Here's the final letter with all the changes:
Yes, you read that correctly... I'm closing Terrell Dominick, the online boutique, and this has been a difficult decision to put into words because there is so much of my life in this business.
I've been in fashion for well over a decade, including having a vintage clothing business before Terrell Dominick. When I started this business, I was a stay-at-home mom with no job and $0. What began as a handbag business turned into a clothing business. I still remember launching our first piece, a romper, and watching it sell out almost immediately. I was so shook. Over the past five years, I've been able to bring millions through the door. I really did this shit, and when I think about where I started, it's hard to look at everything I built and say it's time to let it go.
The business grew fast, and it became more mentally challenging than I knew how to prepare for. Somewhere in trying to keep up, it got ahead of me. How I run my business and what I want to be known for are important to me, but the business was running me, and I wasn't running it.
Then there was the confusion of being Terrell Dominick while also running Terrell Dominick. I had a hard time knowing where the business ended and I began. Terrell Dominick on social media was personal before the business became a thing. Even sharing something I like became a business decision.
I want you to know me as a person, and I want my business to have an identity of its own. My taste will always be part of what I create, but I have a whole life outside of what I sell, and I want room to share some of that again.
I also really love my name. My parents did a good hood job putting their names together and giving me something very cool, and I want that name to belong to me as a person.
I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I remember hearing Bobbi Brown, the makeup founder, talk about how she couldn't use her own name for her new cosmetics company after selling the original business. That stayed with me. I couldn't imagine having this name I loved and being limited in what I could do with it. I'd always said I would eventually change the business name, but this year made me look more seriously at what else needed to change.
It's been quiet this year, and whenever I tried to get something going, I felt like I was forcing it. Things weren't flowing the way they used to, and that was hard for me to accept because I've got that dog in me. I've been through so many things and come out on the other side that my first instinct is to figure it out and keep going.
So deciding to close brought up feelings I wasn't expecting. Was I failing? Was I quitting on something I'd worked so hard to build? I could see what needed to change, but I still had to work through what that decision meant to me.
You know how people hear you're breaking up with somebody and immediately assume somebody cheated or did somebody wrong? I feel like I need to explain this breakup before we start talking bad about it lol. This brand has absolutely had my head spinning, but she has also been good to me, and I don't want to forget that just because we're breaking up. Sometimes things aren't bad, but they just not right.
This business gave me the chance to see what I could do. It brought me customers who trusted my taste, came back to shop again, and told their friends. You sent me pictures of yourselves wearing the pieces to occasions that mattered to you, and you made sure I heard about the compliments. I loved getting those messages because I got to see a little of the life the clothes had once they left me.
That's a lot to be grateful for, and I am. I can love what this has been and still want to let go of something good for something great.
My life is changing, my taste is changing, and I want to be more particular about what I put out there. I've done work I'm proud of, but I don't feel like I've done my greatest work yet. I want to give myself the chance to do that, and I'm learning that growing up sometimes means making a decision I would have once called giving up.
Now, since we're talking about this breakup, I should probably tell you that I've had a little side piece for a minute, and she's been keeping my attention.
Her name is Alonda James, my new fashion label.
I've learned a lot from building Terrell Dominick, both about business and about myself. There's so much I still love about what I created, and I'm bringing that into Alonda James with a clearer idea of what I want to offer and how I want to run my business.
You'll recognize my taste in Alonda James, and a lot of your favorite pieces and our bestsellers will make their way there, too. The pieces y'all really loved, and that I love just as much, still have a place in what I'm doing. I want to give them, and the ideas I've been sitting with, the time and attention they deserve.
Alonda James is coming, and I've got some things to show you. Get on the list so you're there when we launch.
You'll still find me as Terrell Dominick on Instagram and Facebook, sharing shoe finds, other brands I love, some of my home and family life, and what I'm learning as I go. Between the vintage business, the boutique, and well over a decade in fashion, you know I have some stories to tell.
As we close the boutique, the current collection is 30–60% off, with discounts applied automatically. No code is needed. The sale runs through Saturday, October 31, when the site closes. Preorder items will ship by November 19, and every order will be fulfilled.
Thank you for being part of something that changed my life. When I think about the woman who started this business at home and everything she's learned since, I have a lot of love for her. And I have a lot of love for the people who helped her along the way.
Love,
Terrell