Irony Gone Awry
Need an ugly Christmas sweater? This Dallas shop has 10,000
One supposes it had to happen, and of course it would happen in Dallas, the shopping capital of the world. A pop-up store dedicated to ugly Christmas sweaters opened this week on Mockingbird Lane at Abrams Road in East Dallas. Called the Ugly Christmas Sweater Shop, it has 10,000 vintage ugly sweaters for sale.
Owner Jeremy Turner operates VintageMobile, a vintage clothing store he runs out of a school bus. He's been in the Christmas sweater business for about three years.
"I wasn't aware of the potential until a friend who's in the vintage clothing business told me I really needed to get into selling Christmas sweaters," he says. "That first year, I sold out of sweaters. Last year I had 3,000 sweaters. Now this year we have 10,000, and we keep getting more."
As for where the sweaters come from, that's something Turner does not disclose. "I can't give too much of that info out. It's a trade secret," he says.
His store, which is in a former Halloween shop, has both sweaters and sweatshirts, and prices range from $22.95 to $52.95. His customers are not simply the ironic hipster that one might believe.
"It's all kinds of people," he says. "Right now, there's a little boy buying a sweater. His mom is buying a sweater, and so are his sisters. It's businessmen, college students – the Christmas sweater thing breaks all norms and rules. But we do get a good amount of old ladies. They actually do like the sweaters."
Hours are 11 am to 7 pm, Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 pm Sunday. The shop closes for good December 21.
