When you put Chelsea Green and BriAnne Gowen-Tresp side by side, you’d hardly imagine they’re sisters-in-law, let alone business partners.
Green is all corporate vibes, with a real estate career and the savvy to have owned and operated multiple businesses. Gowen-Tresp, on the other hand, exudes creativity. Her outfits show the care to detail she puts into her own clothes, which spreads into her collection at their store.
Earlier this year, the pair created Plano Shopping Co-Op, a downtown Plano store selling vintage clothing and books galore.
The concept for the store started after years of Green and Gowen-Tresp running their own businesses, selling books and vintage clothes online.
The book side started with a partnership with their other sister, Jessica. Green and Jessica’s book subscription service, called MyBookBox.
Later, Bibliobar, a traveling bookstore that eventually turned into a brick-and-mortar concept within Plano Shopping Co-Op, was born.
Bibliobar started a crowdfunding campaign in 2017 to open a location in North Dallas, with pop-ups at local breweries, festivals and coffee shops. When the pandemic hit, they took a hiatus from the bookstore, returning earlier this year to join together for Plano Shopping Co-Op.
“We fall into the same niche categories of people,” Green says. “People who like to read, like vintage and like a cool place.”
Downtown shoppers can get to the shop by heading to the second floor of A R Shell & Son Agency on the corner of East 15th Street and Alex Schell Place. From there, shelves of books line the walls, with cozy couches and vintage clothing racks. This is not a department store — shoppers are encouraged to stay a while.
“Our goal is to have a space that has a bar or a coffee shop. We want it to be cozy,” Green says. “We plan on having lots of events. We plan on making lots of friends and hopefully getting to know everybody down here a little bit better.”
Gowen-Tresp mends and embellishes vintage clothes, then sells them in the same space as the bookstore.
To Gowen-Tresp, clothes are an art. She cleans up each piece of clothing, fixes any damage or even takes some of the old clothes and creates something new. In her free time, Gowen-Tresp takes her artistic endeavors to illustrations, jewelry, embroidery or whatever other artistic outlet she fancies at the moment.
“The downtown area has a lot of events, so it’s good to piggyback off that,” Green says. “We’re a good place for people to come and hang out in the evenings.”
On the other side, the store hosts murder mystery nights, craft-and-sip workshops, True Crime Story Time, book clubs, book signings and meet-and-greets. The current lineup features storytime on Saturdays at noon and True Crime Story Time every fifth Thursday.
Though they have separate websites now, with Vintage Gnomey selling Gowen-Tresp’s finds and Bibliobar selling books and e-books, the two plan to merge in the future so Planoites can shop the store from home.
Plano Shopping Co-Op is open 2-9 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 12-9 p.m. Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. However, the pair notes, “all times are an ish,” and they often stay late, especially when there are events downtown.
“Basically, if the door is open or the open sign is on, come on in,” Green says.
Correction: This version has been updated from an earlier version that misidentified BriAnne Gowen-Tresp as BreAnne Gowen-Tresp, and included inaccurate information regarding the original location of MyBookBox.
