The (funny) History of the Balloon Top

We’re bringing the Balloon Top back in a new way, and before we show you what’s next, I wanted to finally tell the full story of how this top became what it is.

If you’ve been around Terrell Dominick for a while, you’ve probably seen a few versions of it, maybe owned one (or a few), and watched this top become one of the pieces we’re most known for.

But how we got here is actually a pretty good story.

Because the funny thing is, the Balloon Top was NOT an instant hit.

When I first released it in black, people did not come running. It didn’t sell particularly well at all. But I loved that top, and I believed in it, so I kept wearing it, styling it and creating content around it. Slowly, people started paying attention.

Then I thought maybe we needed a lighter color, so we made cream.

And even then, it wasn’t immediately the girl.

I remember sitting in my car one day listening to Solange’s *A Seat at the Table, and the Tina Taught Me interlude came on. Miss Tina was talking about Blackness, about not understanding why people have a problem with Black people loving who we are, and about how much she loves being Black.

That message resonated so deeply with me because I feel the same way. With all of the ups and downs that can come with being Black, I enjoy my Blackness. I love who I am, and I wouldn’t pick anything else.

For whatever reason, while I was sitting there listening to her, I thought about the cream Balloon Top. I already had a styling video of me wearing it that I had used before, so I took that same video, put the “Tina Taught Me” interlude over it and reposted it. None of it was planned. It just felt special to me in that moment because what she was saying connected so deeply with something in me.

Apparently, it connected with other people too.

That Reel took off, and people started seeing the Balloon Top differently. The cream Balloon Top became our bestseller, and that was really the beginning of the Balloon Top becoming what it is today.

After that, we started having a little more fun with the colors. Green came next and did incredibly well, and then brown came along and people showed up for that one too.

 

Then I had denim on my mind. Denim was trending, but more importantly, it is one of those fabrics that is just timeless, so naturally I started wondering what the Balloon Top would look like in denim.

Here’s the part I don’t think I’ve ever really told: I didn’t really like the sample. 😂

I was at a shoot with my photographer creating content for other pieces when the sample came in. I tried it on and thought, Ehhh…I don’t know about this one.  Since we were already shooting, though, I decided we might as well photograph it.

It ended up being one of the last things we shot that day. The owner of the studio had this gorgeous old classic car, and because I LOVE classic cars, my photographer and I decided to shoot the Balloon Top next to it.

Once I got the pictures back, I started looking at it differently. I was like, Okay...she’s growing on me. 

So I styled it a couple of ways and made a video for Instagram using one of my favorite Hot Boyz songs. Instagram used to be so much fun because I could throw one of my favorite songs over a styling video, typically something very hood but still GREAT music, and just go.

And one thing I’ve learned is that when people really love something, I don’t have to do too much anyway. The response is basically, Give it here. Add to cart. 😂

That Instagram video went crazy.

Then I posted the denim Balloon Top on TikTok, where I didn’t really have much influence at the time. I did a voiceover where I said something along the lines of, "if you don’t do nothing else this summer…” and everybody immediately got stuck on the word summer.

There were plenty of comments, some good and some not so good, but either way people were watching, talking, sharing and seeing that top.

And that denim Balloon Top went on to sell thousands and thousands of pieces, eventually surpassing cream, which had been our number-one Balloon Top up until then.

To think that I almost didn’t even like the sample is still funny to me.

We followed it with dark denim, which is still, in my opinion, one of the chicest Balloon Tops we’ve ever made.

Then came cheetah, and even that has a story.

The mini cheetah wasn’t originally the plan. My manufacturer messed up the original cheetah tops, and we had hundreds of them sitting there. I was going to eventually put them in a sample sale, and they actually sat for probably six or seven months.

Then one day I pulled one back out, styled it, looked at it differently and decided to give it another chance.

And people responded.

That has always been one of my favorite things about this brand. Sometimes I see something first, and sometimes **the customers make me see it differently.

Then we experimented with the Balloon Top in a lightweight poplin fabric. I actually liked the poplin, but it became pretty clear that it wasn’t the favorite.😂 It didn’t move the way the other versions did, and the feedback wasn’t nearly as strong.

So I worked my magic.

I took the ones we had left to my local manufacturer, had them cut down into crop tops, and people got a little bit of the poplin version that way.

The relationship I have with my customers has never just been about me making something and telling people to buy it. I listen to what they love. I pay attention to what they wear over and over again, what they ask us to bring back and, yes, what they tell me they don’t love as much.

The Balloon Top has probably taught me that more than any other piece we’ve made.

I have seen people wear this top everywhere. Dinners, vacations, work, events, birthdays, and one of my favorites will always be seeing someone wear it to her baby shower. She looked absolutely adorable.

There is something incredibly special about coming up with an idea, watching it become a real garment and then seeing people take it into their actual lives, especially the important parts of their lives. I like that my brand gets to go places with people. I like seeing something that started as an idea in my head become part of a memory in someone else’s life.

And maybe that’s also why I’m so protective of the Balloon Top.

Over the years, there have been plenty of attempts to copy it. Some closer than others and some, well, we’ll talk about those another day.

But when you think Balloon Top, I want you to think Terrell Dominick.

This piece became a signature here, and if other people saw something worth copying, they saw it because the customers made it worth noticing. Every time someone bought another color, styled it, posted it or had somebody stop them and ask where they got that top, they helped build the story around this piece.

Now we’re getting ready to introduce the next version of the Balloon Top, and before we do that, it felt right to look back at how much life this one piece has already had.

There are so many little stories wrapped up in it, and y’all have been part of almost every one of them.

Let me know in the comments which Balloon Top was your favorite, and if you could bring back one version from the past, which one would it be?