8/25/2023 0 Comments Waco highland baptist churchLike so many small cities across America, Waco had lost its downtown core and the economic vibrancy that once accompanied it. It’s a joke, but as someone commented on an Instagram photo of the candles, “it’s got such a tragic truth to it the joke doesn’t land.” Because the Gaineses have indeed become the patron saints of Waco: “the unwitting symbol of the redemption of a storied Texas city” that had endured “mostly negative national attention,” as Taffy Brodesser-Akner put it in a 2016 Texas Monthly story. Over in the corner, there’s a different sort of dry good: Chip and Jo prayer candles, their illustrated faces surrounded by a beatific glow. Just blocks from the Silos, Brazos River Dry Goods caters squarely to the Chip component of the Magnolia demographic: There are high-end coolers, elaborate BBQ gear, whiskey paraphernalia, and lots of National Park–branded quick-dry fishing shirts. Which is part of why so many of the stores near the Silos have embraced the look, if not outright duplicated it. Its sensory affect is clean and light and open. It’s full without feeling cluttered, expansive without feeling like a McMansion. I didn’t start watching Fixer Upper until last year, which was also when I looked around my house and realized the Magnolia aesthetic is.my aesthetic? It’s tasteful yet rustic. Joanna was not the first to embrace this style - as one Waco antique shop owner told me, “Sometimes I just wanna tell Jojo, ‘I liked shiplap for decades’” - yet she made it nationally visible and attainable, cementing its place in the contemporary design vernacular. The Magnolia aesthetic is the prism through which Joanna reenvisions spaces in need of “fixing.” It’s often referred to as “modern farmhouse,” but it’s easier to recognize by its calling cards: shiplap painted white, exposed brick and beams, open-concept floor plans, kitchen islands, distressed and/or recovered wood, and signs announcing the purpose of each room (Laundry!). All of these are potential fodder and sets for the Gaineses’ newly announced television network, which promises hours of Magnolia branded content: on relationships, parenting, cooking, and, of course, fixing up. In the past two months, the company purchased a CrossFit gym (which the Gaineses plan to turn into a coffee shop), a museum set in a historical home, and a 6,700-square-foot stone castle, adding to recent purchases of the 53,000-square-foot Karem Shrine Building and the Second Presbyterian Church. With its diner, auxiliary bargain shop, sprawling real estate business, and video production operation, Magnolia employs more than 750 people in Waco. Out back, a turf lawn is buttressed by food trucks selling “gourmet grilled cheese,” “trashcan rice bowls,” and blended watermelon juice served in a “personal-sized watermelon,” described on the Magnolia website as “one of the most ‘Instagrammable’ items at the Silos.”īut the Silos are only the beginning. There’s a mini boutique in the Magnolia market selling an assortment of jewelry lines worn by Joanna onscreen, and “Chip’s Corner,” with hammers engraved with #DEMODAY - a reference to the mid-episode interlude of Fixer Upper when Chip releases some masculine energy by tearing down walls. In the five years Fixer Upper aired, the Gaineses transitioned from running a modest local house-flipping business to overseeing a media, real estate and retail empire as nationally beloved celebrities in Waco today, their influence is almost inescapable. The real draw is 20,000 square feet of retail space, where you can buy Magnolia wreaths, Magnolia T-shirts (#SHIPLAP, Texas Forever), Magnolia Quarterly magazine ( total audience: 5.6 million) and Chip and Jo’s five books, including Joanna’s cookbook, Magnolia Table, which quietly became one of the best-selling books of 2018. Three and a half years ago, those silos were transformed by Chip and Joanna Gaines - the stars of the HGTV show Fixer Upper (2013–2018) and the couple behind the thriving Magnolia brand - into Waco’s new center of gravity. “Close to the Silos” has become the most prominent characteristic in descriptions of Waco shops, real estate listings, hotels, and Airbnbs: “Within walking distance” means access to the spending dollars of the 50,000 (!) tourists who come to town every week. There are boutiques with cute linen rompers, well-lit coffee shops, and new shops with felt pennants stenciled with “Let Go and Let God” and hand towels screen-printed with “Alexa, please feed the kids.” And they’re almost all in the orbit of “the Silos” - two rust-stained containers, once filled with cotton seed, that serve as a shabby-chic navigation point from downtown Waco. There are dozens of new stores in Waco, Texas, that sell the ingredients for a successful Instagram post.
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