Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalia and Peyton.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
We are Natalia and Peyton, founders and owners of Morpho Style Boutique. We are from Colombia and Virginia, respectively. We are married and building our dreams together, including this small business.
We created this small business back in mid-2019 with the idea of supporting women and artisans in Colombia and bringing to our client’s handmade unique jewelry and accessories.
When we started with Morpho Style Boutique we were focused on selling our eco-friendly jewelry handcrafted with real butterfly wings and flowers from Colombia. We started a great partnership with Pistilo Eco-fashion, owned by two amazing women in Popayan, Colombia.
They have been working on this project for over 10 years and we decided to work with them to bring amazing eco-friendly products to the United States. Flowers are cultivated at Pistilo’s own garden and farm; they are carefully picked, preserved, and arranged into beautiful creations to be worn as jewelry. All butterflies are recycled through botanical gardens and farms in Colombia, once they have ended their life cycle in a natural way. NO butterflies are harmed in the making of this jewelry. This handcrafted jewelry is inspired by preserving nature’s magic.
We love butterflies and our eco-friendly jewelry is a way to preserve their beauty once they have completed their life cycle in a natural way. Butterflies have an extremely short life cycle, they can only live a couple of weeks or months, depending on the species. Colombia has over 3,640 butterfly species, accounting for 20% of the butterflies in the world. Our butterfly jewelry is a way to keep them alive forever in our accessories and to pay tribute to such a wonderful animal that means so much to people.
When we started in mid-2019, we had the goal to attend multiple markets to start building a presence in San Antonio. We were lucky to attend a couple of markets before the end of the year in 2019, and we have had scheduled 2020 with a year filled with markets. COVID-19 made us cancel all our in-person markets for 2020 and start a new strategy. We launched our website in early April 2020, and we started attending virtual markets to build our online presence. In some of the virtual events we were doing, we got in contact with AMITAI, a small business in Cali, Colombia. AMITAI consists of 20+ low-income families, mainly women heads of household and they handcraft amazing bead-woven jewelry.
We partnered with them right away and started bringing their amazing, handcrafted jewelry to our boutique. Colombia was completely shut down during the first six months of the pandemic, and our partnership with AMITAI was crucial for these families to have food on their tables and some income to keep going during these difficult times. We are lucky and excited to continue this partnership with AMITAI and bring to Morpho Style Boutique our SUEÑOS Collection. With our SUEÑOS collection, beaded jewelry, we are supporting these amazing families in Colombia to transform their dreams into reality!
In Fall 2020, with all COVID-19 safety protocols, we started attending in-person events again. We have been extremely fortunate to start growing a presence in San Antonio and to receive so much support from our clients, event organizers, and the community in general. 2021 was a year for the books, we have been featured in the news, podcast, and articles. We also went to Colombia and visit the people behind our products, not only the amazing women from Pistilo but also the 20+ low-income families in Cali, Colombia. We visited with them, learned about their stories, and got reassured that our SUEÑOS collection is a crucial part of Morpho Style Boutique.
We want to continue impacting people’s lives and work with these amazing people. While in Colombia, we visited different towns and met different artisans, and brought some handmade products from them, growing our impact and also our portfolio. For example, we visited Silvia, Cauca, and brought handmade products from the MISAK indigenous tribe.
Our presence in San Antonio has grown and we are extremely proud of what we have become. Our goal for 2022 will be to grow our online presence and to keep bringing our client’s unique handmade products from Colombia.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As mentioned before, one of the main setbacks we had was the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, we learned a lot from this difficult time and pivoted our strategy to keep building our small business. The main challenge we saw during 2021 was the lack of time. As small business owners, we learned to multitask and become “experts” in different areas, from content-creator, website development, sales professionals, packing orders, and among other million things.
There’s never enough time to do everything we want or attend all the markets and events we want. We both have full-time jobs, plus our small business. Small business as their own already requires lots of time, so building our skills in time management has been crucial to continue doing what we do. Another challenge is to find the right event/market. Attending in-person markets requires a lot of effort, and sometimes the event doesn’t turn out as we wished. It is a learning experience of trial and error. We are eternally grateful to all our supporters, clients, market owners, and fellow small businesses.
A couple of people we would like to thank are Patricia from Coffeecionado; Janie from Que Retro Arts; Laura from Alamo Ranch Market; Becky and Tony from Addie Grace Boutique; Bandera Market Team; and all the small business owners that have shared their lessons learned and helped us to do better! Every challenge is a learning opportunity for us, and we are grateful for all the community’s support. And of course, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our amazing partners in Colombia. The amazing women behind our handmade products: Amanecer Urrutia, Natalia Caicedo, Jaqueline Ramos and Nataly Cuastumal.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We love eco-fashion and we offer eco-friendly products. Not only because of our jewelry created with real recycled butterfly wings, but we also have apparel and accessories handcrafted with fabric from recycled plastic bottles. Our apparel is handmade by women heads of households in Colombia, and they create unique designs representing our beloved butterflies. It is crucial that people understand slow fashion, and at the same time to be able to wear unique accessories and clothing.
What sets us apart from others is that we preserve nature’s magic on our products, butterflies’ beauty and uniqueness live forever through our jewelry. We are not only providing unique products but also changing people’s lives. With our SUEÑOS Collection, we are impacting 20+ low-income families in Colombia, and we are supporting them to transform their dreams into reality. We are extremely proud of how far we have got in only two years. Having the opportunity to support entrepreneurs and families in Colombia, plus bringing our clients unique products, is something to be proud of!
We want readers to know a couple of things: if you have a dream, go for it, it takes time and lots of effort, but in the end, is totally worth it. Also, that by supporting this dream called Morpho Style Boutique, you are not only supporting a small business in San Antonio, but amazing women heads of households, low-income families, and an amazing community of artisans in Colombia. By purchasing our products, you are really impacting people’s lives and making a difference!
What’s next?
Our goal for 2022 will be to grow our online presence and to keep bringing our client’s unique handmade products from Colombia. Hopefully having the opportunity to bring a variety of new products and impact more people in Colombia. We are looking forward to growing our brand and attending more events to have a bigger reach in San Antonio and other cities of the United States.
Pricing:
- We have all types of pricing. Starting at $8 bracelets and our average price of earrings of $22. Really affordable for unique accessories and apparel.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.morphostyleboutique.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morphostyleboutique/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morphostyleboutique
