My palace in Dallas - Simonett Pereira

“Solitude requires you to move past reacting to information created by other people and focus instead on your own thoughts and experiences – wherever you happened to be”

— Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism

Hello folks, summer is always super hot in Dallas, I hope y’all are staying hydrated and indoors whenever you can like I am. Summer is always a special season for me, my job, green card, first apartment, graduation, and most recently, this little project that wouldn’t have come this far without you reading it is now being featured in D magazine! As I reached my 3 years mark with this beautiful baby blog, I’m super excited to keep doing this and watch it grow.

I started My Palace in Dallas during the height of the pandemic, and it was born from pure curiosity: I want to know, I want to see, and, most importantly, I want to document what the people around me have become after these unprecedented years. They can be artists or comedians, or they can also be the people you meet on the street—which is quite hard cause supposedly people in Dallas don’t walk at all. So, what is it that they do? This project delves into their stories and, as the name suggests, explores their Palace in Dallas.

Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Simonett Pereira. To say obsessed would be putting it lightly, as a new transplant in the city, we connected over our love for well-designed objects as she had her first pop-up in her loft apartment Casa Simonett. With her unique taste and intentional curation across brands, her home reflects the same value and has me mesmerized ever since. Fast forward to a year later, we sat in her spacious living room with her newborn baby, basking in the afternoon sunlight, and talked about her journey, what she values in home and in brands, and what inspires her in her multiple new identities.

Hello Simonett! Thank you for sitting down with me today! Before I bomb you with questions, for anyone who might not have the chance to know who you are, would you like to tell me a bit about yourself? Who are you and what is it that you do?

I am Simonett Pereira, the designer and creative director behind my namesake brand. Simonett is a ready-to-wear fashion brand and curated multi-brand concept store featuring independent designers from around the world with a focus on artistic ingenuity, sustainable practices, and limited distribution. I like to bring in designers you can’t find anywhere else with a unique point of view.

Simonett has become such a wonderful force of nature hosting so many unique pieces. From designer to now creative director of the brand and its universe, could you tell me what the journey was like for you? How did you get to where you are now?

People often ask me why I started Simonett and the idea was first born as I couldn’t find interesting pieces of quality that I wanted to wear within a price point I could afford as a 22-year-old art school dropout. There wasn’t an independent brand doing this in the US market so I saw an opening. I was dabbling in blogging at the time with a photo journal of thrift finds called The Goodwill Project in 2010, which was a bit ahead of its time. Shortly after I was approached by Poshmark to become an ambassador for their resale app and my account was one of the first to go viral. I began with selling my vintage inventory but it was all sold within a matter of weeks so I decided to start purchasing wholesale and style the pieces for sale on my account. My mom has always been a motivating force in my life with a natural propensity for business and incredible vision. She ran her own technology company and had been quietly observing my entrepreneurial endeavors to that point so when I shared my idea for the brand, she instantly came on board as my partner, providing the initial startup investment and all the experience I didn’t have. This was at the initial rise of social media so I think timing played a key role in our eventual success.

In 2012, my mom and I had our first sourcing trip in Asia. We met with factories and sampled our first pieces. I look back at those days now and laugh at how informal it all was. I showed up to these factory offices with VERY ROUGH sketches of what I wanted to bring to life but I am so grateful for how resourceful and happy to help their teams were. These teams were very much my teachers and where I learned everything I needed to know in the arena of product development and production.

I grew up in Miami and there wasn’t a concept store in the contemporary price point with the range of products we had focused on so we decided to launch our first collection in a direct-to-consumer model with a physical store. Luckily we were able to secure a lease in a neighborhood that was up-and-coming (another right place at the right time factor in our journey) so the rent was very affordable. The local response was amazing so we knew there was something there. Once we launched the website we were able to generate some international buzz for the brand which opened up a new sales channel for us as what we had built was truly unique.

