11 minute read
Business
FUN FASHION FINDS: BERKLEY CLOTHING AND EMPOWERED COWGIRL
Loren Heller and Hillary Cullum started the luxury activewear line Berkley Clothing. Visit berkleyclothing.com to learn
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more. (PHOTOS: COURTESY BERKLEY CLOTHING)
They got leggings and know moms-to-be can use them
By Rachel Snyder
rachel.snyder@peoplenewspapers.com
University Park’s Loren Heller had trouble finding maternity activewear leggings while pregnant with her daughter, Leighton, so she and friend Hillary Cullum started their Berkley line in 2020.
“What existed was what ... I term ‘throwaway leggings’ — intended to be worn for a short period of time,” Heller said. “I did what most women do, which is buy something two sizes too big.”
Heller and Cullum met while working for Neiman Marcus in Colorado about 15 years ago. Neiman Marcus eventually brought the pair to Dallas.
They started work on their line of luxury maternity leggings in 2019. The first, named the Janey and the Cindy after Heller and Cullum’s mothers, feature four-way stretch and come in trendy prints.
“(We) spent the next year and a half perfecting the perfect pair of maternity leggings,” Heller said. “We started with the leggings as the most essential part of our assortment.”
Cullum said they sought to fill a gap in the activewear market.
“When Loren brought the idea to me, we did research (on) what was out there,” she said. “The (activewear) market is really penetrated, and there are lots of options ... (but) when you become pregnant, that’s really not available to you anymore.”
Heller said they sought to empower women with their clothing line.
“Our heart and souls are in every aspect of the design,” she said. “Women struggle finding clothing that makes them feel like who they are during their pregnancy.”
Cullum said they designed their leggings to take women through pregnancy and postpartum times.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges as the pair were working on launching their brand.
“Berkley is designed in Dallas and made in LA. During the shutdown, it made it very difficult to get anything moving quickly,” Heller said. “What would have taken us a couple months took us basically a year.”
The shift to working from home also added to the importance of their goal of providing comfortable, functional activewear, Heller said.
In the future, they hope to launch tops to go with their leggings and partner with retailers.
New York designer draws on Texas roots for inspiration
By Maddie Spera
Special Contributor
Ellie Gilchrist brings a bit of country to the big city with her Empowered Cowgirl line of jackets and accessories.
In May, the New York-based designer introduced her recently launched inaugural fashion line to Dallas shoppers with a popup event at her parents’ Highland Park home.
Gilchrist’s family owns clothing stores in Lubbock, so the world of retail and fashion has been ingrained in her from an early age.
After studying fashion design at Texas Tech, Gilchrist immediately went to New York for an internship at esteemed fashion title Harper’s Bazaar.
“It was kind of like Devil Wears Prada, but the internship version,” Gilchrist said. “It was an intense but fun environment, and I loved the fast pace of everything.”
That led to more opportunities, including internships focusing on her interest in creation and design.
“I ended up with Jason Wu in 2015, and that was the first exposure I had to production, and that’s kind of where my career went for a few years,” she added.
Jason Wu let Gilchrist go from her job as a production coordinator at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. That setback provided an opportunity to focus on fashion design.
“One of my main inspiration sources is actually the Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth,” Gilchrist said. “I went there in 2017 for the first time and fell in love with it. There’s a hall of fame with these really dynamic, strong women who come from all over the world. I figured there was a marketplace for this, like fusing the western style with more of a modern, sophisticated woman.
“City girls and country girls could both understand the Empowered Cowgirl,” she said. “And a cowgirl within this spirit also just means someone who is hardworking, has dignity, responsibility, and grace at the same time. So I wanted to fuse those things into apparel.”
Gilchrist plans to have more pop-ups and take her line to trade shows in the coming months. She is focusing her energy on improving and expanding her line and is excited about the future of the collection.
“I feel the creative spark quite often, so there are a lot of possibilities, for even just the pieces that I’ve already done,” Gilchrist said. “So this is going to be my next thing, but just enhanced.”
FEEL EMPOWERED
Visit empoweredcowgirl. com for more information or to shop Ellie Gilchrist’s fashion line.
Ellie Gilchrist held an Empowered Cowgirl pop-up event in May at her
parent’s Highland Park home. (COURTESY PHOTO)
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prestonhollowpeople.com | July 2021 21 Overflowing with Visitors? Time To Pop Up a Hut Entrepreneur’s idea gives homeowners luxury of more room, flexibility
By Bethany Erickson
bethany.erickson@peoplenewspapers.com
David Windle’s idea for a portable extra room wasn’t borne out of the pandemic. Still, when he mentioned his fledgling Popup Hut company among North Dallas NextDoor neighbors a few months in to the safer-at-home orders, it captured attention.
The story, however, starts in 2017 when Windle and his wife decided to host their families for Thanksgiving. They didn’t think everyone they invited would RSVP. When they did, their three-bedroom home suddenly became a tight fit that culminated in his sister-in-law sleeping in the utility room.
I built the first prototype, and we used the heck out of it. It actually became my office for a while. David Windle
and ordinances) left him realizing that he wouldn’t be able to scale and expand the project easily.
His epiphany, he said, came one day when he went to pull in beside his wife’s car in the garage.
“I’m looking in the garage, and the light bulb goes off, and I’m thinking like, this has some potential, there’s your roof, there’s already electricity running to this thing, there’s a nice concrete foundation,” he said. “I could build something that I could just quickly set up and take down when we don’t need it and be able to park the car in the garage again.”
What resulted (after several months of research and prototypes) was Popup Hut, a portable room that you can install in your garage that can be heated or cooled, has electricity, and can be an additional guest room, workout room, or home office.
“I built the first prototype, and we used the heck out of it,” he said. “It actually became my office for a while.”
POPUP BASICS
“We tried to make it as homie as possible, we blew up this mattress, put a couple of candles in, and lots of flowers, but I guarantee you she was pretty miserable for the three nights she was at our house,” he said, ruefully.
That need for the occasional extra room didn’t leave when his relatives left that
David Windle’s idea for a portable extra room for your house came pre-pandemic, but interest
in Popup Hut increased as more people began to work from home. (PHOTOS: POP UP HUT)
year, either.
In 2019, after leaving a decade-long stint in finance and traveling a bit, Windle discovered his next venture — creating a prototype (and eventually a business) of a portable room that was better than a tent in terms of comfort but just as easy to put up and take down.
His first idea was a kind of accessory dwelling unit that would be easy to construct. Meetings with the city of Dallas (and a look at other cities permitting processes The modular 100-square-foot huts retail for $1,295 and can be built at half the size if needed. Made of military-grade fabric with steel supports, they include ports for air conditioner hoses, a door and windows, and carrying cases. Visit popuphut.com.
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The sixth concept for the Dallas-Fort Worth-owned and operated Valenday Hospitality Group will open in the former Biscuit Bar location. The reimagined 2,400-square-foot space will feature an outdoor garden patio. Its menu will include D.L. Mack’s Chicago-style cracker crust pizza, the “World’s Coldest Martinis,” and other elevated takes on classic American dishes inspired by Chicago eateries.
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