Ylang 23’s New Location Is Like a French Garden of Jewelry Design

Ylang 23, Dallas, TX

OWNERS: Joanne, Charles and Alysa Teichman; FOUNDED: 1985; Opened featured location: 2024; EMPLOYEES: 7 full-time, 3 part-time; AREA: 3,220 square feet; STORE DESIGN: MAOarch Architecture, B. Russo Design (builder), Wield Creative (showcase design); TOP BRANDS: Cathy Waterman, Foundrae, Irene Neuwirth, Retrouvai; online presence: 32,000 Facebook likes, 53,900 Instagram followers, 4.4 stars on Google Reviews

Joanne, Alysa and Charles Teichman

BEING FIRST IS nothing new to Ylang 23 (pronounced “ee-long”).

After all, owners Joanne and Charles Teichman were among the first to showcase “designer” jewelry and sell designer jewelry online, offering e-commerce as early as 2000. They offered two-day shipping well before most retailers had even considered it. And the business concept has always been to introduce jewelry designers to their clientele, including being the first account of Retrouvai, Raphaele Canot and others.

The Teichmans began their jewelry journey in 1985. The couple were living in New York, and Charles worked as a consultant for some French companies. He was introduced to Jacques Gastaldi, who owned Ylang-Ylang on Madison Avenue, which imported costume and demi-fine jewelry from Europe. Gastaldi wanted to expand, and Charles said he wanted to open a franchise in Texas because Joanne had grown up in Arkansas near Texarkana and was very familiar with Dallas.

A few years after opening the partnership at the Dallas Galleria mall in a 475 square-foot location under an escalator with no restroom, the couple separated from the Ylang-Ylang group. When a real estate crisis in Texas hit in the late 1980s, they decided to gamble on a high-end business model — but a model that focused on attracting a female clientele, rather than men.

“Some things have changed since those days, but some haven’t,” says Joanne. “We were never too ‘serious’ about jewelry; we have always invited people to try it on, stack it up, whatever makes you happy and comfortable. We’ve always felt jewelry should bring happiness.”

As the years passed, Joanne, a former advertising executive, had visions for the business that seemed beyond its capabilities. “I did the store photography while Charles picked up flowers for the store, because we couldn’t afford professional help,” says Joanne, who also wrote the six pages of the store’s original website. “We always sent gifts to our top clients and put customer service first.”

In 2013, their daughter Alysa joined the business remotely from New York as director of e-commerce, took a short break to earn her MBA from NYU, and then returned as vice-president of business development in 2016 — and everything changed. Sales slips that had been handwritten were now automated. Budgets had been nonexistent, so Alysa instituted an open-to-buy to add rigor to the buying process and better manage cash flow.

Seven years later, as the lease was about to expire on their former location, a Floyd Mayweather gym in the same shopping center as Ylang 23’s sister operation, Wildlike, went out of business. Instead of renewing their lease, the Teichmans opted to take over the gym, gut it, and build the store of their dreams. The Teichmans brought in an architect from New York, Mao Hughes of MAOarch Architecture, as well as the builder who had built their previous store, Bruce Russo of B. Russo Designs, and interior/showcase design expert Maggie Zavolinsky of Wield Creative.

The open 3,200 square-foot space is divided into three distinct zones, with the flow laid out like a French jardin. “My dad is French, we love France, and the roots of the business are French. That’s why you’ll see archways throughout the store, as well as the symmetry — the store is built on a straight diagonal axis. And we have foliage throughout the space that recalls the feeling of being in a jardin,” says Alysa.

The concept wasn’t meant to find more space to cram more jewelry into, but rather to tell a deeper story about each brand featured in the store, including story cards that detail the work and inspiration behind every designer.

“We have a much bigger store but purposefully less jewelry than in our previous location,” says Alysa. “Ironically, women come in and say, ‘Wow, you got all new jewelry for your new store!’ No, it’s just displayed in a more elevated way.”

