atlanta

“Ooh I want this candle! And those shoes! What about this dress… and this popcorn!” I said upon entry of The Taste Boutique. “What about this sex serum? It is a miracle worker,” chimed in stylish Atlantan Teresa Caldwell, co-owner of the chic luxury boutique in West Midtown. Everyone I know swears by it.” And that’s the kind of mix you’ll find at The Taste Boutique. It opened in April 2022 in The Interlock building where Puttshack and The Bellyard hotel are also located. Have you been to West Midtown lately? It’s a boomtown.

Albeit Caldwell is a longtime fashion stylist, she is also the author of I Once Was Her. Her boutiques are always in Atlanta hot spots. Firstly, in Duluth, near Sugarloaf Parkway where many Falcons players and their wives lived. Secondly, in Atlantic Station during its heyday. Thirdly, across from The St. Regis in Buckhead. But when the shopping center she was in recently sold, Caldwell had a chance to be the only fashion retailer in The Interlock building in West Midtown. Wisely, she took it.

Born in Carrollton, Ga. at Tanner Medical Center, Caldwell moved to Ohio when she was young. “I’ve always loved fashion,” says the native southerner. “I taught myself to sew my own clothes growing up.” It was in Ohio that she had her famous actor/rapper son, Bow Wow.

When Bow Wow was a budding star, she moved to Los Angeles to manage and style him while he worked with Snoop Dogg and others. After that, her fashion career took off too. Additionally, people would stop Caldwell to find out what she was wearing or what clothes she had bought her son. Caldwell became a sought after stylist and began pulling clothes for professional athletes, entertainers and actors.

Producer Jermaine Dupri is the one that coaxed Caldwell back to the South when he started producing music with her son. “When I got to Atlanta, there was nowhere to pull clothes from for my clients,” she says, incredulously. “I [opened the store near Sugarloaf Parkway] to service myself and them.”

She also started doing style boxes for clients who still lived back in L.A. “Every month they would give me a budget and I’d pick out a bunch of clothes and items from the store and ship it to them.” About 15 years later, she’s still creating the specialized boxes for around 50 clients. “I have one client who says, ‘here’s $4,000. Send me some stuff.’ The boxes are what I’m really passionate about. I put notes in the shipments and directions on what to wear with what.”

Caldwell is a true Two-Sided Southerner who loves her roots but has traveled the world. She also has some fightin’ words for her fellow Southerners: “I don’t think Southern people dress that great. I like to think I’m helping make them to be more fashionable. Southerners need to take more risks,” she pauses, then chuckles. “Y’all need to! Let me help y’all.”

Caldwell is a fan of mixing and matching brands, but says most Southerners that are considered fashionable, “just buy designer shoes and a designer bag. For instance, they’ll spend $5,000 on a bag and some shoes and they think that’s fashion. I don’t think everything designer is fashion.”

Above all, this stylish Atlantan should know. She’s had a successful online business for 15 years, multiple shops, a subscription box service, styling career and interior design business. In fact, some of her top clients are Shaunie Henderson (Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-wife), actress Taraji P. Henson and Nicole Jones (ex-wife of former Braves player Andruw Jones). Furthermore, this summer she’ll host a poolside fashion show for a swim line called L.O.V.E. that stands for Living on Vacation Everyday. It’s owned by Tracy Mourning who is the ex-wife of NBA player Alonzo Mourning.

Caldwell now lives in Sandy Springs with her boyfriend Michael Elliot, who co-owns the luxury boutique in West Midtown with her. Elliot is a successful screenwriter and has partnered with Caldwell on the boutique, as well as their other business, Taste Interior Design. Why limit herself to just clothes? After all, her brand is a lifestyle. That’s where Taste Interior Design comes in.

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In 2020, Elliot and Caldwell oversaw the large-scale remodel and redesign of the 15,000 square-foot home of NFL star Grady Jarrett of the Atlanta Falcons. “It was always word of mouth. I’ve been doing this for friends for 25 years,” she says about her interior design business. “Now, I’m designing a home for a successful franchise owner who just gutted his high-end house and we’re starting from scratch.”

Her interior design aesthetic is much like the interiors of her luxury boutique in West Midtown. “It’s got a zen energy here. The energy is peaceful. That’s why we chose soft, muted colors.” Caldwell and Elliott worked with Michael Habachy of Habachy Designs on the store’s interiors. The Taste Boutique is awash in pastels, natural sunshine, warm gold light pendants and lots of archways.

So does she still find time to style and manage Bow Wow? “About three years ago, I stopped. It was time for me to do my own thing. I don’t know if he fired me, or I quit,” Caldwell says with a sweet laugh. “But it was time.”

Now the boutique gets all her attention. “I can’t keep these Raceway Vintage Camo shorts by Reilly in stock. Or these ESSEutESSE fringe sneakers. They both fly off the shelves!” she admits. Caldwell’s taste is exquisite, but she also has a touch of wit and sass.

While you’ll see high-end clothing lines such as Alexis, Zadig & Voltaire and Frame, as well as enormous Cereria Molla 1899 candles that go for $600, she also has jalapeno cheddar Poppy popcorn. “I love it. I can’t keep it in stock. Some woman came in and bought six bags!”

Mixed in between Rizzoli New York and Assouline luxury books, you’ll find high-end House of Wise sex serum, sleep gummies or slippers that say Bad Ass on the toes. “It’s a lifestyle boutique and I put all my favorite things in here,” Caldwell says unapologetically. “Fun is part of my personality. Guys come in here and they laugh and buy up all these things.”

I immediately knew Caldwell was Two-Sided Southern when we met… she loves the five-star clothing brands as well as the witty, dive-bar brands in gifts. Caldwell illustrates my point: “I love soul food—macaroni and cheese and collard greens and cornbread… And biscuits and gravy! But also my favorite restaurant right now is Marcel across the street. The risotto with lobster or the chicken with artichokes and lemon butter… oh my gosh, it’s so good,” she raves. “I’m like soul food to French food!”

Exactly.