpose 

When we text each other we use acronyms and abbreviations like OMG and LOL to convey meaning and emotion. And then there’s IRL – In Real Life. We use that to signal that we know the difference between the digital universe and reality.

Online, you can play a first-person-shooter game with other people. In real life, you can join the US military and learn to use an M4 assault rifle. It’s the standard issue weapon designed to shoot and kill enemy combatants. It doesn’t get much more IRL than that. Right?

Well, not exactly. You see, it turns out that buying guns and ammo to train soldiers for combat is expensive. Training soldiers on simulated weapons is cheaper. And you can hook up a simulated weapon to digital equipment that gives trainers all kinds of information about the trainee’s performance.

Here's the thing, though. You can make a fake gun that looks, feels and makes a noise like a real assault weapon, but it doesn’t actually perform like an assault weapon. Because when you fire it, it doesn’t kick back.

Or at least it didn’t, until Hahnville High graduate Kyle Monti invented and wrote the patent for the Electromagnetic Recoil System. This technology now forms the basis of Kyle’s New Orleans company, Haptech. Haptech creates warfighter training technology. In 2023 the company was awarded an $11m contract to develop weapon simulators for the US Army and Marine Corps.

The entertainment industry also seems determined to blur the line between the digitally delivered universe and IRL. In the movie theater, and in what we now call home theater, visual effects and sophisticated sound systems are designed to give us an immersive experience. The creators of the content and the hardware want to make us feel like we’re really there - whether that’s on a football field or another planet.

It hasn’t always been this way. If you’re old enough, you might remember going to Blockbuster and renting a movie on videocassette, which you’d bring home and play on a small TV with a single small speaker. If you were immersed in anything back then, it was the fun you were having watching the movie with your friends or family.

Eden Chubb is trying to bring that kind of immersive experience back. Her Garden District store, Future Shock Video, has over 2,000 titles on VHS and DVD that you can rent by the week.

Kyle's digital weapons business and warfighter training technology might tempt us to say, “This is not your grandfather’s New Orleans.” But, actually, Haptech's office is on Andrew Higgins Boulevard. Whether that’s coincidence or intentional, it makes the point that New Orleans is no stranger to innovative military design and manufacturing.

And when we’re talking about Eden's movie rental business, there’s no doubt - it’s intentionally your grandfather’s New Orleans.

These two folks couldn’t be in much more unrelated types of businesses, but they’re both making equally unique contributions to the economy and lifestyle of our unique city.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.

When we text each other we use acronyms and abbreviations like OMG and LOL to convey meaning and emotion. And then there’s IRL – In Real Life. We use that to signal that we know the difference between the digital universe and reality.
Online, you can play a first-person-shooter game with other people. In real life, you can join the US military and learn to use an M4 assault rifle. It’s the standard issue weapon designed to shoot and kill enemy combatants. It doesn’t get much more IRL than that. Right?
Well, not exactly. You see, it turns out that buying guns and ammo to train soldiers for combat is expensive. Training soldiers on simulated weapons is cheaper. And you can hook up a simulated weapon to digital equipment that gives trainers all kinds of information about the trainee’s performance.
Here's the thing, though. You can make a fake gun that looks, feels and makes a noise like a real assault weapon, but it doesn’t actually perform like an assault weapon. Because when you fire it, it doesn’t kick back.
Or at least it didn’t, until Hahnville High graduate Kyle Monti invented and wrote the patent for the Electromagnetic Recoil System. This technology now forms the basis of <a href="https://haptechdefense.com/">Kyle’s New Orleans company, Haptech</a>. Haptech creates warfighter training technology. In 2023 the company was awarded an $11m contract to develop weapon simulators for the US Army and Marine Corps.
The entertainment industry also seems determined to blur the line between the digitally delivered universe and IRL. In the movie theater, and in what we now call home theater, visual effects and sophisticated sound systems are designed to give us an immersive experience. The creators of the content and the hardware want to make us feel like we’re really there - whether that’s on a football field or another planet.
It hasn’t always been this way. If you’re old enough, you might remember going to Blockbuster and renting a movie on videocassette, which you’d bring home and play on a small TV with a single small speaker. If you were immersed in anything back then, it was the fun you were having watching the movie with your friends or family.
Eden Chubb is trying to bring that kind of immersive experience back.<a href="https://futureshockvideo.biz/"> Her Garden District store, Future Shock Video</a>, has over 2,000 titles on VHS and DVD that you can rent by the week.
Kyle's digital weapons business and warfighter training technology might tempt us to say, “This is not your grandfather’s New Orleans.” But, actually, Haptech's office is on Andrew Higgins Boulevard. Whether that’s coincidence or intentional, it makes the point that New Orleans is no stranger to innovative military design and manufacturing.
And when we’re talking about Eden's movie rental business, there’s no doubt - it’s intentionally your grandfather’s New Orleans.
These two folks couldn’t be in much more unrelated types of businesses, but they’re both making equally unique contributions to the economy and lifestyle of our unique city.
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at <a href="https://thecolumns.com/">Columns in Uptown New Orleans</a>. You can find photos from this show by <a href="https://www.lafleurphoto.com/">Jill Lafleur</a> at <a href="https://itsneworleans.com/2024/11/18/irl/">itsneworleans.com</a>.

