Headington Companies’ luxury boutique Forty Five Ten officially opens its doors in Fort Worth, TX, an expansion from their flagship store in Dallas and a milestone that comes shortly after celebrating their 25th year of business. At 4,400 square feet, Forty Five Ten Fort Worth lives on 3220 West Seventh Street, situated in close proximity to The Cultural District that is home to institutions like the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth Botanic Garden, and acts as an epicenter of hospitality, entertainment, and nightlife of Panther City.

Forty Five Ten is revered not just for its highly curated luxury clothing selection but its all-encompassing shopping experience. Less of a to-do and more of an immersion, those who walk into Forty Five Ten will find food and beverage offerings from Café Mirador—which serves lunch and brunch and cocktails—knowledgeable stylists to assist shoppers, and in addition to the aforementioned arrangement by leading designers, home and interior pieces as well. The store itself is designed by the Fort Worth-based Ibañez Shaw Architecture firm, focusing on modern, refined design. Guests will not only peruse an assemblage of opulent garments, but can enjoy the artworks of celebrated artists while doing so; on its walls, Forty Five Ten Fort Worth hangs pieces by the likes of Secundino Hernández, Marina Perez Simão, and Jorge Galindo, as well as photos by Catherine Opie and a large-scale print by Juergen Teller.

Shortly ahead of its official opening and in tribute to his in-store collection, Thom Browne celebrated the expansion with an exclusive dinner at Mirador, Forty Five Ten’s dining space in the Dallas location. In addition, the atelier hosted made-to-measure appointments for wearers to receive hand-tailored pieces customized to their sizing. Of the experience, Thom Browne says: “Being in Dallas and seeing everyone come out to celebrate Forty Five Ten and my new collection was so inspiring,” he reflects. “Their team has always supported creativity and craftsmanship at the highest level, and it’s on full display at their store. It was so nice to acknowledge the mutual appreciation between my brand and Forty Five Ten — and to see the incredible women of Dallas.”

Headington Companies has become a driving force in the cultural and institutional development of Downtown Dallas, wherein their retail spaces—such as Forty Five Ten—and their hospitality and culinary spaces—such as Mirador, The Joule, and Midnight Rambler—exist not as isolated spots around town, but as contributors to an ever-evolving community. This March, Forty Five Ten and Headington are sponsors of Rashid Johnson's largest ever exhibition to date, showing at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers, on view through September 27.

FLAUNT speaks with Forty Five Ten President Anne Wallach and Headington Companies’ Chief Marketing Officer Jeny Bania on the new opening, the boutique’s relationship with Thom Browne, and of course, Texan glamor.

Why did you choose Fort Worth for this expansion, and why locate near the cultural district?

Anne: I think for us at Forty Five Ten, and for our parent company, Headington, there's this mix of fashion, art, culture, and dining that is always imbued in all of the projects that we embark on. For example, our flagship store in downtown Dallas is right across from The Joule Hotel. There's a large art installation, the Eye [a 30-foot-tall sculpture of an eyeball], that's right next to us, and a lot of other cultural institutions in Dallas. 

Fort Worth is obviously its own separate city, and the cultural district, frankly, is centrally located between Fort Worth downtown, with the art and museums (which they have, world-class museums there, [such as] The Modern, the Kimbell and several others that are in the area). And there's also an adjacency to where a lot of our core clients live. It's an area called River Crest. We’re sitting in that area that feels, again, like it has all of those cultural touch points and dining  options. There are a couple of great new hotels that are right around us, also one right across the street, the Crescent Hotel, and then a few blocks away, the Auberge that's called Bowie House, and both of those opened within the last couple of years. So again, there’s all of that development, and then there's a very close residential component as well. So it's kind of checking all of those boxes.

Forty Five Ten and Thom Browne had a very special, intimate dinner, kind of celebrating one another and your relationship. How did your relationship with Thom Browne begin? What are the similarities and values of Forty Five Ten, and by extension, Headington Companies, that you believe you share with Thom Browne that make your collaboration work?

Anne: We’ve worked with Thom Browne and his team for many, many years now. Thom, one of his strongest talents is the way that he is so true to his brand. His is one of our favorite showrooms to go into when we market seasonally, because you’re hit with the aesthetic from top to bottom, from the pens and pencils people are writing with, to how they merchandise the showroom, to every single member of their staff—they wear, essentially a uniform. Part of his inspiration was originally prep school uniform dressing, which you see season over season. He seamlessly incorporates a wonderful evolution and fashion and new prints and new ways of doing things. But truly, that's at the core of things, the sort of uniform.

For us, it resonates with our client, obviously, in a number of ways, but it's easy dressing. It's wonderful tailoring. And then you get this great fashion component. There's a way to do it in a super branded way, and then there's a way to do it in a way that might feel a bit more individualistic and less branded, where you're just picking up a beautiful piece that can work seamlessly from day to night. They have everything from suits to incredible knits. The craftsmanship is always there, so it’s a really easy, easy brand for us in all of those ways.

