Brian Bolke is President and Co-Founder of Forty Five Ten, a fashion retailer based in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 2000, Forty Five Ten operates four stores – Forty Five Ten on Main (Downtown Dallas), Forty Five Ten River Oaks (Houston), and TTH Forty Five Ten and For Home, both in Dallas.
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Career
Bolke began his career at I. Magnin as Store Designer, later joining Crescent Jewelers as Marketing Director. He then moved to Dallas and began a position with Neiman Marcus as Creative Director of Store Planning. In 1995, Bolke and cofounder Chris Whanger opened Avant Garden, a boutique flower shop in Highland Park Village. In 2000, Bolke cofounded Forty Five Ten with business partners Shelly Musselman and Bill Mackin. The store garnered praise for bringing new, modern fashion to Texas. Bolke is renowned for his fashion foresight and his store was the first in Dallas to offer some of the world’s most sought-after labels. In 2014, Forty Five Ten was acquired by Headington Companies.
Personal life
Bolke was born in Van Nuys, California in 1968, grew up in Los Angeles, San Diego, Lafayette, and San Francisco, and attended college at the University of California, Davis, graduating in 1989 with a BA in Environmental Design. Bolke resides in Dallas with his husband Faisal Halum. The couple married in 2014. Bolke supports many local Dallas organizations, a tradition he started with Shelly Musselman at Forty Five Ten’s inception. He is personally involved with charities including TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art, the Art Ball benefiting the Dallas Museum of Art, The Dallas Contemporary, The Family Place, and others.