Dallas Dashboard
Excited to jump into those 2017 goals of traveling more, discovering new cultures and finding wonderful products to share. Sometimes traveling from home to unfamiliar places helps us to clarify our vision and those insights are what we crave. This week our adventures took us to Dallas where we visited the Dallas Gift and Home Market and got acquainted with some of the indie Dallas culture. Here are some of the gold nuggets we found…
Dallas Gift and Home Market
Yes, it’s 26,000 square feet of products – Imagine that much merchandise in beautiful well lit showrooms! From trays and platters to lighting and furniture. Beautiful and MASS! We went looking for the unique and came up with a lot of beauty but not much in the way of unique and “oh my, I must have this”. The showrooms were staffed with well-meaning people with clipboards who had been hired for the show and were far removed from products that were manufactured in China and overseas. As for trends sighted, vignette on view ranged from glitzy fur and silk to tweaks on Mid Century, to Back to the 80’s with geometric and our favorite ~ Neo Classical with brushed metals and smoky tones. We will comment further on trends in another blog. Just to say, amidst all these many products, we were missing the human indie hand touch! We found it elsewhere in Dallas.
Indie Glam – Dallas Style
We found the original Neiman Marcus at Forty-Five Ten on Main Street, where we enjoyed roaming around. The wonderful boutique, which had only been open for a month, conjures up the Dallas beauties of years gone by. Here’s where we found glamorous indie brands like Ades des Venutes adorable handbags upwards of $1500.00 that we could only dream of owning, and creative frocks. Forty-Five Ten shows that not all large format shopping has to be boring! In fact, the additions to Dallas shopping downtown are amazing. Across the street, at the Joule Hotel, we discovered another fantastic well-curated shop TenOverSix. We loved everything from their well-selected desk accessories to Maria des Cornejo shoes. Glam Dallas is way beyond stereotypes of cowboy boots – although we saw those too! On a modern note, on Main Street, we caught a flash of Dallas glam gold on Kenyon Martin’s sneakers.
Industrial Meets Indie Fab – Dallas Style
We Uber-ed from the wholesale fabric warehouse section of Dallas with vast storehouses of fabric to trim, to the recently emerging neighborhood of Big Ellum. We enjoyed discovering the intimate Tissu and running our fingers through this magical space of beautiful natural fiber velvets, cotton, prints as well as unique notions and sewing tools. The graffiti-ed walls of Big Ellum alternated with bright modern stores offering do it yourself terrariums and hand sewn clothing and bags. We want to do some more digging in this exciting neighborhood.
More than Barbecue
Okay, we did make a pilgrimage to the BEST BARBECUE on earth, Pecan Lodge. This is ground zero for the Dallas barbecue experience of beyond succulent Burnt Ends, Pulled Pork, and Fried Chicken (hello Regan!). Beyond barbecue, we were fortunate to eat our way through the Dallas Farmer’s Market, a huge food hall featuring local specialties. Here we sampled decadent Italian Custard Pastries and Espresso at Palmieri, as well as Lobster Rolls on just baked toasted buttery brioche. We passed booths with fragrant just squeezed fruit juices, vendors creating Bahn Mi Sandwiches and charcuterie boards with local salami and cheeses. While in Dallas, we didn’t get to experience local Noble Coyote Coffee or T-Rex Pickles but hope to on our next trip! Or perhaps buy some local Texas products online!
Great trip! Lots of hospitality.
Thank you Dallas!