We felt that to scale the brand we needed to do wholesale so a couple of years in we did our first tradeshow in NYC. The brand was picked up by several multi-brand retailers such as Shopbop and Bloomingdales and this is when the business really began to take off. Over the next four years, we were getting huge orders and producing in much larger quantities and our model had shifted to accommodate the wholesale calendar entirely. The increasingly fast pace brought along some major challenges as we have always been a small, independently funded business. By the end of 2019, having produced 15 collections I can say I reached burnout. We were getting ready to deliver our Spring/Summer 20 collection when Covid hit and all our orders were canceled. What seemed like the end of our business given that we had a huge amount of stock that our DTC channels were not capacitated to handle at the time ended up being the biggest blessing in disguise.

One of my odd flexes is that I always find myself out of a pickle and often make it work out even more so in my favor and this situation was no exception. The volume we had to move on our own with our store shut down and the world at a standstill meant we had to get really creative if we didn’t want to file for bankruptcy. I came up with a digital marketing strategy that turned one of the styles we produced into a highly versatile piece of clothing that incentivized our community to come up with dozens of different ways to wear it and it became our first viral item. Not only did we sell all the quantity we had produced in record time but we recut the style for several years moving forward and adapted our business to focus on best sellers cutting down about 80% of new development. I got a huge break during these years and was able to focus on developing our progressive multi-brand concept store which I have an immense passion for. I am definitely more of a creative director than a designer as I love to build worlds rather than specific products and I’ve had the most fun in this stage of my journey with Simonett.

Within your design and the multi-brand that you carry, is there a common element or concept that you always look for before having them in your Simonett world?

The main thing I look for is a unique point of view. Fashion is obviously a very saturated industry so we look for authenticity and to be excited.

One of the best examples of this is Tigra Tigra, my favorite independent brand we carry. The brand is run by my friend Bailey; she’s based in LA and works with artisans from all over the world to create some of the most special pieces. She’s truly a quiet genius in her design and direction alike. The brand has a strong focus on craftsmanship and textiles, this set I’m wearing is cut from silk mashru (or mashroo), a material that can be traced back to the 16th century, a blend of cotton base and single-stranded silken warp and woof. This technique was developed so Muslims could wear silk while avoiding direct contact with skin.

I like that a historic practice was woven into a modern design. We carried Tigra before it was really wholesaled anywhere else and have done exclusive colorways in certain styles. This is an important element we look at when curating the world of Simonett. Some of the brands we carry are graduate collections and others had no real visibility in the US market prior to joining our store.

On the brand side, the selection we carry informs our design. Nowadays we focus on producing pieces that complement our buy and being that most of the designers we bring on creative truly unique and one-of-kind statement pieces, our brand focuses on the in-between. On the perfect basics to style with them focused on fabric and silhouette.

Clothing and homeware are often intertwined but hold such different values, now Simonett also carries so many fun household items, what do you look for as someone who also lives in such a beautifully curated home?

For homeware, I look for a combination of timelessness, thought provocation, and pieces that bring joy. I have some fun and quirky Gohar World pieces at home like a wine glass with an eye printed at the bottom to look into every time you take a sip and then I have a really stunning Estudio Vernis hand-fired vessel made following ancestral pinching techniques that is awe-inspiring with or without my weekly market flowers in it. It’s about beauty, function, and feeling totally comfortable and yourself in your space.

As I’ve gotten older, I noticed my spending shifting to the home. This definitely informed the incorporation of homeware into the Simonett store and the same ethos from which we founded our fashion category applies here.

Like how you’d be curious about their letterbox account when you meet a film lover or would love to take a peek at someone’s mood board, can you tell me what consists of your media diet and where you usually get your inspiration from?

As cliche as it sounds I’ve been enjoying being in the present moment a lot. My baby has forced me to get off my phone a good bit and I’ve found so much inspiration through our everyday interactions, and our surroundings. It’s crazy what you find when you’re simply paying attention. For media I really enjoy collecting design books, I recently picked up a book called Jewelry by Architects from the collection of Cleto Murani that blew me away.

It’s been four years since the pandemic hit and for some reason, we all came out alright, if not stronger. What did you do to stay centered and sane? Have any of those new habits carried over now that things are back to normal?

I moved to New York around February 2020 and as you know, it got real bad real fast there when COVID-19 hit. Luckily I had a pretty nice and spacious apartment but Bushwick was not it for me.

