WOMEN OF COMPASS REAL ESTATE

MARLA SEWELL & MEG BEAIRD

Marla Sewall and Meg Beaird are a highly experienced Dallas real estate partnership known for their unwavering commitment to building relationships and delivering exceptional customer service. With over 20 years of combined experience, Marla and Meg bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table. Driven by a genuine passion for helping their clients achieve their real estate goals, Marla and Meg prioritize building strong, long lasting relationships. Understanding that buying or selling a home is a significant life event, they go above and beyond to provide personalized guidance and support every step of the way. “We know how trying real estate transactions can be and it is our mission to mitigate that stress for our clients.”

Their dedication to customer service also extends well beyond the transaction . Says the pair, “whether it’s offering advice, recommending trusted professionals, or simply staying in touch, we are committed to our clients for the long haul!”

The Sewall Beaird Group has your back. Call them today: Marla Sewall, 214-415-3466, marla.sewall@compass.com. Meg Beaird, 214-236-5008, meg.beaird@compass.com.

Deborah Brown has collected about 125 uniforms from nearly two dozen airlines in a matter of years.

The clothes, many of them made for flight attendants, are stored in garment bags, boxes and racks in closets and rooms in her Lake Highlands home, where she has lived with her husband for more than 30 years.

Brown says her husband doesn’t mind that her collection takes up so much real estate.

“My husband is so nice,” she says. “He just said, ‘Don’t buy any more china.’”

Brown began collecting about five years ago, when she attended a Braniff conference at the old Braniff International Airways headquarters at DFW Airport. Her interest in airlines comes from her background as an account executive at AT&T for 20 years, where American, Southwest, Continental and TWA were in her territory.

At the event, people kept asking to take photos with Brown and her friend, who were wearing paisley, thinking they were modeling retro Braniff uniforms.

“It was so much fun, so that’s when I went to eBay and started looking,” says Brown, who grew up in Casa View.

Her first purchase was two Braniff uniforms designed by Emilio Pucci. A Halston-designed uniform of the same airline followed.

Since then, her collection has expanded to include designs by Oleg Cassini, Edith Head and Ralph Lauren, among others. She has hats, coats, shoes and even luggage from existing and bygone airlines including Braniff, Southwest, Continental, Delta, TWA, Trans-Texas Airways, Russian-based S7 Airlines and Wardair Canada.

The uniforms typically remain safe in storage, but they’re taken out when Brown wants to wear them — perhaps at a fashion show or some other event. Eventually, she wants to sell the collection and donate the proceeds to organizations that help animals.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHICH PIECES TO BUY?

It really starts out with affordability. I’ll always buy something if I can get it for $200, and then if it starts being a little bit more, I have to really think about it. At first, I just wanted the more current ones. And then when this one woman selling her collection had that early American Airlines, well, then, it made me want to get those, too.

YOU HAVE AN EXISTING INTEREST IN VINTAGE. WHY DID YOU WANT TO GO FOR THE MORE MODERN PIECES?

That’s what was available. The older they are, the more rare they are.

Which Ones Are Your

FAVORITE?

Of course, the Braniff. But the Trans-Texas, I just love that one so much. And when I looked them up on Google search, they had ads that are very provocative. (One pictures a woman wearing a bandana tied around her neck, barely covering her chest, along with frilly bikini bottoms and sheer stockings.)

WHAT PIECES ARE YOU MISSING?

Still a few from Pan Am. And I’d still like some more from TWA. I met someone, of course. I bought some things from her. She’s in Britain, and she has all of TWA, and why she’d be interested in that, I don’t know. TWA was just headquartered in Kansas City, you know, mid-America. And they had paper dresses. She says, I have all four of the paper dresses. She says it took her 15 years to collect all of that, and she’s got everything. So anyway, I bought things that she had duplicates of that she was selling.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO VINTAGE?

I think I’ve always liked to shop. I found a ’50s prom dress that I wore at costume parties and all, and I loved it. I wore it so much it got stained, you know, dropping things on it. But I loved it so much. I like to go to vintage clothing now. There’s more shops available.

IT SEEMS LIKE YOU’VE LEARNED A LOT ABOUT HISTORY, TOO, BY PURCHASING AND COLLECTING YOUR UNIFORMS.

It’s really neat to learn about the history because these clothes were so wellmade, and that’s why so many have endured. My favorite decade, really, is the ’50s, with the full skirts and petticoats.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LOOK FOR NEW UNIFORMS?

If my husband reads this, oh my god, he is going to learn so much. I wake up in the morning. At least 12 times a day, I’m looking. Just because things may be listed, so you don’t want to just look once a day. It may be listed before I go to bed. If I wake up at 2 o’clock in the morning, I gotta go look.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.