Garden & Gun’s Made in the South Awards celebrate the best products crafted in the region today. One winner and three runners-up in each category are selected by a panel of G&G editors and guest judges and will be featured in the pages of the December 2025/January 2026 issue—plus, the overall winner will receive a prize of $10,000.
Think furniture, lighting, barware, pillows, rugs, table linens, kitchen utensils, cutlery. We’re looking for inventive glassware, contemporary rocking chairs, custom wallpapers—those must-have items that turn a house into a stylish home. Note: Unfortunately, fine artists do not qualify for the awards. We’re always excited to discover new Southern talent, though. Email us at editorial@gardenandgun.com. We’d love to hear about your work.
New York, New York
At Williams Lawrence, the design firm that Elizabeth Lawrence runs with her mentor and partner, Bunny Williams, the Wilmington, Delaware, native has dreamed up timeless interiors for homes across the country. Taking what she learned at the University of Richmond, the New York School of Interior Design, and nearly two decades working in New York’s interiors industry, Lawrence infuses her elegantly layered style into beachside villas in Palm Beach, lavish apartments in Manhattan, and chic countryside estates in Virginia. Follow her on Instagram @elizabeth_m_lawrence.
Quilters, stationers, bookbinders, basket weavers, textile crafters, ceramists, candlemakers, small-batch beauty and skin-care experts: We’re looking at you.
Charleston, South Carolina, and New York, New York
Shortly after Blake Sams moved from the South Carolina Upstate to Charleston for college, he got involved with the city’s events industry, and today, he plans everything from large-scale weddings to intimate dinner parties for a roster of nationwide clients through his company, Gregory Blake Sams Events. For his latest foray, Wentworth, a home goods and entertaining shop in downtown Charleston, Sams sources the perfect touches for events of all kinds, whether that’s Lobmeyr crystal candy dishes, speckleware bowls, tapered candles, or hand-embossed stationery. Follow him on Instagram @gregoryblakesamsevents.
Whether you’re selling masterful twists on your grandmother’s old-school pies and cakes, bringing seasonal bounty to the masses by the jarful, churning out artisanal cheeses, bottling a fiery hot pepper sauce, or producing just about any other product for the pantry, this is where you belong. Note: While we do accept items like meat and honey, we cannot accept raw fruits, vegetables, or other crops and produce, but please email us at editorial@gardenandgun.com if you’re a grower with a story to tell.
Asheville, North Carolina
Meherwan Irani spent twelve years as a Lexus salesman before he had the bright idea—or midlife crisis, to hear him tell it—to open an Indian street food joint in Asheville in 2009. Since then, Chai Pani was named the James Beard Outstanding Restaurant of 2022 and has earned Irani five other James Beard Award nods, leading him to launch other concepts, including Botiwalla and Buxton Chicken Palace. In 2017, Irani introduced the spice company Spicewalla, spreading the flavors from his childhood in Maharashtra, India, into the kitchens of professional and home cooks. Follow him on Instagram @meherwanirani.
We’re on the hunt for products, whether for sport or recreation, that prod us to get off the couch and enjoy the outdoors. On the sporting front, we’re looking for items such as fly rods, fillet knives, shotguns, gear packs, game calls, and decoys. For outdoor recreation, bikes and boats of all types are welcome, as are backyard games, grills, beautiful garden tools, hammocks, swings, custom campers, and more.
Raleigh, North Carolina
The author of several outdoor guidebooks, including The Total Outdoorsman Manual, the North Carolina–based sportsman and Garden & Gun contributing editor T. Edward Nickens most recently published The Last Wild Road, a collection of essays on adventure and the sporting life. This year marks his fifteenth appearance as a Made in the South Awards judge. Follow him on Instagram @enickens.
Bespoke sunglasses? Sure. A great line of blue jeans? You bet. Jewelry, scarves, shoes, boots, blouses, handbags, hats, button-downs, watches—any kind of apparel or accessories, we’re after it all.
Houston, Texas
Fashion designer Christy Lynn Lee started her career in New York, learning the magic of embroidery and tailoring at Catherine Malandrino and Elie Tahari, before moving to Houston in 2019. The following year, Lee introduced her eponymous clothing line, Christy Lynn, and its ready-to-wear collection, with pieces that showcase both her Korean heritage and Southern inflections. Lee brings a clean, modern edge to her clothing (available at her flagship store in Houston and through luxury retailers as far afield as Dubai and Istanbul), including her spring/summer 2025 collection titled Cote, the Korean word for flower. Follow her on Instagram @christylynnlee.
Here, we’ll toast the game-changing vintners, distillers, and master brewers set on bottling some of the South’s best booze. Cocktail mixers, bitters, simple syrups, and the like are all welcome too. Beyond the bar, iced teas, small-batch sodas, juices, or anything else that’ll quench our thirst makes the cut.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Chris Hannah has been slinging Sazeracs and gin fizzes in the French Quarter for over two decades and has won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar not once, but twice: first during his fourteen-year tenure at Arnaud’s French 75 Bar, and again last year for his bar program at Jewel of the South, which he founded in 2019. While these accolades cement Hannah as a legend, it’s his reverence for the bar—and the customers in front of it—that makes him a standout member of New Orleans’ hospitality industry. Follow him on Instagram @count_hannah.
Our Sustainability Award celebrates a Southern maker who has committed to conservation and the environment by incorporating eco-friendly practices into the business model or by partnering with like-minded nonprofits to give back. To be considered, tell us, on your entry form, how you demonstrate that commitment. One winner will be chosen from across all six categories.
ILLUSTRATIONS: Jaya Nicely
PRODUCT PHOTOS: Fredrik Brodén; prop styling by Phillip Groves/On Set Management; food styling by Angela George