My name is Jessica, and I am from Haiti. I say it first when I introduce myself, and it is the reason this brand exists.
Identity Boutik is a Haitian-owned, woman-owned Caribbean jewelry and accessories brand. I started it in Miami in 2022. And from the beginning, five percent of profits have gone to education in Haiti.
The school
We support École Mixte Petit Cœur de Jesus in Cité Soleil. More than six hundred children are taught there. The man who runs it grew up in that same neighborhood.
That last detail is the part that mattered to me. This is not an organization that arrived in Cité Soleil to help it. It is someone from Cité Soleil who stayed and built something. I would rather fund that than almost anything else.
Why five percent of profits, and why we say it that way
There is a version of giving back that is really marketing. A campaign, a percentage of one collection for one month, a photograph. I did not want that.
Five percent of profits is a line in how the business runs. It is not tied to a season or a product or a hashtag. When we have a good year, the school has a good year. That is the arrangement.
I am also specific about the word profits. Plenty of brands say "a portion of proceeds" precisely because it commits them to nothing. If you are going to make a claim about giving, you should be willing to say what it is a percentage of.
What being a Caribbean brand actually means here
Identity Boutik was never meant to belong to one island. The Caribbean is Haiti and Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Guadeloupe, Martinique — each with its own language, its own rhythm, its own way of wearing gold.
What we share is the instinct to carry where we come from on our bodies. A coin at the throat. A charm that means something. Jewelry as a way of saying: this is who I am, and I am not quiet about it.
So we make charms for each island, not just for mine. And the Héritage coin series — Dessalines, Toussaint Louverture, Mackandal, Marie Jeanne — exists because those four are not taught widely enough, and a coin at the throat is a good way to start a conversation about why.
The logo is a face
Our logo was designed by a Haitian graphic design studio. It is a mix of vèvè symbols arranged to form a face, and that face is meant to be your reflection. The whole idea is that it wakes up pride in whatever makes you, you.
I did not want a mark that only Haitians would recognize, and I did not want one that erased where it came from either. A face made of vèvè does both jobs.
On buying from small brands
If you are here because you were looking for a Black-owned or Haitian-owned brand to buy from, I want to be honest with you about what that does and does not mean.
It does not mean the jewelry should get a pass. Our everyday pieces are waterproof and hypoallergenic because I spent years in this industry and I know what fails. Our fine jewelry is 14k and 18k solid gold set with real stones. If it is not good enough to wear for years, we do not sell it. That standard is not softened by who owns the company.
What it does mean is that the money goes somewhere different. It goes to a Haitian woman who employs people, works with Haitian artists on our silk scarf collection, has hands making beaded clutches in Haiti, and sends five percent to a school in Cité Soleil.
Both things can be true. Buy it because it is good. The rest is what your money does afterwards.
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