#d'marie

WHAT IS IT?

A garment/sample tracker & a platform for fashion crediting.

WHAT DOES IT DO? 

D'Marie's B2B platform enables fashion designers to upload their collections and track when their garments are being used by stylists in media projects. In addition, the dual-platform allows consumers to search for clothing that celebs/talent wore in a media project (i.e., a movie, commercial, red carpet event), offering shopping links for the garments you want to buy.

For four days every summer in Ann Arbor several streets are closed down and thousands of white tents pop up lining the sidewalks for the annual Ann Arbor Street Art Fair. While this is a sometimes very frustrating thing to deal with for someone who lives and works here, it brings in a lot of people to the town and helps support the local economy. For me, that's enough reason to put up with it for a few days. Vendors will sell everything from oil paintings to water guns and it's a fun way to pass the time walking up and down the streets checking out the unique products people have to offer. Most of these things can only be bought from the makers because they are independent businesses.

As I was walking down Liberty Street, I overheard something that made me stop. It was a tent run by a company called "d'marie." They specialize in "freshly prepared gourmet foods" and the gentleman running this tent was doing a demonstration for their special wine slushies which they call "Frappé Vino." This particular batch was made with a red sangria that was bought from a grocery store.

                (The d'marie tent at the Ann Arbor Art Fair giving out samples of the Frappé Vino)

He explained the process to me and it's very simple: you dump the bottle into a large zip-top bag with an equal amount of water. Then you add their special dry blend which you can buy for $10. This blend contains dehydratded green tea, dehydrated cane sugar, dehydrated cranberry juice, malic acid (grape acid), fructose, silocone dioxide, sea salt, and vitamin C. You mix all of the ingredients in the bag and then put in your freezer for a couple hours and you have your very own wine slushie.

                                                  (Easy to make wine slushies at home. Photo courtesy d'marie.com)

I tried one of the samples they were offering and found it very refreshing on the 100 plus degree day that I was currently enduring. But then again, anything that was served cool would have been refreshing in that crushing humidity. The vendor made it clear that this isn't for serious wine drinking and that this application is best enjoyed with cheap wine. That being said, I equate this drink to the frozen margarita. I would much rather have a margarita on the rocks with real lime juice instead of sour mix but in certain situations it serves its purpose and I wouldn't make a fuss if it were offered to me.

What are your thoughts on something like this? Does it ruin the purpose of wine or is it a fun, simple way to cool off on a hot day? I'd love to get your feedback.

Stay in a wine state of mind!