A Boutique with Distinctive Style Rooted in the Community

PATRICIA curates one-of-a-kind, modern style

By LESLEY BERKSHIRE BRADLEY  »  Photos by Chelsey Carico

In The Mews building on Broad Street in quaint downtown Southern Pines is a boutique that feels like a store you might find in much bigger, more sophisticated cities. The store, simply named PATRICIA, after its owner Trish Deerwester, offers clothing and accessories with clean, modern lines and a timeless vibe.

The emphasis on clean lines and classic structure is no surprise since Deerwester began her professional career as a Clemson-trained engineer. And, her mother was a talented seamstress who stressed the importance of wearing well-made clothing. The combination of her mother’s influence and her engineering training has clearly informed her aesthetic.

“We carry investment pieces that will last forever,” notes Deerwester, “Each piece has a minimal, classic design that allows you to buy it and wear it for 10-15 years.”

Even the clothing color palette stays very much the same across seasons and across years, focusing on a monochromatic color palette while changing the textures and fabrics with the seasons.

The fabrics are very important to Deerwester with an emphasis on sustainability. She has taffetas made from recycled plastics that look and feel like silk, as well as Tencel which is a super-soft fabric. PATRICIA is particularly known for the extremely soft and light weight cashmere sweaters they carry.

PATRICIA opened five years ago with one main designer line and has grown by focusing on emerging designers. Deerwester carries 15 clothing designers, allowing her to stay closely connected to each designer. This focus on small designers ensures that PATRICIA’s customers will not be wearing the same clothes found in big mass retail stores.

Her designers hail from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Africa and, of course, the United States. Trish finds them through a network of specialty markets for small designers. Although the designers come from various countries, they all fall within the same styling sensibility.

Deerwester understands and values small businesses like those of her designers. In the nearly 30 years that she has lived in the area, she has worked for and owned small companies. She began her retail career working for local high-end jewelry store Fiskin and Fiskin in the same space that PATRICIA now occupies. She and her husband Jarrett also own The Wine Cellar, just across the train tracks from her boutique. Trish had been a co-owner since The Wine Cellar first opened over 20 years ago.

“I love Southern Pines,” Deerwester smiles,” I am so rooted in this community; I can’t imagine ever leaving.”

PATRICIA’s customers are local but many also come from Greensboro, Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem. Often a group will take a ‘Ladies Trip’ to Southern Pines and Pinehurst from these larger cities, to shop and enjoy the small town feeling of the Sandhills.

“I enjoy watching the people walk up and down the streets, shopping in the stores.  Everybody who comes here finds something that ‘fits’ them,” says Deerwester.

At PATRICIA, customers will find something singularly exciting that suits them among the clothing for men and women, as well as jewelry, home accessories and gift items. And the boutique’s creative displays showcase how to mix and match a clean, modern style, and often a much more casual one. Choose one of their interesting sweaters or jackets, and add a pair of Levi’s jeans, another Classic, which PATRICIA also carries.

Deerwester also sells the handcrafted, limited-batch West Third Brand line of fragrance with perfumes, candles and soaps that have intriguing names like Band of Outlaws, Crazy Enough and Lost California, and unusual scents such as ‘sauntering smoked sage and Palo Santo, warm winds of desert shrubs, hemp, bergamot, and pepper notes…seductive vanilla musk and labdanum absolute’.

The boutique’s handbags are eye-catching yet understated such as a small, deep-caramel colored, wool purse in the shape of a square take-out container, and a Clare V. Pablo dark leopard-patterned attaché.

PATRICIA also is known for carrying British designer scarves by Squar’d Away, English Weather and Sabina Savage. The scarves are truly pieces of art. English Weather scarves start with unique, abstract paintings by British designer Gohur Goddard, and are then digitally printed in Italy. Sabina Savage scarves are also hand-designed but with bold, colorful illustrations; the designs are often retired at the end of a season, making them collectible like an art piece.

The designer of the Squar’d Away scarves donates 20% of the proceeds of each sale to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, in honor of her father. In support of her designer, Deerwester donates 20% of her Squar’d Away proceeds to Rock Steady Boxing, a non-profit that uses boxing classes as a tool to fight Parkinsons disease.

PATRICIA is a distinctive Southern Pines boutique that stands out with its modern, classic and timeless styling, emerging designers, fresh statement-accessories, and an owner who is deeply invested in our community. patriciafinds.com