By Emily Paine Smith
Most of us have experienced receiving a gift that was the perfect keepsake at exactly the right moment. Receiving such a gift makes us feel seen, loved, and valued. For Esther Miller, owner and creator of Gifted, the practice of gift-giving is sacred. “A perfectly-chosen gift is an expression of love,” Esther says. The idea of Gifted, her brick-and-mortar retail and gifting studio, came to her over years of visiting world class retailers internationally for her corporate job. The phrase “You’ve been gifted” is where the idea of opening a shop with a focus on thoughtful, intentional, and design-driven merchandise took shape.
Esther opened Gifted’s first location in the Foundry District of Fort Worth in July 2018. People traveled from across the Metroplex to experience the first retailer in Fort Worth to highlight products with a focus on sustainability, ethical production, and with an elevated sense of design.
Over the next three years, Esther added Luriel Black, Jazmin Ramirez, and Jeanette Ramirez to her core partnership, recasting some of her most loyal clients into her leadership team. Together as Co-founders, the team launched The Gifted Group in 2022 with the vision and dream of growing the business to be much larger than what it was when it began. Today, The Gifted Group continues to value people, the planet, and creating inspiring places as their core motivations, with an expanded vision of bringing these experiences to a larger customer base. The Gifted Group is opening five concepts this April as part of the new PS1200 mixed-use property developed by Philip Kafka of Prince Concepts.
The first of the five concepts is a reimagined and streamlined Gifted. The four additional spaces, Naabi House, Harmoni, Café Momento, and Point of View, were inspired by the diverse concepts of home, lifestyle, coffee, and art that were present within Gifted’s original incarnation, all with a focus on the same level of integrity that has been present from the beginning. “The Gifted Group values integrity in every facet of our business,” says Esther. “We seek integrity in every decision, from how we source our materials, packaging, and products, to how we treat our customers and employees. We value sustainability, intention, and purposeful design over clutter.” To keep in continuity with such values within their retail spaces, The Gifted Group team collaborated with local Fort Worth woodworker, David Brown of BWC, to bring the designs of their shop fixtures to life.
Naabi House is an elegant, shoppable vacation stay and adaptive event space located in a stunning two-story high rise loft designed by Architect, Marlon Blackwell. “Naabi 나비 (nah-bee)” means butterfly in Korean, which is Esther’s ethnic heritage. Filled with furniture and art by contemporary Korean artists and designers, Naabi House is a place where rest and creativity take flight. Conveniently located above its sister store Harmoni, Naabi House will host both creative workshops as well as immersive lodging experiences where guests can purchase products that have inspired them during their stay.
Harmoni, the sister shop to Naabi House, is a home and lifestyle shop filled with functional, beautiful, and often handmade treasures. Luriel says that at Harmoni, “objects have purpose and convey feeling, which in turn creates a harmonious space.” A reflection of the product offerings inside Naabi House and the inspiring PS1200 space, Harmoni stocks the best in independent design for the home and self. From lighting fixtures, sculptures, linens, ceramics, design services, and more, Harmoni is a treasure trove of inspiration, utility, and surprise for local and online shoppers alike.
Point of View is a two-in-one bookshop and gallery space featuring our first coffee bar concept called Café Momento. Café Momento is a slow espresso bar inspired by Jazmin’s Mexican-American roots. Every detail, from the espresso roaster to the café’s name, is a nod to the careful intention with which the café will operate. Jazmin says that Café Momento “will tell the stories of small-batch craft roasters who source their beans with the highest standards of sustainability, ethical production, and inspired values.” Point of View’s bookshop and gallery space will exist to cultivate community through art and creativity. Filling the shelves of Point of View with magazines and books from authors and creatives around the world has been especially rewarding. “When I travel,” Jeanette says, “I always buy a magazine that I use as inspiration in my design work. Bringing back that experience to my city is special.” Point of View and Café Momento will be a place to pause, if only for a moment, from the rush of life and just be.
“The goal of Gifted, Harmoni, Naabi House, Point of View, and Café Momento is to cultivate lasting relationships with the people who shop with us,” says Esther. “We exist to create a space where people feel welcomed, loved, and remembered. We consider ourselves extremely lucky to say that many of our customers have become great friends.”
The Gifted Group’s concepts will be open to the public at PS1200 on April 22, 2023 at 1200 6th Ave Fort Worth, Texas 76104 in Southside’s Magnolia Village.