Then obviously having Thom here, he has such an influence in the fashion world as the former head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), and has the spirit of giving back, which I think is shared with Forty Five Ten and again, our parent company, Headington Companies, and the way we do a lot of business. He's always looking at young and emerging designers, how he can help businesses, and so that's not necessarily the brand level, but him as a man.

He doesn't really do a lot of in-person events like this and dinners. So we felt it was such a wonderful thing to get him in town and to be able to celebrate both him and the brand, because we have had a long term partnership. We are essentially the only ones who carry him in Dallas, and certainly the only ones who have done these made-to-measure events, which is a special kind of component of that business, where they have master tailors who come in and have these special appointments where they measure clients. They keep those measurements on the books, so that if somebody calls in and says, “I got the gray suit, now I need a navy one,”—there's the everyday collection that we carry, and then this special component of today's version of couture, essentially, in terms of how they fit and how special it is, and to your own personal kind of body and tastes.

‍It’s an interesting time for brick-and-mortar retail, especially in a post-covid world, and with the rise of online shopping, and digital spaces in general. What do you think it is about Headington Companies, about Forty Five Ten, that allows you to be expanding in this moment?

Anne: I think that there's, in some ways, a renaissance of the in-store experience of what we do. We endeavor to do this, both in terms of the merchandise we offer and the client experience—it’s so special and unique. It's something that you can't achieve online.

Our shopper likes to come in, look, touch, and feel, have the full experience and feel different and unique when they're walking out the door. She doesn't want to look exactly like all of her friends. That's hard to replicate. Our wonderful stylists, they know our merchandise inside and out. They are able to help if somebody comes in saying, “I need x, y, and z, and this is my inspiration for this type of event,” and we help to collaborate on that. It becomes almost an artistic project. We know what is in our clients’ wardrobes. They'll often shop elsewhere and then send a picture and be like, “I just bought these jeans. Do I need them, do you think this fits me well? Should I return it?” If they're going on a trip, they'll call us and say, “Can you help me pack for five days in Santorini?” or whatever it is. So you start again, building those relationships that I think are hard to do online. Some people like that experience of the more individualistic shopping, where you're not having that collaboration, but again, I think it's experiential.

On top of that, we have the restaurant component in our downtown Dallas store. So it's Mirador, and in Fort Worth, we have Café Mirador, which is sort of a modified version of the restaurant that we have here [in Dallas]. It’s a place to gather, be social. Come have your favorite bar bite or snack or glass of wine, and shop. If somebody's visiting town, it's a great place to visit. It gives you all of these different elements but makes it fun overall.

Jeny: It creates this other layer of a reason to visit that doesn't have to have pressure about having a retail experience at all. You can walk through, peruse, have your lunch, and then something catches your eye on the way out. It doesn't feel like you have to have a real plan of attack, you can just enjoy with friends and make it part of your social experience, you know. And it’s the same with the Fort Worth location.

The relationship between the store and the cafe is a little different right now. We're on the penthouse level of the store, so you walk through the store and take the elevator to the top floor. In this new space, we're basically adjacent [to one another]. We are kind of on the same floor together, so you'll have to walk through the retail floor to get to the restaurant in a similar way. But I really think that it's just going to become a social destination, and then shopping is a part of it. We’re very well aware that our famous Mirador margaritas will find their way into the fitting room… the line between retail and hospitality is really blended in this environment.

What do you two think is unique about Texan glamor, about the glamorous Texan lady?

‍Anne: I think that in Dallas specifically, and in Fort Worth, women like to get dressed. Whether they're shopping, whether they're going to a school function, to an art function, to a lunch or whatever, you really do see women who take pride in their appearance and the way they look, and not in a vain way. I think they want to present themselves in a way that shows their confidence and security in the world. And for our client, we always try to provide them what is new, what's next, what's interesting. We're very focused on independent and emerging designers, in addition to some of those luxury stalwarts. Some of our biggest businesses are Celine and Saint Laurent and Miu Miu, Melitta Baumeister, obviously Thom Browne, Dries Van Noten, et cetera. But then we have Magda Butrym and Huishan Zhang, we have Comme des Garçons, Noir, so trying to introduce [our shoppers] to these new elements with which our client really resonates with.

There are certain pieces for true events. Dallas is a very philanthropic city, as is Fort Worth, and there are a lot of different galas and get togethers and fundraising opportunities and again, women like to dress. We typically buy a single piece for certain gowns and things like that, because we're like, “Okay, this is so special if we're dressing somebody in this, there can only be one.” We don't want to dress two different people in the same gown, because it needs to be and feel that special, which I think our client appreciates. So it's sort of a mix of individualism and generally leaning on chic.

Jeny: When it comes down to it, people are dressing for that kind of red carpet moment, where it's not just a black dress for a black tie event. They're going out, really expressing themselves. I find that the dressing is often bold and expressive, is how I would describe it. There's a sense of confidence in the women who dress here.