The Round Top Antiques Fair in Fayette County is a feast for vintage junkies who love a good story behind an antique or a garment. Shoppers travel from all over the world to Round Top, the smallest incorporated town in Texas, to sift through treasures. Vendors display their wares in barns, tents and small buildings stretched over 11 miles along Highway 237. The renowned city with a population of 87 residents swells to 100,000 for their bi-annual antique fair in October and March or April. But if you are a Hays County resident, you don’t have to wait that long or go that far, much less brave the crowds to find one-of a-kind statement pieces that set your style apart. It just so happens that two of Round Top’s favorite vendors have shops right here in the heart of Wimberley.
Junk Gypsy
Sisters Amie and Jolie Sikes, along with their mother, Janie, who founded Junk Gypsy, would have moved their headquarters to Wimberley if they hadn’t found their property in Round Top. “In Round Top, the world comes to us,” says Amie. And now they get to bring it to Wimberley.
“We love Wimberley,”says co-owner Amie Sikes. “It’s our second most favorite town in Texas next to Round Top.”
Whether it’s housewares or women’s apparel, Amie and her sister, Jolie Sikes, are wild for whimsy. Lately, that comes in the form of finding folk art twig frame beds and restoring a brass billiard chandelier. And it’s always been about their signature crowns, the bigger the better. Their style is so eclectic it’s hard to describe – a little1960s, rock and roll, circus flair, mixed with Asian antiques and always a bit of cowgirl influence. “We’ve been asked, ‘what is your style?’ for years,” Amie says. “In my house, I have mirrors that came off a carousel and papier mâché Chinese dragon head, among other flea market finds. Jolie has an 18-foot-long restaurant sign in her kitchen and a fan made out of a vintage windmill.”
“It’s an amalgamation of all these different eras and looks. But there’s a touch of western, or touch of Texas in everything.” Including their line of bed linens, quilted bags and apparel. In the past, they have used their signature with Pottery Barn Kids and PB Teens, QVC and their Junk Gypsy show on HGTV. Now they are making JG souvenirs for Texas’ famous Buc-ees travel centers, one of the trendiest places to shop these days. They just launched a bedding collection. It’s hard to say whether they are selling products or stories, but they are always reinventing themselves.
They came up with the name Junk Gypsy as a tongue-in-cheek way to describe the junk they were collecting, and it stuck. And even though she says, “we are not exactly following the trends as much as creating things we love,” she and her sister are clearly trendsetters.
“We work really hard with a lot of makers and women owned brands,” Amie says. “Our shop (just off the town square) is like the way Anthropologie was 10 years ago with half the items for your home, mixed with vintage, clothing and gifts.”
It’s been almost 30 years since Amie talked Jolie into joining her and her mother in sifting through other people’s trash for treasures. The sisters started bringing their finds to Canton, Texas, the largest continually operated flea market in the US, in 1998.
“We were having so much fun, it changed our lives and it seemed a little like it was changing other people’s lives,” Amie says.
As their New York Times bestselling book (titled Junk Gypsy: At the Crossroads of Wonder and Wander) will tell you,” growing up in a self-employed family (they owned 3 pizza shops), you learn you have to work early on,” says Amie. “That was our business school.”
When they are not in school, Amie’s high school daughter and Jolie’s college son are getting the same treatment.
Arloom
The Arloom collection, another family venture, features vintage Guatemalan textiles worn by Mayan women but sewn by seamstresses all over the Hill Country into modern styles.
Known for their huipil (pronounced wee peel) tops, a colorful blousy pullover that can be dressed up or dressed down, Arloom has weekly drops on their website and in The Quarter Shops on Ranch Road. Laid flat, the head opening of a huipil represents the sun, surrounded by designs inspired by the natural world, effectively placing the wearer at the center of the universe.
“It truly is a special piece,” says founder Robin Hewes, who started the vintage clothing business with her husband in 2012 after being awed by the colorful, woven textiles on a trip to Guatemala. “It is a tradition that you are helping keep alive. There’s so much history, and each design is from a different region of the country. It is meaningful, and it tells a story.”
The Hewes family story, like the Sikes, was inspired by their parents. Alex’s dad was a buyer for Pier 1 Imports in its heyday of the late 80s and 90s, so they picked his brain, asking him questions about the import business. On their next trip, they cultivated a family in Guatemala that includes Daniel Salguero, the driver and translator they hired when they went back to Atitlan to source textiles. He is still with the company, helping them source textiles and manage vendors.
A close second to the fun of traveling, a lifestyle that the Hewes just recently shared with their children when they took their three young boys, ages 3 to 11, to meet Daniel, is going to Round Top to style customers.
While they have dabbled in styling homes, making Mayan corte wrap skirts into floor pillows, Arloom is mostly about styling women. “We do a bolero too that’s super popular and easy to style. You can throw it over a tank top with shorts or wear it over a dress.”
They also work hard to honor the textiles that get worn out by using swathes as scarves or belts attached to leather.
“It’s fun to dress people up and see the different ways people approach their style,” Robin says. “You really see their personality and what they are drawn to. People who are drawn to color and unique things often have a really fun style.”
“In Round Top, the world comes to us.”