What Johari Rollins Wants For Christmas
I recently had a lovely chat with Johari Rollins—she’d just gotten back from a nine-day trip to Paris, and was in the thick of planning a huge “Havana Nights” fundraising gala for the Jimmy Rollins Family Foundation (more on that later). We talked about the event, her favorite shopping haunts, what she wants for the holidays, what she’s loving now, and the one pair of shoes she wears that Jimmy absolutely hates. (Men—even baseball stars—don’t always understand fashion.)
“I do a lot of my shopping at Intermix,” Johari confesses. (Note to Philly retail recruiters: We need Intermix.) She’s scooping up knee-high boots, both flats and with a smaller heel, and is “obsessed” with Chloe’s high boot. (We love this version.) Her favorite shoes of the season are her black, distressed AllSaints boots (you can get a pair here). “They look totally beat up,” she says. “Jimmy hates them. He thinks they’re the ugliest things.”
Johari is also having a knitwear moment, draping herself in big, cape-like sweaters and cinching them at the waist. “I’m in the cold-weather mood,” she laughed. (We love this cozy Alexander Wang option.) But when it comes to formalwear, she ditches the knits and heads straight to the glossy-floored haven of luxury: Neimans. For the Havana Nights gala (which Neimans is sponsoring), she’ll be wearing a red strapless gown by Dalia MacPhee—a curve-hugging number that cascades into billowing ruffles—but no flower in her hair. (Too literal.) As for Jimmy? “He’s wearing a custom-made linen suit. And a fedora.”
Both looks seem appropriate for the Cuban-themed fete, which is being catered by one of the Rollins’ fave restaurants, Cuba Libre. If you go (you can get tickets here, but hurry—the event is on Monday!) you’ll want to try to somehow get yourself into the VIP area, where they’ll have cigar cutting, rum tastings, and, naturally, celebs from the sports and entertainment worlds. But even if you don’t get the chance to rub elbows with Jimmy and Johari at the event, you still have a good chance of seeing them around Rittenhouse, even though Jimmy is now a free agent.
“We’re in limbo in terms of what we’re going to be doing,” she said. “But I’m a Philly girl. I was raised in Mt. Airy. All my family is here, and my core group of friends. I’d be really, really sad to go. I love Philly. It’s home.”
