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Stepping into The Gild’s temporary space at The Mall at Green Hills is like stepping into a super chic adult arts and crafts space.
There’s a make-your-own-jewelry bar on one end of the shop, filled with baubles and stones to create your own wearable masterpiece; there are racks of one-of-a-kind clothing, bedazzled to perfection by The Gild’s artists in residence; and there’s a large table where customers can come in and customize their own clothing and accessories under the watchful eye of the shop’s in-house creatives. And the artistic mind behind it all is Dara Ettinger, a former technical designer for the likes of Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, and jewelry designer of her own eponymous line, which sold to the well-dressed masses at Anthropologie. But after years of running her own business, Ettinger found herself burning out. She was spending too much time on the “business” and not enough doing what she loved—creating. In gearing up for her next chapter, she found inspiration in her current story.
“People would ask me all the time, ‘How do you make this?’ or say, “I’d love to come and intern for you and learn to make this,’ and I was like, ‘There’s something there.’ I started thinking, ‘How cool would it be if you went to a store to do a paint your own pottery style jewelry-making experience where you ended up with a really cool piece of jewelry?’”
Though she’d spent most of her professional life in New York and Los Angeles, she selected Nashville as the home for her new venture. She invested all of her own money (and some she borrowed) and The Gild was born. What began as a make-your-own-jewelry concept has grown into so much more. There’s retail, there’s custom design, there’s home decor, and there’s a piece that has brought Ettinger an extra dose of joy—artist incubation. The store proudly displays the works of numerous local artists, who bring in pieces or collaborate on designs with Ettinger and her clientele.
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“Meeting all these other artists, I love that it’s not just my hands on things in the store,” she says. “It’s a culmination of all my years of experience and getting to share that and getting to light other people up—it lights me up when they’re inspired.”
But The Gild isn’t just for artists, it’s for anyone (of any age) feeling creative. On any day of the week a customer can walk in (with no appointment) and bedazzle a piece of clothing from home or make a piece of jewelry at the jewelry bar. Don’t have something you want to customize? Buy it onsite. The Gild can also accommodate groups (with an appointment). And for parties of six or more, they’ll close the shop for two hours and let you have a full-on crafting party with your pals. There are also workshops, including jewelry making, with more courses in the works.
“The whole idea is to inspire and bring creativity alive whether it’s something you do with us or [purchase] from us,” says Ettinger.
Customers not only leave with a piece of custom art, they can walk out knowing they’ve helped their community at large. All of the clothing in the store is vintage or resale, which Ettinger hopes will deter the trend of “fast fashion” and its negative effect on the environment.
“Everything that we bring into the store is being repurposed for a better cause,” she says. “We support a lot of local thrift stores and shops that are giving back to the community, whether it be veterans’ associations, or getting women off the street, or people who are trying to make a difference with human trafficking.”
Ettinger is proud to give back to the town that has supported her labor of love.
“I couldn’t get that anywhere else,” she says.
Thanks to that support, The Gild has continued to grow, and will move to a new space in February. Ettinger promises it will accommodate even more artists and more experiences. But the shop’s philosophy will remain the same.
“We’re really letting art explode everywhere and it’s fun,” she says. “We’re not about perfection, we’re about having fun.”