Photo by Can Türkyilmaz
It started with a T-shirt that simply stated “Oak Cliff.” Now, six years and about 6,000 “Oak Cliff” T-shirt sales later, Sherry Andrus of Epiphany Boutique is tapping into more neighborhood pride. The two newest designs feature familiar icons: Aunt Stelle’s Sno Cones and Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts. Andrus commissioned neighborhood artist Lisa Walter of Freelisa Designs to recreate the iconic signs, and hopes to ultimately sell six Oak Cliff T-shirt designs. She has picked out the signage she wants on the next four shirts but is working on securing permission from the locations. The only hint she offers is that the signs are all within a five-mile radius of her Bishop Arts shop. “People love the economic diversity and revitalization” in Oak Cliff, Andrus says. She expects an inevitable boom as the Bishop Arts District connects to the Trinity River Project redevelopment. “The way it’s going to transform in the next few years is going to be unusual in these economic times.” As she looks toward this future, Andrus also is fixing her gaze on Oak Cliff’s roots and the businesses and images that have been neighborhood landmarks for decades. She hopes to have a couple more shirts finalized and printed before the end of the year. Below the icons, each of the first™ two printed shirts says “Oak Cliff: This can’t be replicated” — a sentiment Andrus, an Oak Cliff resident, mirrors. “It’s a great place to live. People that live here, love to live here and would not want to live anywhere else,” she says.
