Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Cobb
Hi Brittany, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I founded Flea Style – previously dubbed The Dallas Flea – in 2009. I’ve always had a deep love for vintage and unique goods as a writer and as a child combing local markets and antique malls with my mom in Southern California.
In 2001, I moved to Dallas to attend Southern Methodist University. Post graduation, I spent ten years writing lifestyle articles for The Dallas Morning News, Forbes, Lucky and DailyCandy. Writing articles about fashion and home decor only deepened my love for unique style. Any free time I had between interviews and penning stories was spent shopping unique locations from Mexico to tiny town antique malls.
This led me to launch The Dallas Flea – a quarterly pop up shopping event featuring a wide range of vendors – in 2009 to offer a unique shopping experience for people like me. In 2015, I rebranded the concept as Flea Style to span to other Texas cities and enter e-commerce to sell curated goods and makers’ finds to our growing audience.
In 2018, I purchased and renovated a historical 5,000 square foot building in downtown Dallas to house a retail store, event studio and our corporate headquarters. People wanted to shop our unique makers and finds more than a couple times a year.
The next year, I opened a second retail location in Frisco at the Dallas Cowboys’ world headquarters at The Star. Inside the 6,300 square foot space I opened my first restaurant dubbed Heirloom Haul, which is a delicious eatery that specializes in tea service, sandwiches, salads and specialty sips and lattes.
In 2021 I opened our first hat bar inside the Frisco space. Within weeks, we received a hat deal with Stetson to create our own line. Later that year I was invited to create a concept store in the Hotel Drover, a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel located at the famous Fort Worth Stockyards. That summer, Wide Brim was born as a highly-curated hotel lobby store that offers apparel, jewelry, accessories and hats for the wanderlust.
In October 2021, I opened a 3,300 square foot Flea Style store in Fort Worth also in the booming Stockyards shopping district. In 2022, Flea Style entered the mall landscape with a beautiful 3,500 square foot space in the beloved Galleria Dallas in the heart of DFW.
The hat bar concept, now located in all Flea Style retail locations, offers stylish hats and unique accents for shoppers to create one-of-a-kind looks that fit their personal style. The Flea Style hat bar experiences have become so popular that we have our own hat line in addition to the custom “Brittany” wide brim hat with iconic American hat brand Stetson in a myriad of bespoke colors.
In 2023, we opened our first out-of-state location in Louisville, Kentucky inside the Omni Hotel. Last fall, Flea Style reimagined our downtown Dallas buildings to house a 7,000 headquarters and distribution center and moved our flagship store to the famous Dallas Farmer’s Market.
This year, we welcomed our second out-of-state store in Nashville’s famous 12 South neighborhood. This summer, we’ll open our eighth location in Prosper, Texas.
Flea Style continues to push the envelope with new experiential retail and lifestyle concepts while celebrating small businesses and unique style.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s been a very long road with a lot of bumps and learns along the way. I’ve had to pivot the concept several times to cater to our evolving customer and retail landscape.
We started as a 100-percent consignment retail model and now less than 5-percent of our business is consigned. Covid was obviously a very challenging period of time but also our most creative that led to building our first hat bar in an attempt to create experiential retail for people craving connection and an escape. Now our hat bars make up more than half of our business!
As a self-taught business owner, there are a lot of growing pains from HR and accounting learns to finding the balance between work life and personal life. Every day presents struggles but also opportunities to grow my business by learning from the hard times and fails.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Flea Style ?
Flea Style is known for its boho-western apparel, jewelry and accessories. We’re also home of the original hat bar! We have our own hat line chock full of custom styles for men, women and kids. Once shoppers select a hat they browse our robust accessories mix from feathers and vintage brooches to painted playing cards and bling wraps. We have beautiful wood bars in all stores where guests belly up to watch their hat come to life. We love supporting unique style and small businesses. We offer dozens of goods from local makers and companies that create one-of-a-kind items including greeting cards, candles and handmade hat accessories. Seasonally, we host maker markets at our locations to further support the shop small movement. I still shop flea markets monthly to collect unique products and fixtures for all stores.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I love Nashville! It was an obvious home for Flea Style as we both share a deep adoration for western style, hats and supporting local business. I also love that Nashville is fun-spirited and friendly. It’s the perfect backdrop for our retail company that is all about creating magical experiences for people seeking unique style and community.
Pricing:
- Hats start at $78, accessories at $2
- You can design a custom hat or purchase pre-designed hats if you don’t have the time
- Clothing starts at about $18, $98 being our highest price point on average
- Boots launch this summer! Prices will start at $198
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fleastyle.com
- Instagram: @fleastyle
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fleastylellc
