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LAPLACE — Have you seen The Cali Collection billboards in LaPlace and Gramercy? The new toddler boutique is home to mini fashionistas who love to read.

Trinesha P. Bartholomew started The Cali Collection to create a strong foundation for her 4-year-old daughter, Cali Raye Bartholomew.

“I want her to be a kid entrepreneur, and she’s so into fashion at 4 years old. The benefit of having your own business at a young age is generational wealth,” Bartholomew said. “By the time she is older, she will have that solid foundation of knowing what it takes to be a business owner and not having to work for anyone else. I really want to work on building her self-esteem.”

The Cali Collection perfectly represents Cali’s personality. She loves to dress up and model clothes in photoshoots, and she has enough fashion sense to point out what matches and what doesn’t. She happily helps pack orders for customers and even helps her mother pick out clothing for The Cali Collection.

With a focus on literacy and the arts, The Cali Collection promotes fashion and education. Trinesha partnered with New Orleans based author Kourtni R. Mason to pair copies of her book, “Little Miss Dancey Pants,” with certain items in The Cali Collection’s Spring edition.

Cali loves to learn, and her clothing line empowers young girls by reminding them they are beautiful, smart and capable.

“We have pieces that are inspiring to young girls. We’re trying to promote fashion and literacy at the same time,” Trinesha said. “You can be pretty and smart. Most clothing brands just focus on looking good, but we want to promote education within our brand. With the different editions that come out, I’ll reach out to different authors and pair a book with a certain piece.”

The Cali Collection was born out of down time during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the collection focuses on toddler sizes, clothing sizes range from newborn to 10/12.

The clothing is high fashion and girly while still being kid-friendly and affordable. Cali and her friends model denim dresses, rompers, puff sleeve tops, flower tunics, flare leg jeans and much more. The custom couture is often paired with cute accessories including heart eye sunglasses, embellished belts and girly handbags.

Customer Tia J. Williams couldn’t say enough great things about The Cali Collection.

“The clothing is stylish and age appropriate yet affordable, which is hard to find consistently with other brands. I also love the exceptional customer service! As an added bonus, they offer free local pickup and same day shipping! The Cali Collection definitely checks all of my boxes,” Williams said.

Bartholomew sees the company going global, but she also hopes to make more of an impact in her River Parishes community.

“As crazy as it sounds, a majority of our customers are from different states. We have a few local in Louisiana and St. John and St. James parishes, but I really want to get the word out around here,” Bartholomew said.

For more information, visit thecalicollectionllc.com, email thecalicollectionllc@yahoo.com or find The Cali Collection on Facebook and Instagram.