Grapevine to Host Dallas Vintage Jewelry Show

Promoters recently announced Grapevine, Texas will be home to a new show focusing entirely on vintage jewelry. Vintage dealer Melissa Sands and Promoter Eric Miller have teamed up to bring the show to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“It’s rarely a question of if vintage jewelry will sell,” says Sands adding that while everyone loves vintage jewelry, the most typical jewelry buyer falls right in line with the demographics in North Dallas. “There’s already been an enthusiastic response to the show. This is an ideal specialty show for the region.”

Dealers will be bringing a variety of vintage costume jewelry along with vintage and antique fine jewelry to the Grapevine Convention Center, March 16-17, 2012.

Sands says the dates were chosen to provide an opportunity for dealers to add a show while traveling to Texas for Round Top. She also says preliminary interest from dealers has been strong and expects to fill the 23,000 square foot convention center.

The Grapevine Convention Center was chosen because of it’s easy access and location among some of Dallas’s most prominent suburbs. Moreover, the town is an attraction in itself.

“Grapevine is located among the regions most vibrant suburbs including Southlake, Westlake and Colleyville in the fourth largest MSA in the country and is easily accessible from throughout the region,” Miller says.

Dallas and Fort Worth residents are already accustomed to visiting Grapevine for other shows and festivals and Miller says the location also means dealers will have an enjoyable destination. “Having an enjoyable experience is an important component to both wanting to travel to a show and having another reason to come back,” Miller says.

The traditional Main-Street neighborhood with shops, restaurants and wine-tasting rooms is within walking distance of the Convention Center. There are plenty of comfortable hotel options at all price levels.

About the Dallas Vintage Jewelry Show: The Dallas Vintage Jewelry Show will be held March 16 and 17, 2012. Some fifty dealers are expected. The hours for the show will be Friday, 1 p.m. – 8 p.m. with Happy Hour 5:00 p.m. – 6 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Dealers should contact Melissa Sands at 847-579-9079. Eric Miller can be reached at 214-329-9733. More information is available at www.dallasvintagejewelry.com.

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Things of Vintage Variety in Fort Worth

How did you live without a pink phone this long?

I like Fort Worth, but would rather live in Dallas. It's not because Dallas is necessarily better- in some ways Fort Worth is better. But I think Fort Worth has a Dallas-envy that Dallas doesn't have. I have never heard someone from Dallas immediately interject that the Big D is better than Fort Worth. Yet it seems more often than not when I meet someone from Fort Worth its pointed out that their city is better than Dallas, or at least they point out that they like Fort Worth better. 

That said, I'm not shy about telling readers, most who may be in Dallas, or at least looking for information on Dallas about cool stuff in Fort Worth. One is the Montgomery Street Antique Mall; another is Doc's Records.

The Montgomery Street Antiques Mall is packed with smalls, books, vintage items and furniture. There's even a popular restaurant inside. Doc's records also has a booth in Montgomery Street, which is how I learned about their store just down the street. The prices and selection at Doc's is great-really Not necesarily great as in better than Dallas, but great none-the-less. 

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Vintage Oak Lawn

The Dallas neighborhood of Oak Lawn is one of the best places in the city to find Vintage.

Our first stop was Couture Consignment at the intersection of Oak Lawn Ave and Dickason Ave. Unlike most of the vintage clothing shops I have been in, every piece of clothes is marked with its size so that you don’t have to play the put-it-on-to-guess-its-size game. There is  even quite a large selection for those harder-to-find sizes such as 36S or 46L. And you will be smiling if you fit in between.

It is not strictly a vintage store, but a high-end consignment-clothing store. Brand names such as Neiman Marcus, Clien Kelvin or Etro fill those racks. If the price tags seem somewhat intimidating, then take some relief that there may be some ongoing sale. On the day we visited, any clothes with a price tag ends with 9 or 8 were 50 percent off. Frequent shoppers know where to look for new stuff, which are usually displayed in the front.

Our next stop was just a few blocks away. Gratitude is situated in a house built on a slope on Fairmont Street. Our visit marked the new owner’s seventh week anniversary of the store. It is still cash-only, but the owner promised to get credit card transaction up and running. If this is your first visit like ours, you would not be able to guess what you will see when working your way up those steps. But it is a true vintage gem.

True it is stuffed, so that you have to watch when you walk around not to bump some boxes; but when you look there are always some amazing find! Sizes are usually not marked nor are those jackets sorted by lengths. And they are packed super tight that you need pull out to have a complete look. But what a fun experience to explore those racks! Those 60’s skinny-lapeled sport coats (so popular in the Mad Men series) are packed with those fat-lapel 80’s jackets. You begin to chuckle when thinking what if two fashion-savvy crowds from these two decades bumping against each other. And here comes a purple bowling jacket- although you probably need a deep cleaning. Besides clothing, other vintage goods are everywhere including 60’s and 70’s records, jewels, diamond and pins. We saw a faux-diamond lady’s pin for Nixon Campaign. Nixon was a highly regarded American president in China- maybe the pin will find a new home there (so we'll have one less reminder here).