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76 " Everything I collect is significant," says Russell Brightwell, a former advertising executive who moved from Houston to Dallas in October, with a valuable and stylish trove amassed from a lifetime of shopping and traveling. "What I collect has to be handsome. It's got to be pretty. But I approach things from a scholarly point of view — I like the stories behind the stuff." Unexpectedly, these stories unfold in Brightwell's one-room Parry Avenue loft — a unique retail setting staged inside a private residence. The interior is impeccably arranged, with roughly 500 decorative objects, works of art, books, and furnishings available to peruse and purchase by appointment. The inventory ranges from a 1970s Pollo vase by Tapio Wirkkala for Rosenthal to a blanket designed by British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman for Louis Vuitton. And, of course, it is kept "photo- shoot ready at all times," he says. Brightwell's penchant for collecting began in the mid-1980s, when he was a student at Parsons School of Design in New York, pinching pennies to buy samples and seconds from Swid Powell — the manufacturer known for its design collaborations with noteworthy architects, including Zaha Hadid and Richard Meier. Today, Brightwell has several Swid Powell pieces on offer in his loft boutique, including large silver candlesticks designed by Meier and Robert A.M. Stern. His retail entrée was a long time coming, beginning 13 years ago when, after working in London and New York, Brightwell returned home to open an ad agency in Houston. After years of success, passion took precedence, and a career switch was on. But as he began putting together a retail concept last summer, Hurricane Harvey CONNOISSEUR FOR HIRE THE FAIR PARK LOFT OF RUSSELL BRIGHTWELL IS A DESIGN DEVOTEE'S FANTASY WITH ONE MAJOR PERK — EVERYTHING IS FOR SALE. PHOTOGRAPHY PÅR BENGTSSON. PRODUCED BY MICHELLE AVIÑA. FLOWERS LAUREN LIGHTFOOT FOR GRANGE HALL Top: Russell Brightwell's collections of vintage vessels by Wedgwood, Hornsea, Heinrich, Rosenthal, and Tapio Wirkkala, and art, architecture, design, and fashion books. Above: Marcel Wanders vase for Target, 2009. Richard Phillips' Der Bodensee painting from a 2001 edition by Exhibition A.