the denver is in the details

at www.denver.org you are greeted with an insistence that denver is a "perfect blend of outdoor adventure and urban satisfaction", as is illustrated by a sprawling mountain meadow header and a charming snap shot of 16th street mall. there is also a clickable caption in cheerful green reading "denver is in the details". 

ignoring that this denver.org colloquialism makes no sense, what are these details in which you can find denver? according to the website, denver is "found" in a bunch of shockingly lame factoids such as:

"denver is one of the few cities in history that was not built on a road, railroad or lake, navigable river or body of water when it was founded. it just happened to be where the first few flakes of gold were found in 1858."

and as if to further illustrate the lack luster of a city with nothing to hold it in place but gold digger dreams comes this fact:

"one of the best sports towns in the country, denver is home to eight professional sports teams including the Broncos, Nuggets, Rockies and Avalanche. denver is the only city in the country to open three new stadiums in ten years."

shari caudron in her excellent article for the december 08 issue of 5280 appropriately titled "desperately seeking denver" was quoted as saying this about the city in which she's inhabited for 15 years:

"if i want to find places where denver asserts it's identity i should start with the things that make denver a leader. but i'm not sure what that is because the city doesn't sit on the cutting edge of anything--not art, not music, not politics. we possess few corporate headquarters, we're not a technology hub and by the time fashion trends work their way here from the coasts, the same clothes are found languishing on the clearance racks in new york and los angles." 

which brings us back to that chipper denver.org quote. if denver is in the details, what details are there (not counting sports stadium after sports stadium)? what can you find in denver if you don't just want a north face jacket, a husky named dakota and a season lift ticket? what about those of us denverites who want the queen city of the plains to have all that art, music, politics, technology and fashion we are so not on the cutting edge of? is it here to be found? 

will denver always be a highway attraction where you pick up flecks of fools gold and move on to bigger and better things?

k and i went out one saturday to explore what cool things might be going on in a city in which we constantly bemoan the lack of cool things. both of us being fashion nerds, we approached the project with a stylistic eye--namely, where are the people sans expensive outdoor apparel and where do they shop?

here's what we found:

the museum of contemporary art on 15th street, light, airy, luxurious black and white space filled with thoughtful curations and featuring high profile artists (like damien hirst)

MCA denver is also on it's way to becoming a LEED gold certified building which means it is clean and green to the max. high style and highly conscious of the good ol' enviro. 

the design of the building is stunning. this picture was taken up top by the rooftop cafe/bar (watch out for the $15 olive plate). it is very easy to forget you're in denver. it reminds me a lot of modern euopean architecture and was built by british architect david adjaye.

the first saturday of every month is "penny saturday" at MCA and they have events going on throughout the day to promote it. we had the fortune of catching the saturday where the denver chapter of hip hop congress preformed (www.hiphopcongress.com). MCA's basement became the sight of an awesome b-boy battle that made k and i both super sad we'd never undertaken break dancing.

off to the south broadway shops! now south broadway is the locale of many, many great shops and this blog will definitely be revisiting this gem of neighborhood. but this saturday we had time to go to three mutually adored shops that we knew would add panache to the high brow big city vibe of MCA.

decade, the charming boutique whose product spans the range from vintage furniture (they score some phenomenal pieces) to eberjey lingerie to free people sweaters and an actual cool maternity section, was our first stop. i cannot say enough good things about decade. with their beautiful merchandising and high attention to detail, it would be easy to lose a pay check to them. 

the coolness of decade is vast

just a great example of the color blocking in decade, something i (el) am a huge, huge dork about

next on the stop was fancy tiger (www.fancytiger.com), an all around great place with two locations, a clothing store on the east side of the street (with a really great selection of high quality letter press and paper craft) and a craft store on the south. run by husband and wife team matthew and jamie, the place could not be more sincere or unique. they love local designers and the locals love fancy tiger because of it. 

we only had time to stop in the boutique and snap a few quick shots because it was very busy in there. matthew was mending the loose buttons on a coat a customer was about to purchase (great customer service touch) and there were donuts and tea out for all to enjoy.

our last, but far from least, visit was boss unlimited vintage clothing. locally owned and operated for 25 years, the owners ron and cynthia could not be more willing to help you find what you need. and you may need help because their selection is so huge! 

k is the big vintage/thrift store shopper of us two and she was excited to show me their vintage fabric collection, which i had never seen (i usually get lost looking at the vintage shoes and hats). one of the owners, ron, came back to offer us refreshments and told us that off site they have a warehouse full of vintage fabric available for view by appointment only. here's k with a pattern she liked.

so, i guess as we come to the close of the post, the question is did we find "denver in the details"? and my reply to that is, no way, dude. it was only one saturday afternoon of looking, first of all. and we went to places we already knew were cool--which is kind of cheating--of which we visited 4. all the above mentioned places deserve tons of patronage but as cool as they are, they can't be held accountable for an entire city.

as this blog continues, we will continue to explore this concept (among others) in hopes of making our homes more than just a stopping point along the way.

cheers!