About


H E N R I E   H E L E N

Henrie Helen lives at the crossroads of curated style and handmade charm. In this new world of small business with a spotlight on sustainability and authenticity I am interested in the story behind the product. Celebrating makers across the globe, I find the most beautiful products, that thing you just can't live without. 

You don't have to hunt, search or scour. Artists and designers have been hand selected and antique stores turned upside-down to find the most interesting things for you to love.

You don't have to travel far and wide to discover the woodworker in Tamarindo selling goods from a hut on the beach or the seamstress in Jaipur recycling fabric into beautiful throw blankets. I am going to take care of that for you, and provide a variety of impeccably curated handmade items for you to effortlessly enjoy. 

Thank You!
Cali Huffman
Owner

 

 Henrie Helen

T H E   A C T U A L   H E N R I E   H E L E N

The inspiration for my company comes from Henrie Helen herself, my grandmother. Helen, as she was known, grew up in a small town in North Carolina. Her mother was a school teacher and her father managed one of the mills in town. Her parents would often pull her out of bed to go to a lavish dinner a few towns over at a chic restaurant and she would wake up on the coast, having been driven through the night to a cottage on the beach where she would play in the surf still wearing her nightdress from the evening before. 

She graduated high school at the age of 16 and left her comfortable hometown for college. Studying accounting and driving the boys crazy she found time to earn her pilots license, flying her girlfriends around to neighboring towns and enjoying the birds-eye-views. 

Upon graduation she moved back home with an accounting job and married Howard, a handsome boy from the neighborhood. After serving in WW2 Howard returned to Helen with a passion for adventure. They decided to move south and Howard left Helen and their 2 children to drive down the east coast looking for work. Proving more difficult than expected, Howard almost ran out of highway, eventually settling in South Florida to be a mail carrier. Helen and the children joined him in West Palm Beach, where Helen had one more child and then returned to school attending Webber College and then joined the workforce, taking an accounting job at Merrill Lynch. Typical of the era, no one really took a woman seriously in a position of command, and while Helen never held a fancy title, she was the go-to support system for all the questions and problems of the brokers in the cage. 

Growing up in a rural milling town in North Carolina, Helen's life didn't have a lot of expectations for growth. However, she never saw her future as anything other than a world of opportunity, and through hard work, there was nothing in her way. Her confidence is the inspiration behind Henrie Helen, tapping into her courageous spirit to share her strength with all our customers.

Our brand launched on November 24th 2017, what would have been the 90th Birthday of Henrie Helen herself. 

 


Back to top