Boutique owner Paula Evans has an eye for bohemian chic. Tierra Alma, her Mordialloc fashion store on Beach Road in Melbourne, has an almost cult-like following that lures customers from all over, some from Coburg and Preston who cross the Yarra regularly to browse and buy.
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Sleeping beauty: Evans spied her Provincial Home Living bed in a Peter Alexander store: "It was the last one in Ballarat." Photo: Bill Farr
Others have driven from as far as Bendigo and Ballarat. Evans opened her business two years ago and took the Spanish words for "earth" and "soul" for its name.
She sells high-end bohemian fashion labels, including the reigning queens of Australianboho - Spell Designs, Lenni the Label, Arnhem - and American brands Free People and For Love and Lemons.
The shop also stocks up-and-coming local designers, such as the entirely Australian-made range fridayiminlovexo, created by hergood friend Hails Cronin.
Evans' home is handily just around the corner from the store and, perhaps unsurprisingly, exudes the same warm and eclectic atmosphere: it's full of furniture, artwork and designs that have caught her eye over the years.
"I guess what you'd say about this place is it's me, " she says of the two-bedroom weatherboard house. "A lot of people say to me,'it's like walking through your soul'."
An interior designer friend even once fondly described the interior as "crazy".
"She said: 'You've got your chandelier lamp and some things that are really old-fashioned, then you've got a Chinese-style cabinet, and then you've got your surfboard and all these different genres in the same room, but it seems to work.' "
As she rents the house, the only alterations Evans has made are to window dressings - "inthe kitchen I've put some funky,woven tassel curtains up" - and the garden where she has some flowerpots and vegetables here and there.
While her 16-year-old daughter Abi would prefer a newer dwelling, Evans is content to stay a while longer.
"Because it's an older home I can put my pieces up - if it was brand new I wouldn't want to ruin the walls ... I've got my two puppy dogs and it's great for them. I'm allowed to have them here and there's a big backyard."
Evans and the Tierra Alma team will be taking part in the Mordialloc Food, Wine and Music Festival on Saturday and Sunday March 5-6, hosting a tie-dye henna painting sessions.
Evans had this luxe chaise from the store formerly known as Harem on Brunswick Street - now Swan Emporium - on lay-by for six months, paying it off bit by bit. Photo: Bill Farr