Each zone includes a feature that encourages socializing: a comfortable seating area in the front, a hospitality bar in the middle and a red travertine table at the back to host trunk shows, lunches and dinners. Guests shop amidst luxury décor like the vintage art deco Murano chandeliers from Italy, art from Canadian artist Janet Werner and local Dallas artist Rachel Livedan, Joanne’s personal collection of vintage Murano glass bowls, and custom cabinetry made in Canada that incorporates bespoke pink marble, all atop a reclaimed wood floor.

“So much of what we do is curate. We really pride ourselves on being a place of discovery,” says Alysa.

And the new store includes one practical feature that the Teichmans had always wanted: an in-house bench jeweler. “We could have used it the whole time, but we never had the space or the right person. It’s been such an incredible selling tool; we can size a client’s ring in an hour,” says Charles.

The space has also allowed Ylang 23 to put on incredible events. “At our opening party, we had these omakase sushi chefs come and do passed sushi bites. We’ve done a caviar party and piercing events,” says Alysa. “We have hosted a seated lunch for designer Cathy Waterman with 30 women and the best private chef in Dallas.”

“A lot of our clients became friends because they kept meeting each other at our events,” says Charles. “The events create connections, and those connections are based on an appreciation of jewelry.”

An in-house bench jeweler allows Ylang 23 to provide services on site.

As the new store was being built, Ylang 23 also underwent a rebrand, courtesy of Trace Element, a local branding agency. The new logo recalls the idea of curating a collection of different things, which is why the letters are all different widths. “We use Y23 as our mark, so we wanted the Y, the 2 and the 3 to be more pronounced than the rest of the logo,” says Alysa.

Pink has always been an important brand color and the new shade of pink is different from what the brand has used before. “We had so many spirited conversations around what the pink would look like,” laughs Alysa. “There is blush throughout the store, and we added oxblood, which had never been in our brand identity. We looked for pink marble we could put on the cash wrap and the showcase legs to anchor the store in pink. We did temper the pink with green on the hospitality bar.”

But at the end of the day, the dream store and new branding simply serve to highlight what truly makes Ylang 23 special: The Teichmans’ uncanny knack for curating a jewelry selection that resonates with the modern woman. Or as Joanne puts it: “How we edit is our secret sauce.”

Five Cool Things About Ylang 23

1. FIRST MOVER MOJO. Before “designer jewelry” was even a buzzword, Ylang 23 was already doing it — and doing it online back when everyone else was just figuring out email. The business launched one of the first luxury jewelry e-commerce sites, was an early joiner of social media, offered two-day shipping before most would do it, and even once had an iPhone/iPad app and a custom Polyvore feature on its website.

2. THE NUMBER 23. Owners Joanne and Charles Teichman met on March 23rd, were engaged on April 23rd and were married on November 23rd, all in the same year. 23 is now considered the family’s lucky number, which is why their original name, Ylang-Ylang, was changed to Ylang 23 when they struck out on their own.

3. HIGH-TECH MEETS HIGH-TOUCH. AI personalization? Check. Lightning-fast shipping? Check. Real humans answering chat messages instead of bots? Double check. Ylang 23 proves that you don’t have to sacrifice soul to scale — just marry smart tech with stellar service, and your online game can feel just as luxe as your showroom.

4. A SISTER BRAND WITH A PIERCING EDGE. What do you do when your clientele starts bringing in their Gen Z daughters? If you’re Ylang 23, you launch Wildlike — a piercing concept that’s stylish and elevated, providing the perfect on-ramp for younger customers to later graduate to Ylang 23. The Dallas location of Wildlike is just a few doors down from Ylang 23 — and the New York location on Bond Street in NoHo is also an America’s Coolest Store of 2025 (to be featured in a later issue of INSTORE).

5. A BRAND GLOW-UP. Ylang 23’s brand refresh swapped outdated grays for warm blush tones, updated their logo and fonts, and infused the new space with touches like Murano glass, Italian marble and art pieces that reflect female empowerment. The result? An identity that feels luxe, personal, and unmistakably Ylang 23.

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