Our Story | Soulhemian Urban Boho Boutique

 Maybe your workday calls for a blazer, but underneath it you're still the woman with a stack of bangles on her wrist and Jill Scott in her headphones. The one who'll spend Saturday morning wandering a farmers market, Saturday night at an outdoor concert, and three months later be figuring out what to pack for Jamaica because somehow you need eight outfits for four days.

Your closet tells the same story.

There's the vintage jacket you refuse to let go of. The graphic tee that works with everything. Something you found traveling. Something you bought because the print made you stop scrolling. And probably at least one piece that makes absolutely no sense with anything else you own—but someday you'll figure out what to wear with it.

The best personal style isn't perfectly coordinated or easily categorized. It's collected. Bits of where you've been, what you love, what you're listening to, who you were and who you're becoming.

My relationship with fashion started long before I knew what kind of store I wanted to own.

In high school, I drew fashion figures and learned to sew from my auntie. Around that same time, there was a store in North Carolina called The Runway. You could tell it had once been a gas station, but right through the middle of the store was an actual runway. I used to drive past it and think, one day, I want my own store (complete with a runway right through the center).

I had no idea how I'd be able to do it. No name tucked away in a notebook. No grand plan for when it would happen. I just knew I wanted one.

Fashion kept following me. I went to college to study fashion design before finding my way into textile marketing and global retail merchandising. Then came years of working in stores. I was selling clothes, watching women shop, merchandising product, and learning how much can happen between “that's cute” and “that's me.”

My own style was evolving right alongside me. There was always something a little different, like a funky belt, a chunky necklace, distressed denim paired with something it probably wasn't supposed to go with. It pulled from everywhere: my blended heritage, where I grew up, the music I loved, the things I read, places I'd been and the parts of the world I still wanted to see.

And finding clothes that brought all of that together? Whew, Chile.

I could find stores full of beautiful bohemian clothes, but so much of it felt too quiet. Too beige. Too expected. Elsewhere, I'd find the pants at one store, hunt down the right top somewhere else, then end up at a third—or fourth—place looking for the thing that would finally pull the outfit together. I love a good treasure hunt, but sometimes getting dressed shouldn't require a whole Saturday and a tank of gas.

Over time, I built a closet from all those finds. They came from different stores, places and influences. They didn't necessarily match on paper.

Eventually, I realized I couldn't possibly be the only woman looking for this: the ease of bohemian style without sanding off all the personality.The funky piece and something to wear with it. A whole look without visiting four stores to build it.

That old dream of owning a store finally had a reason.

That realization became Granola Child.

Granola Child meant modern hippie, and for a while, that name fit. I filled the shop with the prints, statement pieces and interesting finds I'd spent years searching for myself.

But the clothes were only part of the story.

Style doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's the song that changes your whole mood before you leave the house. The meal you tried on vacation and came home determined to recreate. It's art, culture, travel, curiosity, the things you believe, the things you're still questioning, and the discoveries that keep changing how you see yourself and the world.

As I evolved, the dream did too.

I wanted room for all of it. For the woman who can handle business all day and still feel most like herself barefoot at an outdoor concert. For clothes that don't ask her to choose between grown and funky, polished and free. For conversations about what we're listening to, what we're reading, where we're going and whatever has us thinking a little differently this week.

And after all these years, what I want for the woman who finds her way to this space is still pretty simple:

I hope you find a bit of yourself expressed here.

Oh, and that runway I dreamt about having in the middle of my store?

Turns out, we have one. It's called Instagram. So when you put your Soulhemian fit together, tag me. I spent all these years waiting on this runway, chick. I'm trying to see your face in the place.😂

Love, peace & hair grease ✌🏽
Trini