Houston Shops

When Mickey Rosmarin opened an independent T-shirt shop in the early 1970s, he had no idea he would eventually come to set the bar for Houston's entire shopping landscape, introducing the city to designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Andrew Gn, and Kenzo.

It's difficult to fathom what 2.4 million square feet looks like until you step inside the Galleria. The usual European suspects—Gucci, Céline, and Dolce & Gabbana—all have individual boutiques showcasing the full range of new collections.

Wendi Koletar opened this boutique in Austin twelve years ago, and she finally let Houston in on her sharply refined taste with a River Oaks outpost in 2016.

Since opening in 2007, Found for the Home has been impressing serious collectors and casual enthusiasts with an eclectic mix of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century antiques—presented among a selection of repurposed industrial finds.

We've been fans of the exceptional shopping experience that is Forty Five Ten since we first discovered the original location in Dallas.

The first time you stumble into Sloan/Hall, you might think you're in a museum. The gallery/life space has everything from greeting cards and collector's books to a gold-plated robot beside a twelfth-century Italian chest to a French perfume collection, Etat Libre d'Orange. The vibe here can be ironic, so this is a great place to get a gift for a friend with a sense of humor and edge.

Started by sisters Chau and Trang Nguyen, this sweet little store near Rice University has a tight edit of apparel, home goods, jewelry, and paper goods. They've also got a great clothing edit, with mid-priced lines like Ace & Jig, DUSEN DUSEN, and Rachel Comey. The badass woven dressing room dividers? The sisters made them by hand.

Biscuit is primarily known for designer Bailey McCarthy's quirky, colorful bedding collection, which incorporates everything from cactuses to arrows to astrology into sweet, soft-as-butter sheets and duvets. The Houston shop also has the best hostess gifts—the store's vignettes are scattered with cool coffee table books, candles, trays, and bar accessories. There are always great little knickknacks, too, like pineapple-shaped golden shot glasses, tin recipe boxes, and embroidered cocktail napkins.

The guy behind Manready Mercantile, Travis Weaver, is as Texas as they come—he grew up in a tiny town in West Texas, and his store drips of that aesthetic, with an enormous American flag hanging in the back, vintage saws, fishing signs, taxidermy on every wall, and an old-school canoe suspended from the ceiling. His brand began with a line of candles he made on the stove top in his apartment—the success of which inspired him to keep making products traditionally marketed to women (bath salts, bubble bath, and more) and making and packaging them for men. Now, he's expanded into clothing, and the brick-and-mortar showcases his own products as well as giftables from like-minded brands like Freenote Cloth, Mollusk Surf, Helm, and Taylor Stitch. During the holidays, it's pretty much a one-stop shop for brothers, dads, and SOs.

We love a store with a range of price points, and with options ranging from Jerome Dreyfuss purses to Venessa Arizaga friendship bracelets, Saint Cloud certainly qualifies. While it's primarily an apparel store, the accessories (A Peace Treaty scarves, Erin Considine fringed earrings, Lizzie Fortunato gems) can be relied on for consistently good gifts. The fact that they have a great clean beauty selection (Ilia, Grown Alchemist, Olio e Osso) and the sweetest, most creative kids' buy is a major bonus, too.