Durette Candito: A Woman of Many Talents

BY JOAN S. PECK

Durette Candito is the owner of the Urban Ranch General Store, which opened here in Las Vegas on April 2011. Simply by the name alone, you can deduct that her store is unique, and once you meet Durette in person, you realize why. She is a many-faceted, talented person.

The name Urban Ranch represents the pull between city and country, and she calls it a general store for modern city dwellers. There is an art to be able to pull that off, and Durette has done a great job of doing that.

If you visit her store’s location on West Cheyenne Avenue and step inside, I’m sure you’ll feel as I did. I was struck immediately by the calming created by the balance of the masculine and feminine energies reflected in her choice of products for sale. There is a sense of earthiness emanating from most of her items that has the feel of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she grew up. Many of the items positioned around the store are made from wood, clay, stone, and various metals, which are offset by the more feminine materials of cloth, clay, plants, and manufactured florals. Durette sells her own creative, unique jewelry and clothing, as well as other local designers’ jewelry, and locally-produced gourmet foods. Her love of the arts has Durette holding special modern maker shows in her store.

Custom Dress Maker and Designer

When I asked her how young she was when she realized she had the talent to create, she said, “When I was little, my babysitter was an art teacher. My mother hired her to give me drawing lessons before I was even six years old. I knew then I was an artistic person. At the age of nine, my grandmother taught me how to sew, and that was a major transformational period for me to see the result of a 3dimensional object created from something flat.”

Durette began her own custom dressmaking and sold readymade clothes and custom-designed clothes for the wealthy women in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. “I love sewing, and people, so it always was fun for me.” She made lots and lots of wedding dressings and into each one she sewed a button from her grandmother’s sewing box as a special “something old.”

In her 20s, Durette was approached by one of her clients to go into business with her. “I was very excited, young, and naïve at that time.” Her partner took care of the business and money end while she was the talent. “She ran me into the ground. I ended up in the hospital where a doctor said, ‘You’re suffering from stress. Go home and take care of it.’” So, she decided to put away her sewing machine and use her talents in another way.

Architectural Designer / Interior Designer

In the 1980s, Durette enrolled in the Architectural Program at TVI (Technical Vocational Institute) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She loved everything about it and took to it right away.

“I love drawing and the tactile part of it. I still draw by hand. I learned to draw on a computer in school. But it was not inspiring because it takes away from the power of creating it yourself. I didn’t like designing for the corporate world because I didn’t get to talk to the customer. I love the challenge of making a home out of both people’s wishes and needs, so that both are happy – as well as the kids and dogs.”

“Right out of school, I worked for one year as an interior designer and learned a lot. The owner designed furniture, and I did his drawings. Then I went to work for an architect who I found fascinating by how he’d go out to plot the site for the views, sunrises, and settings, etc. He’d draw out the whole house, and I’d develop all the interior drawings and work with the client for interior choices of tile, hardware, etc. He was English, and because he liked the hardware there, he began to buy cabinet door knobs and other hardware from England. I began to learn a lot about all the different hardware, and after two years, I asked, ‘Why aren’t we selling it?’” They set up a little section in the front of their office to display the hardware and became the importers and distributors of hardware from England, France, and Italy.

The interesting thing she discovered when she moved to Las Vegas is that, unlike in Santa Fe, the interior designer is not the one who helps the customer choose what hardware to install. Here it is the building contractor who does and offers few choices. Often, when a contractor purchases a door, the hardware comes with it as a packaged deal. “I struggle with that part of my business because of how it works here. It’s a matter of educating my market.”

Durette can provide many options for her clients, as well as selling her products to other interior designers for their clients here and other cities.

When asked what her greatest talent is as an interior designer, Durette said: “My greatest asset is that I’m a good listener—allowing the customer the time to express what it is they are looking for with a new design.” While she listens carefully to them, she gets a sense of how they live their life and their sense of style, which enables her to envision and formulate a plan to create what they want.

Durette works toward a goal of “simple elegance” in her design work, always striving to incorporate sustainability in products and installation. Her projects include custom residences in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos, New Mexico, homes in Texas, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Beverly Hills, Laguna, California, as well as health food stores and spas in Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada.

Before Durette and her husband, Michael, the drummer extraordinaire, moved here in 2001, she was doing three things in Santa Fe: sewing professionally, architecture/interior design work, and was a ballroom dance instructor for ten years. “I was anxious to move to Las Vegas because I’d never lived outside of New Mexico. Michael is from New York City, and because he wanted to expand his musical career where there was a greater opportunity, we chose Las Vegas, which was the only place to have a phone book printed twice a year. I put two ads in the summer book—one for sewing; the other for architecture/interior design work—and decided to let the Universe guide my choice. Immediately, I got responses to both. I contracted to an interior designer, and after working for the gentleman for two years, I transitioned out and set up my own company with him as my client. Urban Ranch came about because I was working out of the house, so I set up its location in 2003.

Costume Designer

“A few years ago, I started sewing again. I bought a new sewing machine—the first since 1981, so, of course, it’s fantastic! My husband works for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. I was asked to make jackets for them, and after the show, Gary asked, ‘Would you bring your tape measure?’ Two years later, I’m making new jackets and modernizing the jackets off an old album from the early 70s. Now Jay and the Americans are asking me to make their jackets!”

Last year, Michael and Durette decided to renew their wedding vows in the little church in Santa Fe, where they were married 20 years ago. At that time, Durette not only made her wedding dress and everything else for their first wedding and had so much fun doing it. “For my 20th-year celebration, what was I going to wear? I made a sacred heart jacket out of Irish linen tablecloth of my mother’s, which I embroidered and wore over a simple dress with lace that came from my grandmother’s sewing box. I love repurposing and use old table cloths and other items I’ve collected over the years—fabrics, beads, buckles, buttons, threads.”

Original jackets Durette made for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.
From left to right: Mike Candito, Jamie Hilboldt, Durette Candito, Gary Puckett, and Woody Lingle.

Social Consciousness

Durette is a strong believer in being active in bettering our world. “If we can all work toward less waste and more recycling, we can decrease our footprint on the Earth. Shopping with a conscience is a great way to start. I like to know the source of the products that I’m buying for the store – and ultimately, my clients. Feeling good about your purchase is a bonus!”

She was raised by a single mother who was always involved in volunteering in one form or another. “My Mother was extremely active all her life with many charities – and she organized and ran most of them! So giving back is second nature to me.”

She has been involved as a volunteer in many programs in New Mexico and served on several boards here in Las Vegas (ALS of Nevada; BLVDS’ (local magazine) and on the PAC for the Art Institute of Las Vegas). Currently, she is a member of the Nevada Commission for Women, a designation appointed by the governor, and is a member of IDS (Interior Design Society) and ADAS (Architectural and Decorative Arts Society).

I meet so many interesting people who I end up admiring when I have the opportunity to interview them. As I listen to their journey through life, it’s amazing to me to see how one decision leads to another and acts as pieces of a puzzle to display a clear picture of how they’ve reached where they are in life now. It’s fascinating. Thank you, Durette, for sharing your journey with us, because you are a woman of many talents, indeed.

Durette can be contacted at:
702.368.2601
studio@durettecanditodesign.com
www.urbanranchgeneralstore.com