She’s running for Congress. VERVE’s team of fab photogs, makeup artists and stylists helped her step up her style for the new year.

by Mick Kelly . portrait by Matt Rose

Give the mayor a makeover? VERVE was thrilled to take on the project, and we put some of our best stylists to work. For the new year, we wanted to feature a Western North Carolina woman in the middle of an ambitious transition. And for that, we looked no further than Asheville’s mayor, Terry Bellamy, who announced last November that she will run for Congress in the newly re-drawn 10th District. Most of that district covers territory east of Asheville in Gaston, Rutherfordton and Catawba counties. For Bellamy, that means branching out into rural territory far outside the city, potentially facing off against Patrick McHenry, a long-established Republican incumbent. State representative Patsy Keever, a former Buncombe County Commissioner, says she will also run in the 10th District. Keever and two other candidates would potentially face Bellamy in a May primary.

In December, Bellamy kicked off her run with a new campaign manager, former city employee Kendra Turner, who oversaw marketing efforts for local McDonald’s franchises. This month, Bellamy will make a series of “barn-storming” speeches and apppearances in places like Gaston and Rutherfordton.

In between style stops on her makeover day, we learned some things about Mayor Bellamy that we didn’t know. The youngest mayor in the city’s history and its first African-American mayor comes from a family of homecoming queens. “Every time we’re in the court, we win,” says Bellamy, rather triumphantly. She was homecoming queen her senior year at Asheville High, and two of her cousins were also queens at Asheville High. In the ‘80s, Bellamy says her hair was huge and poofy, and she was a cheerleader from 7th through 9th grade.

These days, she’s the busy mom of two children, Seth and Imani, and she’s married to Lamont Bellamy, owner of the cab company Diamond Executive Car Transportation. The mayor vows that, even though she’s running the city and running for Congress this year, she’ll be keeping her day job, as full-time executive director of the nonprofit ARC of Buncombe County, which helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “It’s crazy,” Bellamy says. “I end up doing grant writing late at night. But I tell myself it’s only a year. You can do anything if it’s only a year.”

In her free time, not that there’s much of it, Bellamy reads O, the Oprah Magazine, among others. If, in high school, she wanted to look like the hip-hop artists Salt n’ Pepa, today she models herself after Oprah Winfrey. “Oprah has the best makeup,” Bellamy says. “I’m not as bold as her color-wise, but I shouldn’t be. In my position, pinks and yellows are a bit soft. Colors send a message, and I want people to take me seriously.”

For her makeover, we wanted the mayor to look powerful, but modern. Mary James, owner of Maison Mary and a frequent collaborator with longtime Asheville fashion maven Constance Ensner, spent days pondering the mayor’s clothing. White would look crisp and clean for the new year, James reasoned, but she liked the sheen and contemporary cut of a shiny black rain jacket. Mayor Bellamy didn’t want her hair to look radically different, but we thought Guadalupe Chavarria hit just the right note with subtle caramel highlights and an updated cut with bangs. After the cut, Mendy Hoffman at Makeup at the Grove Arcade played up the caramel colors with bronze eye makeup and a terrific bold red lipstick. “This is out of my comfort zone,” Mayor Bellamy said sternly, looking in the mirror at the makeup shop. No matter who her constituents are in the coming year, we think they’ll give her new look a thumbs up.

Mayor Bellamy’s hair by Guadalupe Chavarria for Studio Chavarria.
Makeup by Mendy Hoffman for Makeup at the Grove Arcade.
Clothing styling by Mary James for Maison Mary, with clothing by Maison Mary and Constance Consignment.
Sterling silver earrings and bangle bracelet by Agnes Seebass.