8 November 23 - 29, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents the partners have opened Houston and San Antonio branches, with outposts in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Southern California in the works. By the time hipsters were mingling with ranch hands on The Rustic’s lawn, local en- trepreneur Brittany Cobb had parlayed her passion for flea market furnishings into a pop-up called The Dallas Flea. In 2015, she rebranded the concept to become Flea Style, eventually launching a store and studio in Deep Ellum that sells a mix of flowy dresses, dusters and tops. A California native, Cobb originally moved to Dallas to attend Southern Meth- odist University. She says her look naturally aligns with the popular #coastalcowgirl Tik- Tok trend, an easy, breezy aesthetic with classic roots that has more than 215 million views on the app. “I don’t even infuse myself into a trend a lot, but when I step back, I go, wow, we really set the tone and paved the way for a lot of this,” Cobb says. “It’s an iconic Western heri- tage look with more casual laid-back Califor- nia bohemian undertones. That’s how I’ve dressed my whole life, and that’s how it’s so natural to me and the brand. When I moved to Texas for college, all I knew was blending with this Texas lifestyle, and it just became a way of life to me.” Cobb, who naturally gravitated to wearing hats to protect her sun-sensitive skin, added a hat bar to the Flea concept during the COVID shutdown. Allowing patrons to create one-of-a-kind looks on their custom “Brittany” wide-brim hats (with feathers, charms or playing cards), she launched on National Hat Day: Jan. 15, 2021. Now, hat bars with prices ranging from $78 to the low $200s are available at all cur- rent locations (Deep Ellum; the Star in Frisco; the Drover Hotel in Fort Worth; the Dallas Galleria; Louisville, Kentucky; and a mobile bar/boutique). Flea Style is launching 16,000 styles for the holiday season in shades such as dusty denim and deep berry. The same year Cobb made Flea Style a thing, Leon Bridges began blowing up, mak- ing an impact with his soulful sound and Southern style: high-waisted pants and state- ment jackets. Along for the journey to super- stardom was Bridges’ touring photographer Rambo Elliott, whose personal high/low mix of vintage and Western helped inspire the musician’s retro style. Elliott, who was working in the medical field but longing for something more creative, approached the pre-fame Bridges on Face- book and started photographing him for fun. “I just felt like our styles would work well together, and we ended up hanging out for 14 hours,” she recalls of that first meeting. To- gether, the duo made an impact from the be- ginning, but people weren’t picking up what they were putting down, stylistically speaking. “People thought we looked goofy as fuck, and made comments,” she says. “Then Leon signed a three-record deal, and there was no room for doubt. Together, we’re such an iconic duo — I can’t tell you the amount of times we’ve walked in a place, and people were like, ‘Y’all really dress like that?’” Elliott put her passion for Hollywood glamour into the looks she helped Bridges pull together. Most notably, a pair of silk gloves from her wedding day the musician wore for the back cover of his second album, Good Thing. Soon, other artists, including Jon Batiste and Abraham Alexander, were asking her to distill this sartorial magic for them. Elliott began working with brands like Stetson and Dickies, while Bridges launched a 2022 clothing collection for Wrangler. Even if she’s wearing a ballgown with her boots, Elliott insists every piece of her style has functionality crucial to the look. Hats shade her head, jeans protect her legs and every piece she mixes — vintage or new — needs to be proven in its timeless style and durability. “I have traveled around the world three times now, and I’ve learned I need clothes that can handle any situation,” she says. “I’m always going to have rough jeans that can climb a fence, but I’m a smart girl, so I’m gonna put a silk gown in my suitcase that will pack up small and feel like pajamas.” It’s this laissez-faire combination that makes Elliott’s modern twist on Western work for a variety of stylistic vibes. Recent transplants to Texas may be tempted to em- brace hoity-tonk head to toe, but keeping