Fusion Of Effects: [Un]Discovers: Emi♥ by Xander Kostroma

Twitter is just an amazing social media tool which hooks me up with some cool brands in the world. The latest discovery I have found is Emi♥ Clothing Ltd. This company is based in UK and they sell some chic and funky jewellery.

Recently, I am fortunate to have Xander, the founder of this company to do an email interview with me and I would love to share this with you.

Hey Xander, thanks for taking your time to answer my questions. First I want to ask is how did you start this company? What is the main concept of this brand's jewellery?
I started my first business when I was 18, I always knew that I wanted to work for myself, it's just I didn't know how I would go about it. Finally, after 5 years of trading I had built up enough understanding of what my customer base was to make the jump and start my own brand. My partner and I then decided to set up a fair trade company called Emi♥.

Emi♥ is a fair trade company that mixes bohemian inspired style with modern day chic. Usually, when people think of fair trade, they imagine "a load of old hippies dancing around a field" (which is what I was told in the past) but I wanted to show people that fair trade can also mean funky and a bit sexy while maintaining a fair trade stature and helping people in the far east.

I have to say, your jewellery look cool and funky! So where do you make your jewellery? What is the price range for this collection?
We are based in Wales, in the UK. We work very close with a jewellery manufacturer based in the South-East of China. Between us, the designs are created/altered and then they are ordered in. They range from a very reasonable £3.50 for a pair of earrings to around £29.50 for one of the more couture style necklaces. We have yet to create a piece that cost over this figure. (Although, we are in talks about designing a very limited edition Christmas range of jewellery, so watch this space).

That's a reasonable price range. What is the concept for this latest collection? Is there a specific theme to it?
The S/S '10 Jewellery Campaign is about naturalism. We wanted to use a lot of natural stones in the collection (turquoise, amber and so on) and only use a limited colour palletfor the season. We wanted to continue with the nautical theme that was ever so popular in spring, and we added a yellow/amber accent colour to complete the look. We just love bold jewellery, and this is very apparent within the collection and will remain a must for us.

Yes, there was a slight theme. We loved the idea of the collection being on the verge of "hippy-chic" with a touch of an Aztec influence.

I notice that your company is called Emi clothing but right now you only have jewellery for sale, are you planning to do clothing in the near future? If so, what kind of fashion are you planning to do?
HAHA -well spotted Marcus. We have only recently launched, and have yet to manufacture a clothing line. However, we have been dealing with some suppliers recently and we are in negotiations of launching our clothing line. However, for the time being we are only focusing on jewellery. We wanted to get our jewellery recognised and stock listed with a few online stores before introducing our clothing range. We are working hard to achieve the BAFTs status (British Association of Fair Trade Shops) and once this is achieved we can then go ahead with the launch in the online boutiques. (We currently have 2 interested in our brand, so again watch this space!)

We have just teamed up with a lady called Veronica Rowlands who is a designer from Bristol, England and we will be launching her new "Miss V" card range. Miss V will have designs sold exclusively through Emi♥ and will be launching on April 14th at the "Shelf-Life" exhibition in Swansea, Wales. (By the time this interview is out, the "Miss V" card range are out already!)

We will be producing a clothing line which will follow our jewellery style. It will be fair trade and up do date with high street trends. We are aiming at getting the younger generation at buying into fair trade clothing and stop using chaper alternative high street stores.

Now I am hoping to see this collection as soon as possible. Other than Emi Clothing, do you have own any other brands/companies? If so, what do they sell?
Yes, we own another company called ShanXi which deals with the wholesale of ex UK high street store clothing. However, this company is due to be merged with Emi♥ as we will be trading as one limited company. Instead of having 2 separate businesses, ShanXi will become a separate branch of Emi♥.

If you could collaborate your jewellery with a high fashion brand, which brand would you choose? What kind of jewellery would you make for them?
Ultimately, we want to be recognised as a stand alone brand. We are interested in other designers selling their collections via our website however, for the time being we wish to remain saparate.

But, if we were to do collaboration with another brand we would want to sell an exclusive range through their business yet act as a separate entity. For example, "Launching Emi♥ jewellery sold exclusively at...."

Thank you so much to Xander for taking the time to answer my questions. If you want to see the products of Emi Clothing Ltd, make sure you take a look at the official website. I am looking forward to see what this company has in store for the F/W collection.

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

[Un]Discovers: Emi♥ by Xander Kostroma

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