Did you have a chance yet to read our July print magazine story about Daijah Poteat, the savvy young owner of the cutest little adult novelty shop in Bishop Arts? If not, check it out here.
Perhaps you noticed our section about two other women-run businesses in the same building. If not, here’s your chance. Besides Bad Baby’s boutique, the quaint brick two-story fourplex on Davis houses an all-in-one plant shop and salon as well as a pilates studio. Here are their stories.
Crecer
Crecer Dallas is a Latinx/women-owned plant shop and hair salon that Nataly Medina and her stepsister Cynthia Jasso opened in October 2021.
A 2020 study by Stoneside Blinds and Shades revealed that 12% of pandemic-era plant purchasers were buying a house plant for the first time. These sisters too “were getting heavily into plants throughout this time,” Medina says. And they had both lost jobs during the COVID crisis.
Jasso is a “third-generation, crazy green thumb,” her sister says. So during the lockdowns she started making and selling terrariums to make a little extra cash. Meanwhile, Medina, a hairdresser who suffers from psoriasis, says she was becoming more conscious of what she was using on her skin, “making it a point to only use plant-based and plant enriched products.”
She started making products for herself and selling them for additional income. The idea for the shop just “dawned on us,” she says.
“It’s all of our passions and values combined into one space that we can share with the community and while representing the Latino business owners,” Medina says. “Our business was imagined with the generations before us in mind, and there are so many layers to it, that we can’t wait to share with everyone.”
Oak Cliff Pilates
Silhouettes of bodies working on their fitness appear in 428’s sweeping upstairs window — sliding, stretching and performing rope-and-pulley exercises on machines called reformers. Inside is not the typical pilates vibe, says owner Amanda Mecsey. “We play gangster rap, we have men and women of all shapes and sizes, we have an eclectic space with a bohemian vibe,” she says. “We want to bring diversity and positive body image to the Pilates world.”
Oak Cliff Pilates just marked its first year in the building.
Mecsey ran a hairdressing business in Phoenix for 15 years before relocating to Dallas, where she realized how much she loved Pilates — a low-impact style of workout introduced by Joseph Pilates in the 1920s — and teaching it to others.
“At one point I even moved into an apartment while my home was under construction, and instead of a dining table I bought my reformer so I could continue teaching private lessons,” she says.
Following a few fits, starts and challenges, she found the perfect space near her Oak Cliff home. In a two-week span, she says, she signed the lease, finalized the Oak Cliff Pilates branding and had equipment delivered. She and her team stayed up assembling them all night before their very first class.
“Now we have over 200 members, 60 plus classes per week, 15 amazing trainers,” she says. “We feel we are becoming a big part of the Bishop Arts fitness community.”
