It was a fateful car trip that brought Jen Kluger and Suzie Orol together. While both in their first year at the University of Western Ontario in 1998, they shared a ride back to school from their hometown of Toronto with a mutual friend. Kluger noticed that Orol was wearing earrings by a familiar Canadian designer, and Orol explained that her family’s jewellery company had been involved in the casting of the earrings. As they continued talking, they discovered their mutual interest in accessories, and by the time they arrived in London, a partnership was born.
This wasn’t the first time either of them had realized they were destined for business. Not only were they each enrolled in business studies at Western, but they’d also both dabbled in their own small endeavours.
Kluger started creating simple jewellery in high school, paying friends to help assemble pieces in the school cafeteria at lunch and then selling it to local boutiques. And when Orol’s parents took over the family jewellery business from her grandfather, Orol designed her own small teenage line.
Their meeting, however, was the first time either of them realized they wanted to take the idea of a jewellery business to the next level.
During their first winter break, the duo picked up some supplies and designed the first ten styles of Foxy Originals, which they sold to friends and dorm mates. They also managed to sell to a few stores in London, including a high-end boutique, a surf shop and a gift store. Sooner than expected, the re-orders started to pour in. “It was no longer about supporting us,” Kluger explains about the retailers’ motivation, “but rather that these items were moving because they had market appeal.” Any money they made was funnelled back into the business, allowing them to spend the next four summers selling their wares at summer music festivals and Toronto’s One-of-a-Kind Show. Their crowning achievement, while still in school, was winning the ACE Canada CIBC Student Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2001, which is given to a business that has the potential for growth, provides service to the community, and is being run by people who are still attending college or university. Upon graduation, with momentum already built up and no dependents to worry about, they devoted themselves full-time to the line. “It was a very good time to take the risk,” says Jen Kluger.
Now both 26, they work in pewter coated in sterling silver, gold and bronze, with enamel for colour fills. The collection is inspired by a variety of influences. “Before every collection,we
travel,” says Kluger, explaining that they’d recently returned from Tokyo and Thailand.
“In Tokyo we saw the most beautiful manhole cover,” she continues. “Patterns really inspire us,” interjects Orol. Though the looks may be inspired by their globetrotting, the actual merchandise is created here at home and produced at Orol’s parents’ production site.
Foxy Originals is now sold in hundreds of stores across North America, and has even been photographed on socialite celebrity Paris Hilton. Where can they take the company from here? “You have to constantly change the way you define success,” says Kluger, who goes on to explain that they are pursuing distribution on a more global scale, including Australia, Tokyo and the UK. “We get customer enquiries and feedback every day from all over the world, because of the Internet,” adds Orol. Not bad for a company that counts only five full-time employees, not including Kluger and Orol themselves.
“We make all the decisions and we’re able to define how this company will grow and move forward,” Orol says when asked what she likes best about owning her own business. But it’s not all easy. Orol goes on to explain that every new decision is hard. “You’re never given the answer,” adds Kluger.They’re also aware of the cachet that Foxy Originals gives them. “People respect women who have their own businesses,” says Kluger. “In our business class, it was the first year that women represented 50 percent of the students.”
CURÉOUS DESIGNS
As children of entrepreneurs, owning a business was always the aim for Shannon and Tanya Curéous. Initially though, they each struck out on their own. Shannon, who studied fashion design at George Brown College, launched her firm, SBC Designs, designing jewellery with semi-precious stones, while Tanya, a Fashion Merchandising grad from Seneca College, hit the market with her jewellery line, Silver Candy, which featured fashion accessories made of bold, bright colours and cat’s eye glass. Two years ago, realizing that their individual talents complemented one another perfectly, they launched Curéous Designs. After all, being in business requires trust. “Who better to trust than your family?” says older sister Shannon, 29.
Their first public offering was at the 2005 Mode Show in Toronto, where they said the reaction was overwhelming. “The phone started ringing and the emails started coming,” explains Shannon, who kicks off the collaboration process with colour research.
