The Mardi Gras weekend celebration founded by EMLINE and Like Minded Co. has become one of New Orleans’ defining cultural moments — where luxury, bounce and legacy meet on the dance floor.
The EMLINE Ball doesn’t ask you to leave New Orleans at the door. It asks you to bring every inch of it with you and dress accordingly. At the center is EMLINE, the local fashion brand seen across the city and, on this night, worn across the room. Founded in 2017 by James Mayes in the heart of New Orleans, the brand was built on a simple but radical idea: that luxury and urban culture are not opposites. That you can move through the world in something beautifully crafted, deeply rooted, and entirely your own. More than a label, EMLINE has become a cultural marker, the style language of New Orleans itself, rooted in a sense of “for us, by us,” where each piece is designed to make the person wearing it feel the full weight of their own presence.
Founded alongside Ball co-founder and producer Kristin Meyers of Like Minded Co., the weekend affair has grown into one of the city’s signature Mardi Gras moments: part cultural celebration, part runway, part homecoming. Every guest understood the assignment, arriving with intention and a signature story stitched into every adornment. Here, presence holds power. But style tells the story.
“Our style in New Orleans is very unique because it describes us as people,” said attendee Thomas Harris, his custom suit designed by local designer Detrell Wright of Tvche — a living proof of the point. “We work with what we have, and we know how to recycle, repurpose, and present it in multiple different ways.”…