Erika Yeaman and Melina Starr are no strangers to fashionable wares. The Park Cities friends each have an extensive background in fashion and design, and Yeaman used to have a clothing line called Everett Parker, carried at tony shops like Forty Five Ten and Elements. Together, they own Yes Associates, an interior design and strategic concept firm working around North Texas on stylish projects.
Their newest collaboration is a home décor and fashion line called EMME Studios. You’ll find dresses, skirts, shrugs, T-shirts, and pillows, and everything is made locally in very limited runs — like, four dresses created per batch of material. Why so exclusive?
"We can't and won't replicate the material because a lot of the fabrics are vintage, so you don’t have to worry about seeing someone else wearing them,” Yeaman says. "We get all our fabrics from vintage sources because they have a more unique feel."
That unique feel is a main reason why they're not trying to get their line placed in shops — small and manageable is the mantra for the online brand. What also makes EMME Studios different is the material sourcing and design. Take, for example, the Fatima dress, a one-size, take-anywhere, wear-anywhere item with endless possibilities.
“We came up with the dress on a buying trip to Marrakesh, and while we were there, we bought a bunch of vintage Moroccan wedding blankets, which we turned into pillows,” Starr says. “It’s very versatile, a simple travel dress that you can accessorize.”
Some of their most popular items are their graphic, artful tees. They teamed up with Oak Cliff graffiti artists the Sour Grapes Crew (the brothers behind the Hotel Belmont mural) to create snazzy shirts that declare things like “Booyah,” “Hustle,” and “Yes Yes Y’all.”
"We get a lot of satisfaction with collaboration and keeping it fresh," says Yeaman.
What's in the pipeline for this dynamic duo?
"We just sourced some new fabric for the dresses, lots of really fun plaids and wools and cotton, some resurrected from the early '90s," Starr says. "We think well do some sweatshirts, a play on the T-shirts from the summer, and we have some pretty Italian silk skirts."
Better get your orders ready now, Dallas.
Moroccan Wedding Blanket Pillow, $150
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