The common wisdom we’re taught when starting up a business is, “Solve a problem that needs solving.” But the truly exceptional success stories of our time have not followed this advice.

When Coca Cola came along, nobody who was enjoying a long, cool glass of lemonade was clamoring for a sweet, syrupy, brown drink. When Uber came along people weren’t fantasizing about getting into a car with a total stranger. And when Jeff Bezos started selling books online, nobody in their right mind would give their credit card number to a person they didn’t know on the world wide web.

At the end of the day, it wasn’t Bezos’ ability as a salesman that convinced people to trust Amazon, it was the invention of a piece of software called “encryption” that made it safer to give your credit card to Amazon than to a server in a restaurant.

Today there are other online companies poised to capitalize on the next technological change to e-commerce. One of those is a local startup called Cucuron, an online art gallery based in New Orleans, founded by Megan Manning. 

You might ask, “How many people are going to pay $2,000 for a piece of artwork based on a photo on a phone?” Maybe not a whole lot, but… When augmented reality and virtual reality become a part of our device’s operating system – which they definitely will at some point – looking at a piece of art online will be exactly, in every way, like looking at a piece of art on the wall in a gallery.

Whether or not Cucuron becomes the Amazon of art is unknowable. But it’s building the architecture ready for the day when buying art online is as second-nature as buying the shoes, furniture, and mattresses people at one point said they would never buy online.

Over 55% of e-commerce shoppers say the reason they buy online is, “home delivery.” Maybe it’s the legacy of the pandemic, maybe it’s the influence of Gen Z., but more of our lives these days seem to be home-centric.

Very few New Orleanians know more about the many notions of “home” than Kristin Palmer. Kristin was Executive Director of an organization called Rebuilding Together. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Kristin led over 10,000 volunteers who rebuilt hurricane-damaged structures so New Orleanians could come home.

In 2010 Kristin was elected to the New Orleans City Council. She represented District C which includes the French Quarter, the Marigny, Treme, Bywater and Algiers.

In 2014 she founded Bargeboard, a home renovation and restoration company whose goal is to keep Old Algiers affordable and accessible through historic renovation, recycling and reuse. Bargeboard is a culmination of a lifetime of Kristin’s New Orleans-centric personal and professional passions.

In the 1940’s, Abraham Maslow, a psychology professor, came up with a pyramid-shape explanation of human existence which has come to be known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. On the bottom level of the pyramid are the most basic needs, including shelter – a home. At the top is something Maslow called Self Actualization, which includes creativity, like producing art.

