Women’s Clothing boutiques, once a mainstay in small town America, have been vanishing for decades. Their ghosts gradually transmogrified into the ghastly lit isles and screens of Walmart ad Amazon ad absurdum. Yet in Bisbee, Arizona there are fantastically growing choices, with the long time premier being the PanTerra Gallery Of Fashion & Photography.
Diminishing cultural returns is not Bisbee, with its numerous clothing designers and artist-clothing-up-cyclers living and vending here, not to mention a mad incubation of other kinds of artists, from filmmakers to contemporary painters to a music scene that is crushing it. For 20 years the impeccable taste and experience of Maralyce Ferree’s PanTerra Gallery stands out as the anchor of this movement. A hundred years ago it was The Fair building up the street, now the Restoration Museum with displays of the early women’s styles, (in its early years secretly shopped by Bisbee’s ladies of the night.) PanTerra Gallery grounds old Bisbee’s Main Street with the confidence and feeling of a stable and intelligently measured world of design. It’s a professionally staffed and stocked boutique where each stylist is trained in every aspect of the operations, comfort of guests, and even as an impromptu visitor’s center for travellers to help find their way. (An actual visitors center may soon join the Restoration Museum up the street.) There are other old Bisbee clothing and design galleries offering original wearfare of their own, making old Bisbee a destination shopping center for unique clothing, apparel, and art.
For over 21 years Maralyce designed and manufactured women’s outerwear at Maralyce Ferree Contemporary Clothing Designs, of Maine. In the early 2000’s Maralyce and her late partner, fellow designer and photographer Chuck Feil, went on a quest to find a new home with a more suitable winter. After meandering around Southern Arizona they drove through the tunnel into Bisbee’s magical vortex, stayed the night, bought a house the next day, and immediately made their way back to Maine to sell their business and move to Bisbee.
Chuck Feil developed photography lectures and workshops in Bisbee, as well as both nationally and internationally. Later he became known for his welded clock sculptures which sold out at PanTerra as quickly as he could make them. His son Dylan Charles moved to Bisbee in 2007 where he became a loved musician in the high chops Bisbee music scene, also regionally, and as a teacher. His popularity still lives here after moving to NYC. There are still photographs displayed at PanTerra, but the focus of the gallery now is a place for women to find clothing from designers from around the world, and even locally. PanTerra and Bisbee customers aren’t looking for “cookie cutter” clothing, they appreciate a selection of colorfully unique wearable art that allows them to express their real selves. Department store trade buyers just won’t have the experience and insight that Maralyce has to find you something that fits a part of you that otherwise might remain unknown. That’s the Bisbee way after you’ve passed through the Mule Mountain Tunnel.
If you are a textile or jewelry artist focused on unique and colorfully eclectic “art wear” or accessories that strive to fit every woman, maybe you also will find a home here. Maralyce is always looking for Bisbee and Arizona artists, jewelers, accessory and clothing designers as well as national and international designers to fill the seldom realized niche’ of design attractive to her clientele. She travels to trade shows scouting for unique designers, and can often be found visiting Bisbee’s many art and cultural events. Some of her local and regional designers include Sierra Vista jewelry and clothing designer Lori Kovash; Camp Verde jeweler Susan Reed; Jerome jeweler Sally Murphy; Tucson jeweler Katie Noboa of Canoa Naturals; Palominas ceramicist Allen Potter and Tucson fabric bird designer Leonor Pisano. PanTerra’s customers are always asking for items made locally, so Maralyce is always looking. PanTerra can advertise pop-up shows for Bisbee clothing designers, and also carry their work in the store and on the website should it align with PanTerra’s vision.
PanTerra’s customers enjoy in person shopping, both seeing the style in person, feeling the fabric, and trying on the clothing. PanTerra does have a very thorough website with a free return policy, for when in-person shopping isn’t possible. This includes an exclusive Made In The USA collection.
In the past year the newly imposed tariffs have had an impact on what PanTerra is able to carry. This has effected all of Bisbee’s retailers, but they are working hard to absorb the extra costs, passing it along with the least impact on the customer. Local retail’s material suppliers and designers are in constant worry that a higher tariff will be imposed while their shipment is mid-delivery. (This happened to some art supplies I recently ordered from the UK. See author notes at bottom.) This kind of uncertainty is making it hard for a small art town like Bisbee, yet people shop here with trust and resilience for an adventure in music and mountain stairways that will be worth it. People go home more beautiful. And that is apparently why PanTerra’s out of town customers almost always mention they will definitely be back.
An example of special sales, this event the weekend of this article’s release.
Ken Boe is a Bisbee artist and writer. Support his work at patreon.com/kenboe including his Poem At Night series, his new blogs and videos, and his newly resumed Bisbee Poetry Normalization Project. #BPNP infamously normalizes in small surprises in sudden places a presence of poetry all over Bisbee, and now in other towns like Northwood Iowa where Ken Boe has a residency at Art Farm Iowa. Find a poem on an old telephone pole or a shop window or a bulletin board, just like you might find posters announcing Bisbee’s local music and art shows. You may see where to get his artwork locally, or other projects at kenboe.com.