Drawn to its young, wealthy urban residents, many high-fashion brands are looking to set up new stores, pop-ups and shows in Texas. A report in Glossy says, in 2019, more than 12,000 people under 35 years making more than $100,000 a year moved to Texas. Balmain is hosting its only Barbie-themed pop-up with Texas-based Neiman Marcus in Dallas this month, Gucci opened its first store in Austin in May 2021, and Jonathan Simkhai opened its first Texas retail experiment on January 19.

For Jonathan Simkhai, Founder of the eponymous brand, Texas is the third-largest e-commerce market, behind New York and Los Angeles. The entrepreneur will open the brand’s first pop-up store at Dallas’ Highland Park Village He also hopes to open a permanent store in Texas soon.

A March 2020 reading of the state revenue index, a measure of the state’s economy compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, showed Texas quick recovery from the pandemic is helping it attract retailers. Between April 2020-21, retail traffic in the city jumped from 13,000 monthly visitors to the shopping center to 78,000. Meanwhile, monthly visitors to the Shops at Southlake in Grapevine, TX jumped from 94,000 to 240,000 in the same time period.

Thanks to its “business as usual” feeling, Texas shoppers are more open to attending in-person events, compared to consumers in cities like New York, with more restrictions on store capacity, says Simkhai

Commercial real estate prices in Dallas are at all-time highs. In terms of the most commercial real estate transactions in the country last quarter, Houston and Dallas were the No.1 and No. 3, respectively.