A fun memory I sometimes look back to was when my partner and I rented a house for super cheap in Pioneer Town at the beginning of the pandemic. This was right when we found out our orders were being canceled which felt like the end of the world. I think being in complete isolation in a place that looked like designer Mars really helped put things into perspective.

Living between Miami and Dallas, constantly sourcing pieces from all over the world, I’m sure you have your fair share of traveling experience and exposure to different scenes across the states and even countries. From an industry perspective, what do you think sets Dallas apart from all the other well-known big cities or any other city you’ve been to?

We were both talking about it, I enjoy seeing people carving out their niche here. I think the affordable living conditions compared to other big cities and undersaturation give people the space and motivation to go for it. I’m pretty new here so I might not be the best person to answer this, but I think Dallas is a really great place to start a business as the community seems really supportive, at least that has been my experience thus far. We did a pop-up at Le Sol house that did really great and I love what the team there is building. I’m also really impressed by the people at Cafe Momento and how they carved out a space of their own and worked so hard to share their taste with the world there.

With your non-linear heritage and freshly making a name for yourself in this world, you must’ve spent quite some time finding your creative identity here, what do YOU think of this city?

I think the weather is really extreme here. Even as a Miami girl, I have never experienced heat like this.

Outside of the weather, the people are super friendly. Like, friendlier than I’ve ever experienced anywhere else. I love the art deco sprinkled around the city and the incredible public art. The Richard Serra sculptures are my favorite. I do miss being in the center of the cultural universe but going back to what we talked about before, it does feel like a nice and necessary breather to remove yourself.

If there's one thing Dallas taught me, it’s prioritizing quality of life. This city allows you to be in creator mode and not caught up in a constant rat race, which in itself is enriching and inspiring.

As I look around I can see a lot of your taste in a tangible form! Now the hard part is, what would you say is your most prized possession?

Thank you! I don’t think I can pick one so here are 3. This apartment had a great skeleton: 15ft concrete ceilings, historic hardwood floors, a massive window, and a bathroom the size of some NYC studios I’ve seen. With such great architectural elements as the backdrop, I felt like it was only right to go all-out with the styling so I opted for sourcing vintage or commissioned furniture. Every day when the sunset light flows into the room, I look at the entire space and wonder “How do I live here?”. I feel calm and at peace whenever I’m home, and that's all you could ever ask for. I work in fashion and it’s always hectic, ever-changing, and constantly involves traveling so getting to come home to this is something I cherish.

I commissioned a guy in Austin to make this massive dining table with 3 cylinder legs. I never had a dining area big enough to fit an 8-seater, and even though I moved here barely knowing 3 people, I decided it was the time to do it in this space. It’s inspired me to throw dinner parties and I love it for bringing on my hostess era.

This Muller Van Severen wire cabinet will be a family heirloom that I take with me for years to come.

I also love the aluminum lamps I got from a designer in San Miguel de Allende, and this paper lamp from Ingo Maurer which is obviously iconic.

And we are almost at the bottom of my list of Qs for today, for those who are interested in getting into this business or starting something of their own. What suggestions or advice you would like to give them or wish you had known sooner?

Listening to your voice is important, we often charge forward or jump into starting something without taking a step back to analyze what we have to offer that is unique to us.

Yes, you’ve heard this a million times but consistency and determination are non-negotiables. Once you have the what and the how now all you need is an excellent accountant. Don’t ever budge on that one.

If there is anything I wish I’d known sooner would be “Don’t try to do everything. Figure out what you’re really good at or what is working for you and focus on that. It’s so much easier to rise to the top in one niche than to do ok at a million different things. That doesn’t mean you can’t explore and evolve, but focus is key.”

To wrap this interview up, also because I am curious personally, what’s on the horizon for you? Are any “Big things coming” in the works for you? What would you like the world (whichever random soul stumbled upon this article) to know about?

We are coming back with a new Simonett collection in Spring 2025! It will be launching online and Shopbop will be carrying it as well as our own site. I’m excited for you guys to see it!