Maslow’s interpretation of human existence has become a foundational teaching in understanding human motivation and behavior. But, if any place on earth was to challenge Maslow’s conventional wisdom, it would be New Orleans. Here, our homes are of course vital, but an equally vital part of our lives - that makes New Orleans New Orleans - is music, beauty, and art.

So, although both Megan's and Kristin's businesses – Bargeboard and Cucuron – theoretically represent the extreme poles of human existence, our lived experience here in New Orleans rates them as equally essential to our everyday lives.

Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.

The common wisdom we’re taught when starting up a business is, “Solve a problem that needs solving.” But the truly exceptional success stories of our time have not followed this advice.
When Coca Cola came along, nobody who was enjoying a long, cool glass of lemonade was clamoring for a sweet, syrupy, brown drink. When Uber came along people weren’t fantasizing about getting into a car with a total stranger. And when Jeff Bezos started selling books online, nobody in their right mind would give their credit card number to a person they didn’t know on the world wide web.
At the end of the day, it wasn’t Bezos’ ability as a salesman that convinced people to trust Amazon, it was the invention of a piece of software called “encryption” that made it safer to give your credit card to Amazon than to a server in a restaurant.
Today there are other online companies poised to capitalize on the next technological change to e-commerce. One of those is a local startup called <a href="https://cucuronshop.com/">Cucuron</a>, an online art gallery based in New Orleans, founded by Megan Manning. 
You might ask, “How many people are going to pay $2,000 for a piece of artwork based on a photo on a phone?” Maybe not a whole lot, but… When augmented reality and virtual reality become a part of our device’s operating system – which they definitely will at some point – looking at a piece of art online will be exactly, in every way, like looking at a piece of art on the wall in a gallery.
Whether or not Cucuron becomes the Amazon of art is unknowable. But it’s building the architecture ready for the day when buying art online is as second-nature as buying the shoes, furniture, and mattresses people at one point said they would never buy online.
Over 55% of e-commerce shoppers say the reason they buy online is, “home delivery.” Maybe it’s the legacy of the pandemic, maybe it’s the influence of Gen Z., but more of our lives these days seem to be home-centric.
Very few New Orleanians know more about the many notions of “home” than Kristin Palmer. Kristin was Executive Director of an organization called Rebuilding Together. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Kristin led over 10,000 volunteers who rebuilt hurricane-damaged structures so New Orleanians could come home.
In 2010 Kristin was elected to the New Orleans City Council. She represented District C which includes the French Quarter, the Marigny, Treme, Bywater and Algiers.
In 2014 she founded <a href="https://bargeboardnola.com/">Bargeboard</a>, a home renovation and restoration company whose goal is to keep Old Algiers affordable and accessible through historic renovation, recycling and reuse. Bargeboard is a culmination of a lifetime of Kristin’s New Orleans-centric personal and professional passions.
In the 1940’s, Abraham Maslow, a psychology professor, came up with a pyramid-shape explanation of human existence which has come to be known as <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html">Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs</a>. On the bottom level of the pyramid are the most basic needs, including shelter – a home. At the top is something Maslow called Self Actualization, which includes creativity, like producing art.
Maslow’s interpretation of human existence has become a foundational teaching in understanding human motivation and behavior. But, if any place on earth was to challenge Maslow’s conventional wisdom, it would be New Orleans. Here, our homes are of course vital, but an equally vital part of our lives - that makes New Orleans New Orleans - is music, beauty, and art.
So, although both Megan's and Kristin's businesses – Bargeboard and Cucuron – theoretically represent the extreme poles of human existence, our lived experience here in New Orleans rates them as equally essential to our everyday lives.
Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at <a href="https://thecolumns.com/">Columns in Uptown New Orleans</a>. You can find photos from this show by <a href="https://www.lafleurphoto.com/">Jill Lafleur</a> at <a href="https://itsneworleans.com/2024/11/11/algiers-art/">itsneworleans.com</a>.

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