Fashion oasis
Apparel boutiques help quench Midtowners’ thirst for shopping
Until trend-setting retailer Urban Outfitters opened its doors at the corner of Central and Cooper in spring 2011, Midtown was like a desert for fashion apparel stores.
Now an oasis is taking root at this corner of Midtown. Following Urban Outfitters’ anchor store, AA Concepts Inc. ushered in a major retail development.
On June 1, three stores under one roof were opened by the Houston retailer — Langford Market, Wish and Addison. Each shop offers a separate style of women’s apparel, and Wish includes men’s clothing.
“There’s a diverse crowd of customers and people who come to the area. We love the area,” said Davina Hirsh, brand manager for AA Concepts.
Researchers at the Houston firm studied Midtown for more than a year, said Hirsh, who discovered “there are not a whole lot of shopping options in the Midtown area.” Still, the blocks near the CooperYoung intersection stood out.
Most apparel businesses had closed in recent decades along the Union Avenue traffic artery through Midtown, a signature part of Memphis built inside the Parkway boulevards largely before the 1940s. Even as retail vanished, blocks of bungalows near the Cooper-Young intersection were gentrified, naturally spurring the corner’s emergence as a trendy entertainment district attracting many of Midtown’s 25,000 residents along with commuters and college students.
“It’s expanded so much over the last 10 years, with the restaurant options and coffee shops,” Hirsh said. “There’s a lot going on, and it’s still growing.”
According to CooperYoung Business Association director Tamara Cook, 33 retailers are open in the neighborhood, including record stores, consignment shops and antiques stores. What it didn’t have — indeed, what Cook and Hirsh agree the entire 38104 ZIP code lacks — was more clothing options.
“There’s no place to buy clothes in Midtown. You have to go to a mall or way out to Saddle Creek, and nobody wants to do that,” Cook said.
Since opening, AA Concepts has noted plenty of shoppers coming in from outside of the Parkways.
“People drive all the way from Germantown or Downtown, which is great,” Hirsh said.
That’s even with one of the firm’s stores long established in Germantown. Wish opened a Saddle Creek shop nearly six years ago.
In Midtown, AA selected a site on Central, just north of the Cooper-Young epicenter, and opposite Urban Outfitters within a former antiques mall built as a Studebaker automobile dealership. Renovation took a year.
Company designers chose to preserve elements from the building’s past, such as ceiling brackets from the Studebaker days and color-blocked floors left from the antiques booths.
Hirsh says the historical elements marry the stores’ aesthetic in perfect harmony.
“Langford Market is a little vintage, a little shabby chic,” she said. “It caters to three generations of customers.”
She describes Wish as also “vintage, with a fun, playful vibe,” and Addison as a “more raw, clean feel.”
While each store has its own identity and entrance, all three are connected in- side the building.
“It’s been a really awesome experience at this location. It really goes with the vibe of the area,” senior assistant manager Stephanie Riales said. Cook agrees. “You can expect to see a lot more come in. We have a lot invested in CooperYoung. We’ve been doing this for 26 years,” Cook said. “Now we’re just trying to round it out a bit.”