Since its opening in September 2021, Jardin (Spanish for “garden” and pronounced “har-DEEN”) has been a Montrose boutique where local and independent artists are welcome to sell whatever they create. Located on the corner of Dunlavy and Westheimer, right next to the cafe Brasil (where they share a back patio), the store sells art, clothing, home decor, plants, etc. 

“It sort of morphed into more of a garden, so to speak, of creative people and thinkers,” owner and clothing designer Isabel Wilson said.

Inspired by the eclectic retail shops she saw while visiting Mexico City last spring, Wilson began corralling other local vendors for merchandise. She got clothing, furniture, and vinyl records from vintage distributors Heavy Rotation, as well as houseplants from Dirt Bag and Eden Plant Co. The shop has hosted holiday markets, trunk shows, music and tarot-card kickbacks, and even yoga classes. Jardin can also be used as an art gallery; monotypes from Austin artist Lauren Moya Ford are currently hanging there until mid-January. (Wilson is collaborating with Ford on a holiday collection, available Dec. 1.)

But shoppers can also find a room full of books from Basket Books & Art. After stopping by the shop a couple times, Laura Hughes, who co-owns the Montrose bookstore with significant other and painter Edwin Smalling, was quite interested in teaming up with Wilson. After all, both their businesses specialize in spotlighting local artistry, whether it’s in print or on display. (Basket has an upstairs space for art exhibits.) 

“Isabel and I first met and connected through the arts scene in Houston,” the Denver-born, Houston-raised Hughes said. “Since we at Basket are books and art, it really made sense to kind of collaborate and be like-minded.”

Since Jardin is near the former location of Domy Books, which closed a decade ago, Wilson thought the area needed another place where residents can pick up reading material. “I had heard from many people ‘Do you guys sell books? Where are the books? We want books!’” Wilson remembered. 

Since last May, Hughes has been rounding up books for Wilson to sell at Jardin. Hughes has been having fun serving as Jardin’s resident literary curator, following in the same broad, boho aesthetic Wilson and the other businesses have been following. Originally, the books were showcased in a back room. Eventually, the books have been available all around the shop, alongside the other wares Wilson sells.

Basket has a diverse selection of bestsellers, from French writer Annie Emaux’s personal nonfiction volumes Getting Lost and The Years to the art book Impractical Spaces: Houston, A History of Artist-run Spaces, Occupied Warehouses, Co-operatives, Pop-ups, & Other Ad-hoc Venuesby Orange Show curator Pete Gershon.“At Basket, we have a little bit of everything, from the specializations that we have in art and poetry and literature and theory and cultural studies,” Hughes said. “But, also, we have a very small cooking section. We have a nature and science section that’s growing. We have children’s books. We have a great music and performing arts section. So, we wanted to represent a little bit of each of these categories at Jardin. But it was really thinking about how we can support and dovetail the Heavy Rotation focus on music and the metaphorical and real Jardin garden. So, we had some books that we brought in specifically in relation to those ideas.”  

For Hughes, it’s been interesting seeing books that don’t sell well at Basket (named after a poodle that belonged to novelist Gertrude Stein and partner Alice B. Toklas) get snapped up over at Jardin. But she’s not complaining, especially when success at Jardin could also lead to success at Baskets. 

“People will come [from Jardin], like, the same day,” Hughes said. “They’ll get in their car and drive over to Basket, which is great.”

With moms and families often frequenting the area, Wilson says children’s books are big sellers. Since they’ve been offering more coffee-table books for the gift-giving season, Wilson sees customers browsing through those tomes a lot. 

“It seems as though these larger, luscious imagery books those people just immediately respond to and wanna pick up and look through and talk about it,” Wilson said. “There’s this one that’s been on the table for only one day and I think ten different people have gasped when they saw it, which is this beautiful, African textile book. People are just drawn to these really gorgeous, large books.”

As Hughes and Wilson prepare for more holiday collabs (next month, they’ll salute filmmaker Sofia Coppola with a screening of films at the back patio and copies of the recently-released, photo-filled retrospective Archive Sofia Coppola), Wilson is happy to keep supplying Montrose bibliophiles with that sweet, sweet literature, filling the void left by beloved bookstores that have vanished from the area. 

“Growing up in Montrose, I went to Half Price Books all the time with my mom, and Bookstop,” Wilson said. “And going to those bookstores was our Sunday routine. I think that is really built into the lifestyle of living and being in Montrose. So, when all of those bookstores closed, I do think there has been this sort of thirst to have that in-person experience.”

2608 Dunlavy

11 a.m.–7 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Sunday