For Alysa Teichman, founder of piercing studio and jewelry store Wildlike in the Shops of Highland Park, the path to opening a second location in New York City was set years ago.
Teichman attended graduate school at New York University and, later this year, plans to open a second Wildlike location in a favorite neighborhood of hers at 49 Bond Street in Lower Manhattan. The expansion comes two years after Teichman opened Wildlike in 2021. She also serves as vice president of business development for Ylang 23, the longtime Preston Center jewelry store founded by her parents, Charles and Joanne Teichman.
“I think that (New York City) just has an amazing energy, and I just really saw Wildlike there. Simultaneously, I’m looking to expand locally … and maybe in Austin, but New York just happened first,” Teichman said. “A lot of it has to do with the fact that I just think about myself and how much I really grew up in the city when I was there working.”
She said she’s especially excited to open the New York location on Bond Street.
“I just think that Bond Street just really is such a special block,” Teichman said. “It feels so old New York with its cobblestones and beautiful buildings and architecture, and I think because of where it sits, which is at the convergence of so many great downtown neighborhoods, it really can do what Wildlike is supposed to do, which is bring people together and create community.”
Teichman said the color scheme and curved walls will be similar in both locations, but there will be some new details at the New York store, designed by architectural firm MAOarch, including a hand-painted mixed media mural by artist Jeff Rogers of Dallas-based Trace Element, the creative firm that worked with Teichman to develop Wildlike’s brand identity.
“We’ll be leaning into the exposed brick as a nod to the neighborhood and New York itself,” she said. “It’ll have a hand-painted mural, too; it’ll just feel quite a bit different from the one here in Dallas.”
Teichman said as Wildlike expands to New York, she remains committed to Dallas.
“I’m so indebted to Dallas,” she said. “It’s an amazing place to be in business. I look at what my parents built over the last almost 40 years with Ylang 23 and what I’ve been able to build for the last two with Wildlike.”