Tanya, 26, is the partner who pushes each design further, challenging her sister’s instinct to play it safe.The Toronto-born and -based sisters put out two collections a year, with their main focus being sterling silver. Each collection consists of three different lines: Glam, which incorporates semi-precious stones; Clash, which uses cat’s eye glass; and Chic, which offers a streamlined aesthetic made entirely of sterling silver. Shannon emphasizes the versatility of the designs. “It’s three different looks we can offer a client.”
The freedom of reporting only to each other is one of the perks of the job. “We get to travel, meet interesting people and make our own schedules,” adds Tanya. “We’re in full control.” But she’s quick to point out that those schedules are pretty full. “We always have to be hands-on in the business. We can’t go home. We’ve got to put in those extra hours.” Their hope is that the overtime will pay off, allowing them to expand into the US by early 2007. But the rewards are already evident. “Jewellery says a lot about a person,” explains Shannon, who is clearly proud to be assisting people with that statement. And keeping it in the family makes success that much sweeter.
LORANNE KETTLEWELL
Loranne Kettlewell thought she was going to save the world, hence her masters in International Affairs from Carleton University in Ottawa. However, while working for her mother’s holiday decorating company in 2002, divine inspiration in the form of Swarovski beads led her on a detour that made her true calling crystal clear. She realized, “My talents were better spent trying to make [the world] look a bit more pretty.” She used those beads to create a necklace for her sister. And it got noticed. “People wanted to know where they could get it,” says Kettlewell.
Fast forward to June 2004. Kettlewell, who had attended and continues to attend classes in jewellery design at George Brown College in Toronto to further her construction skills, set up a booth at the holiday show put on by her mother’s company. Not only did customers arrive, money in hand, they also placed custom orders. This encouraged her to begin approaching stores, and by March 2005, Kettlewell left the stability of her day job as a partner in the family design firm to devote all her energy to her eponymous jewellery collection.
Working in sterling silver chain, wire 14-carat gold fill, freshwater pearls, shells, mother-of-pearl carvings and, of course, Swarovski crystals, Kettlewell, now 29, describes her collection as “bridge” jewellery, or the step between fashion accessories and fine jewellery. And, just as in the beginning, she finds inspiration for her designs from the materials themselves, including the colour and texture of the crystals and the movement of the chain. Magazines and trend books serve to keep her own vision in line with the latest fashion trends.
With an employee on the payroll and a couple of trade shows under her belt, Kettlewell is quickly learning the ropes of being her own boss. And she’s not complaining.
“The challenge is that you have to do everything [yourself]. But it also makes it more rewarding. Everything is a first. Everything takes longer than you expect.” But you could say her entrepreneurial spirit was bred in the bone, considering both her parents are business owners who provide much-needed advice and support. “My complaints aren’t falling on deaf ears,” Kettlewell says with a laugh. She’s also felt embraced by other designers. “The fashion industry in Canada has a sense of community. It’s very encouraging.”
Her success so far has included coverage in major consumer magazines, as well as red carpet appearances of her jewellery at the Gemini Awards and the Berlin Film Festival. And her future goals are clear. “To keep the revenue flowing. Have a separate studio space,” she says, referring to the fact that her small, downtown Toronto loft serves as both home and office. “I’d like to expand the market outside of Canada.” All of these goals will serve to grow her young business, but her passion is already well established. “I wake up every morning and I just can’t wait to get started.” Perhaps she will save the world – one necklace at a time.
Despite the struggles each company spoke about – the long hours, the difficulty of separating work time from personal time, and the constant need to expand and conquer new territories – the rewards seem to far outweigh their sacrifices. These are women who’ve chosen not to be a cog in someone else’s wheel, but are building themselves from the ground up and creating their own vision. And you can bet they’re wearing just the right earrings while they do it.