things rough around the edges and adding vintage to the mix is the best way to avoid any elements of cosplay. “My clients come in and want a cowgirl look, but they don’t want it campy or cos- tumey; they want it elevated and chic,” says local “denim whisperer” Caitlin Brax of AA Vintedge, who went viral on TikTok for her ability to size up a customer on sight. “I think the resurgence of the brand Wrangler has made vintage jeans more covetable. A lot of clients who [buy jeans to] do a Denim and Diamonds party, and they’ll end up incorpo- rating them in their everyday wardrobe as well.” “When things go too trendy with really bright colors and a lot of bling, to me, it isn’t elevated,” says Brittany Cobb. “Perfectly im- perfect is my favorite thing to say. Either it’s the old patina on a piece of brass or distress- ing on a denim jacket. That’s so much more interesting than something you can get new.” In other words, it’s OK to double down on your denim occasionally but turn down the bling. And — for goodness’ sake —take off your view-blocking topper in a restau- rant. Though classic etiquette dictates that women never remove their evening hats, cowboys take their hats off indoors. And ev- eryone from Dolly’s Gretchen Bell to fashion influencer Courtney Noonan cites the cau- tionary tale of what not to do, as told by the 2019 Saturday Night Live skit “Big Dumb Hat.” “I cannot stand those stupid hats, espe- cially when people are wearing them at night — it’s like wearing sunglasses inside for me,” says “Bravolebrity” Kerr Noonan, who appeared on a few Bravo reality shows including The Millionaire Matchmaker. Kerr Noonan was raised in Fort Worth and is married to Kyle Noonan. “When people come here and buy the hat and the boots and are like, ‘Let’s go to the Stockyards,’ it doesn’t feel authentic to me,” she says. “It can feel like a character versus putting something on that makes you feel beautiful, polished and chic.” Kerr Noonan prefers classics like well- fitting denim, oversized blazers with leg- gings or a little black dress with the perfect boots. Her wardrobe contains everything from French designer Isabel Marant to Tecovas, Lucchese and locally based favor- ites Miron Crosby. Founded by West Texas sisters Sarah Means and Lizzie Means Duplantis, the latter brand has thrived since opening in 2016, with shops in Highland Park Village; Palm Beach, Florida; Aspen, Colorado; and Houston. Its hand-tooled styles are beloved by socialites and Vogue editors equally, who snap up mul- tiple pairs in shimmering metallics decorated with all the stars of a prairie sky. “One of the reasons we started the brand was because the fabulous French and Italian brands were doing so well [selling boots],” says Sarah Means. “We felt like, why are peo- ple buying Isabel Marant? There was a hole in the marketplace for contemporary luxury.” “We feel [Western] always needs a seat at the fashion table, and we’re doing every- thing we can to make that happen,” adds her sister. It’s clear setting one’s style apart from a gaggle of bachelorettes in Fort Worth’s Mule Alley would require a bigger budget. Rodger Chieffalo has built a successful business by curating extremely luxurious pieces his cus- tomers can’t find anywhere else at his three- year-old Chieffalo Americana boutique in Fort Worth. The real estate developer ini- tially got into fashion through his collection of rebuilt classic beaver hats in the style of Fort Worth Star-Telegram founder Amon Carter. “I thought [of making them] just as a hobby, as a fun thing,” says Chieffalo, who runs the shop with his wife, Jackie. “I was gonna see how much I could make a trend of these short-brim hats, and now every Tom, Dick, and Harry 28-year-old in Austin is wearing them.” Far from a big, dumb hat, these short- brimmed styles, which Chieffalo says are collected by “movie stars, musicians and politicians at the highest level,” flew off the shelves. Now, the duo offers repurposed Hermès, Gucci, and Versace scarves for a fancy version of the cowboy “wild rag,” tai- lored Gambert shirts in casual fabrics and $2,000 blanket coats by Lindsey Thornburg. The limited-edition nature and handcrafted appeal of their stock are what sets this luxe end of the look apart, according to the Chief- falos. How The West Was Worn from p6 Nichole Stephens Dallas has a unique, upscale boho style.
