31. Soho 119
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (913) 338-5800
Address: 4419 W. 119th St. (Leawood)
Description: The phrase “one stop shopping” may have been coined at this store in the upscale One Nineteen shopping mecca. The fashion will lift your spirits with the season’s most exciting garments. The spa can lift other parts of you with a cabernet massage and cosmetic treatments including Botox. And before you glide out the door looking even more ravishing, text your girlfriends to invite them for wine and an antipasti platter in the tiny restaurant or at a café table on the sidewalk. And speaking of ravishing, that describes the woman behind all this glamour, Carmela Spinelli, who brought her New York fashion sense to the Midwest. Be sure to sign up for Soho 119’s regular fashion and skin-care events.
32. Standard Style Boutique
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Address: 5076 W. 119th St. (Town Center Plaza)
Description: It was a good day when Matt and Emily Baldwin followed their hearts (and Matt’s family) and moved back to the Midwest from California. They brought with them a passion for fashion, and opened a boutique that showcases the most sought-after designers in the world. With nearly 150 lines in all, women will lust after casual to glam clothes from Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, Trina Turk, and DVF. Guys will locate just the right screen printed T-shirt, jacket, and jeans for the nightclub that night. And Matt recently launched his own line of denim in flattering shapes for both sexes. We happen to love the fact that this movie-star gorgeous couple is one of us: friendly, helpful, and fun.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Address: 15245 Metcalf Avenue
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Address: 118 Southwest Blvd.
35. Corbin Bronze Ltd.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (816) 766-4012
Address: 1166 Southwest Blvd.
Description: You can see Kansas City sculptor Tom Corbin’s work at the Firefighter’s Memorial Fountain at Penn Valley Park, the Kauffman Memorial Garden near the Plaza, and in galleries and designers’ showrooms across the country. Or simply rent the movies Ransom and A Perfect Murder, where his stunning furniture and statuettes set the tone for the characters’ privileged lifestyles. His collectors’ list includes Ellen DeGeneres, Tom Hanks, and Jack Nicholson. In fact, this artist is so hot, he just moved into a new studio and showroom space in a renovated firehouse. His trademark is slim, ethereal female figures that seem light enough to float despite their bronze heft. Prices range from $200 to more than $100,000 each.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Address: 4415 Warwick
37. Rhett And Kelly Johnson
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (816) 450-3616
Description: Rhett is a monumentally talented sculptor who works with such found objects as old cobalt-blue bottles, engine parts, and iron he shapes and leaves outside to rust. His garden art features graceful birds landing on arches and stakes. Kelly creates exquisite beaded art and witty painted papier-mâché masks, which she also sells at Missouri Bluffs, a women’s clothing store in Weston, Missouri. Their studios in Dearborn, Missouri, just north of Kansas City, are open by appointment only and definitely worth the 35-mile trip.
38. Beco Flowers
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (816) 472-4242
Address: 1922 Baltimore
Description: A serene collection of baby artichokes in a wooden bowl. A fat pineapple in a base of bright gerbera daisies. Collette Keenan and Rebecca Ederer like to play with their food. These talented florists also do amazing things with flowers, from show-off displays for an entryway to sweet floral bouquets. There is no minimum price for orders. The florist is also an art gallery, called the CUBE, which showcases a different artist’s work every month.
39. Matney Floral Design
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (913) 362-5419
Address: 2708 W. 53rd St.
Description: If the flowers at a black-tie gala get more attention than the ball gowns, Chuck Matney is probably to blame. From a single exquisite orchid to stunning arrangements that use Granny Smith apples in tall vases, his designs are fresh, inventive, and in perfect taste.
40. Studio Dan Meiners
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (816) 842-7244
Address: 2500 Pennway
Description: When Dan Meiners moved to a beautifully renovated building near Union Station, he definitely had room to grow. His new digs incorporate his floral design business, a gorgeous event space, and even room for other small companies such as interior designers. But chances are, as handsome as the new headquarters are, you won’t notice anything but the blooms. If you want to get a “Wow!” from someone, send one of Dan’s arrangements. His work can be contemporary or very traditional depending on your needs, and he’s known for incorporating unusual vessels and groupings. Dan and his talented staff are also high society’s first call for weddings and special events.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Address: 5018 Main St.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Address: 604 W. 48th St.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Address: 3300 Pennsylvania
44. Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (816) 842-1300
Address: 1819 McGee
Description: It’s quickly become one of our favorite gifts for an open house or a birthday: a box of Christopher Elbow’s chocolates. Each morsel is a work of art: glossy orbs that look like glass marbles, rainbow-colored pyramids, fat squares screenprinted with swaths of color or dusted with cocoa. He infuses the truffles with unusual flavors such as Brazilian coffee, French lavender, Chinese five-spice, caramel banana, and delicate Earl Grey tea. His gorgeous new digs in the Crossroads includes a “chocolate bar” where you can experience the world’s most decadent hot chocolate. What’s next, you ask? Decadent ice creams and glaces at a nearby shop ready to open any day now.
City: Kansas City, MO
Category: Shopping
Address: 1702 Summit