Thrift Studio LIVE Returns as Hybrid Experience in 2021
Dwell With Dignity’s annual Thrift Studio LIVE was forced to move to a virtual platform last year because of the pandemic. But the venture was so successful that the organization will offer a hybrid experience for 2021.
The hybrid experience will offer options to shop virtually or in person, thanks to a new partnership with West Village. Both shopping experiences will feature artfully-designed vignettes plus other new, unique home décor items. All the items will be available to purchase (while supplies last) at extreme discounts with 100% of proceeds benefiting Dwell with Dignity’s mission to transform lives through design for those struggling with homelessness and poverty.
Thrift Studio LIVE will take place twice a year in the spring and fall. Thrift Studio, the nonprofit’s largest annual fundraiser and month-long pop-up store, will take place in late summer.
Organizers also announced this week that the event will serve as a platform to champion equality, diversity, and inclusion, in a showcase of “Designers of Color.” The budding talent, the organization said, will be curated by award-winning celebrity interior designer, author, and trendsetter Nikki Chu.
Chu has designed projects for Hollywood elites such as Gabrielle Union, Nick Cannon, Tyra Banks, Sasha and Malia Obama, and many more. She has collaborated with household brand names including Moet & Chandon, Home Depot, NFL, Pier One, Pepsi, Disney, and XBOX, to name a few. Nikki is a lifestyle and design expert for several television networks such as HGTV, E!, Oxygen, and OWN Network, and stars in her own makeover show called UNBOXED with Nikki Chu on the Aspire network. Her modern globalism brand “Nikki Chu Home” is firmly rooted in interiors, accessories, art, home decor, and accent furniture.
Chu has selected Zara Taitt as Thrift Studio LIVE’s premiere interior designer who will be creating a beautifully-furnished vignette to inspire and shop. Taitt, the senior interior designer and executive of operations at Jan Showers & Associates, has worked on a large scope of residential interior design projects throughout the United States and in Toronto and London, helping to earn the company’s recognition in the “Top 100 Designers and Architects” by Architectural Digest. In 2020, she was featured on Pholio Co.’s “Diversity in Design in Dallas” and Brentano’s “Framing the Future.” In 2021, she joined Dwell with Dignity as a board member.
“This initiative to help create and sustain a more equal and inclusive industry of interior designers is incredibly important to Dwell with Dignity,” said Ashley Sharp, the non-profit’s executive director. “To launch it with such talented designers as Nikki Chu and Zara Taitt is a dream.”
Dwell With Dignity is also partnering with Districtt, a subscription service that offers designer-curated, sustainable furnishing on a monthly basis, to provide a pre-Earth Day shopping event Wednesday, April 21, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Guests can shop Districtt furnishings at the West End pop-up shop while enjoying complimentary signature drinks by Ketel One Botanical, Baileys, Tanqueray Gin and tonic, and more, with 10% of proceeds benefiting Dwell with Dignity. The event is produced by Pairr.
Dwell with Dignity will host the spring edition of Thrift Studio LIVE, a hybrid experience of online and in person shopping and inspiring vignettes created by interior designer Zara Taitt, on April 19-30, 2021. Guests can shop virtually 24/7 at www.thriftstudio.com/live or in-person at the West Village pop-up shop located at 3700 McKinney Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204. Store hours are Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., and by appointment at info@dwellwithdignity.org. Masks are required, and social distancing is encouraged. For additional information, call 214-599-7974 or visit www.dwellwithdignity.org.
