Denise Manoy’s grandmother would dress to the nines on Saturdays and Sundays. Manoy, the owner of Indigo 1745, recalls stories about her grandmother. For most people back in the forties and fifties, the weekend was for going into the downtown areas of most cities to take care of any shopping and business for the week, and of course, Sundays were for church.
“You would have to go to town on Saturday, and she [Manoy’s grandmother] loved dressing up. She would pull out her hats, finest dresses, coats, and best shoes. She saved those days to dress up; it was a big deal,” says Denise Manoy.
The excitement of Denise Manoy telling the story of her earliest fashion memory is the inspiration behind her Bishop Arts clothing boutique, Indigo 1745. Manoy and her husband were one of the first retailers to open in the Dallas neighborhood in 2006. The couple got in on the ground level of what would become one of the most popular areas in the city.
“We used to come down here to visit a friend’s art gallery, and we just liked the neighborhood. It had a good feeling and a sense of community, and we could see the possibilities of what Bishop Arts could be. It [was something] not everybody knew about it,” says Denise Manoy.
The Manoys decided that selling denim would be the best way to go. Since the early days of fashion, denim has been a staple and constantly reinvents itself. Every type of clothing has a denim version and is worn by young and old.
“We knew that we could easily switch to other things, and we wanted to present something that showed people’s actual lifestyles,” says Manoy. “A guy could be wearing denim, and if the girl on his arm had on a dress, they could still have a cohesive look.”
They decided on the name Indigo 1745, which has its own history. According to How Stuff Works, indigo originally came from the Indigofera plant, primarily found in India and South America. Creating a dye from Indigofera was a time-consuming and expensive process. In the 1600s, indigo was the first cash crop brought to the New World by the British to be grown in South Carolina. In the 1730s, sixteen-year-old Eliza Pinkney managed her father’s three South Carolina plantations. Her father, a lieutenant governor of Antigua, sent Eliza indigo seeds to start the crop. In 1745, there were enough seeds for other plantations throughout the Southern colonies to grow Indigofera.
Just as carefully as indigo was selected during its cultivation, the Manoys “carefully curated” the clothing, shoes, and fragrances found in Indigo 1745. Although some customers get frustrated by only finding one size of a dress or a shirt, Manoy insists it makes Indigo 1745 special.
“We realize that Dallas has so many places to shop, so we’re always trying to search for something that is just a little bit different,” says Manoy. “Our customers want something special, and they want something that is going to stand out and be elegant. [If] you go to an event and because there are fifteen thousand of the same thing on the rack, two or three people have it on, you don’t want that. Men are the same way. The shirts we buy, I feel them for texture. I’m very tactile, so I’m always feeling things for softness. I know a man wants to wear something that feels good on them, number one. But two, the woman that they have in their life, or man, if they touch them [it’s important] the shirt feels good,” explains Denise Manoy.
For Denise, comfort is just as important as the look of an item of clothing. Indigo 1745 stocks several versatile pieces made to be worn day to night, which Manoy says is essential coming out of the coziness of fashion during COVID-19.
“As we’re coming out of these past two years [of COVID-19], we kind of need something where a dress can work with my heels if I’m going out to dinner with my husband, or I can also wear it with flip flops with the kids. We tried to have it so [you can find clothes that] fit into your lifestyle effortlessly,” says Manoy.
As for Denise Manoy’s style, she loves Japanese culture from living in Okinawa, Japan, especially Harajuku clothing, and everything from Chanel to Doc Martens boots. Manoy admits that she spends a good portion of her time watching the news and keeping her eye on what is hot in the fashion world while predicting what is coming next. The constant buying for the store and work that she and her husband put into Indigo 1745 is a lesson she wished she would have known at the beginning of her entrepreneur journey.
Manoy says people told her, “once you make it to the five-year mark, it is going to be an easy street.” She continues by saying, “But it’s still very challenging. Being an entrepreneur, running a business is very difficult. There are days when you are like ‘whoo-hoo,’ and there are days when you are like, ‘ugh.’ There are ups and downs. The one thing that I’ve learned from COVID-19, which I think was a good lesson, is how to turn on a dime. You can’t get too settled into an idea of doing something all the time a certain way. You always have to be ready to make that next move.”
As for Indigo 1745’s next move, the store celebrates its sixteenth year, and Denise Manoy debates whether a second location will open. “With everything that’s going on in the world,” says Manoy. “We’re trying to figure it all out. We definitely thought about it.”
