What was the driving force behind your inspiration to become a jewelry designer?
My love for jewelry design began my junior year while studying Illustration at The Fashion Institute of Technology. While on break between classes and strolling through midtown, I happened upon a jewelry supply store that looked like a candy store to my artist perception. I walked in and impulsively bought wire, pliers, and beads and began to experiment. The synergy behind that moment was one that gave me a freedom. It was a time in my life that did not declare anyone giving me advice or me asking for any. As soon as I began to work with the materials, I fell in love. It felt like a meditation and a challenge to get better. After a few months of honing my skills, I began to carry around my new designs in a vintage box gifting friends and family. My first sell ensued with a very nice customer I met at my part-time job. I had cultivated some wire-wrapped rings and other pieces I kept in that same vintage box and decided to share them with her, just to show, not ever thinking I would sell them, and she became my first customer. From that point on, I knew I wanted to continue, and I never stopped since then. The birth of the collection officially came into fruition in 1999. That was when I had a few pieces to tell a story. It started with wire beads and feathers, leather, graduating to silversmithing, progressing to gold, and now present-day fine jewelry. I continue to also sell brass and silver in my fashion jewelry line.
How has the magnitude of this pandemic and COVID-19 affected your business?
The beginning of COVID-19 affected my business two fold. The custom line had to cease as the Diamond District had closed for a few months and I was not able to access any materials or contracting partners and the entire supply chain was impaired. My online shop was really my supplement. Before lockdown, it was the driving force of my business through the custom purchase orders. My website was there but I had not marketed it as thorough as I should. It was there if a client wanted a piece and I probably sold 5-25 orders per month, and that was enough for me – whereas I had consumed my time with custom design work. Post-COVID 80 percent of my business was driven by custom orders and the other 20 percent was online orders which was the fashion jewelry line. Besides the fact that I was not marketing the website, when COVID materialized, I had to put the custom fine jewelry orders on hold and left the website open. Unbeknownst to me, the website scaled the business. After George Floyd passed and the message via social media and other outlets promulgated to “support Black business”, not just small business, and my online orders took off! In one day, I received over 100 orders and that had never happened before online. The catalyst of George Floyd’s death and the uprising catapulted me into a different arena beyond my customer just being Black. It was challenging but also a blessing. Business has been great- and getting better!
What advice or directive would you extend to an emerging jewelry designer, pining a successful career in the fashion business?
I would tell them to stay grounded and connect to some form of spiritual practice. Stay aligned. If you are not aligned, you cannot move forward or have a clear vision. What is your why? What value are you bringing to the world through your designs? What do you want to say that would help elevate someone else’s life? How will you execute and get to the end result?
WEB: www.lorrainewestjewelry.com
IG: @lorrainewestjewelry
