Jewelry Designer Zhao Yici: Entrepreneurship Is Not Easy

New York is the fashion capital of the world. More and more Chinese entrepreneurs begin to emerge in the fashion industry, jewelry industry and fashion photography industry in New York, and become a new force that can not be ignored. Young jewelry designer Zhao Yici is one of them.

Zhao Yici studied in New York Parsons Design Institute (Parsons), majoring in fashion (Fashion) design, and minor in comparative literature. She began to be interested in jewelry when she was sophomore. She went to Saint Martin Institute to study jewelry design for a summer.

In 2014, Zhao Yici's graduation works were selected for Parsons's "designer nominations Exhibition", which attracted great attention for the series of jewellery designs. Then she founded the personal fashion jewelry brand YICI and the high-end jewelry brand YICI ZHAO in New York.

Shortly after the creation of the brand, Zhao Yici's work was selected by Sallly LaPointe, an emerging designer, as the accessory jewellery in the show of New York fashion week.

Gossip Girl, Tayler Momsen's MV, also invited Zhao Yici to design jewellery series.

These achievements were seen by Parsons, alma mater, and asked her to return to school to design accessories for outstanding graduates, and display them in the Saks Fifth Avenue window of American fashion department. In this way, Zhao Yici's entrepreneurial path has been gradually put on the right track.

Reporter: what opportunities and challenges are there for us entrepreneurs to engage in fashion?

Z: has many opportunities in the United States, and is more interested in young designers.

New York is young and energetic, and every type of people in the world is in New York. Fashion shows happen all the time. Most importantly, many successful people are very willing to help young people. As long as you are willing to consult them, they are willing to lend a helping hand.

The more challenging aspect is that the pace of New York is very fast. For entrepreneurs, the requirements for early investment and other aspects will be relatively high. This will create some pressure, and people from all walks of life in the world will think of coming to New York to develop, so the competition is also quite large.

Reporter: how is the jewelry market in the United States?

The Z: market is dominated by fashion jewelry, or clothing jewelry.

Because clothes change very quickly every season, the style of every season is changing. There is a great demand for fashion jewelry.

Asia and Europe pay more attention to high-end jewellery. Most of our high-end jewellery series, hundreds of thousands of yuan or even millions of dollars, are in the Asian market.

Another point is that young consumers are pursuing individuality and design.

When they buy luxury goods, they think less about the real value of the product, and consider more about whether they can match the clothes or whether they like it or not.

When I talk to younger clients, they ask more about materials and materials, and young people rarely care about them.

Reporter: you have high-end jewelry brand YICI ZHAO and fashion jewelry brand YICI. How are the two brand lines laid out?

Z: currently accounts for 60% of high-end jewellery, 40%

。

We have accumulated two years of fashion jewelry. We produce two series of design works every year. Now we sell them mainly on our website. This year, we will enter several department stores and buyer shops.

We will produce 3-5 pieces of high-end jewellery every year, and only one piece of each work is made entirely by hand. Now we mainly face the auction house. In September and 5 this year, we will have pictures in Hongkong.

Apart from the auction houses, we also have some private customers, most of them are post-80s group. They will pay more attention to design and handwork, for example, they will find our custom wedding ring.

Reporter: why do we choose the auction house as an example?

The main selling mode?

Z:'s first work was that the auctioneer found us and asked if we were interested in it.

The auction house.

Because we have been in New York for two years, this is a good way to enter the Asian market, we can accumulate some customer resources, get attention and exposure.

I think for young brands, auctioning is the most direct way to enter the market.

In May and September of this year, we also wanted to cooperate with the auction houses in Hongkong, because they saw the results of our last auction.

Reporter: what are the ways of cooperation with department stores and buyer shops?

There are three ways to cooperate with Z: department stores.

One is the wholesale price to the partners. After that, the matter is controlled by the other side. One is aimed at the larger department stores in New York. The goods they sell at wholesale price will be returned after they are sold out, and another is a consignment, but we basically do not do consignment.

Reporter: after the design draft, is the later production process delivered to our team or with other factories?

Z:, we have two teams. One team is fashion jewelry. They are responsible for graphic design and public relations. Another team is high-end jewelry, mainly for handwork.

Fashion jewelry production is relatively large, now our team is playing the edition, has signed the factory in Manhattan; the high-end jewelry involves the craft is very high, is by the French master specially makes for us, each teacher has five, sixty years senior jewelry manual experience.

Reporter: have you ever thought of putting production in China?

Z: buyers will also have such questions. The labor cost in New York is quite high. For new brands, the price of our products is not so competitive.

If you get the domestic production, it will be cheaper to 1/4 or 1/5.

We choose to make in New York because New York's handwork is very good, and I can control every stage here.

In fact, the best hand craftsman is the European Master. The master I use now is a teacher who moved to New York from Europe ten years ago and twenty years ago. They graduated from the French Academy of fine arts. They paid great attention to details.

Reporter: what kind of help can you bring to the new designer / brand during the fashion week?

I think it is very important to take part in fashion week, because the time from the plan to the realization is very short and the quantity is very large, so the work is very stressful, and it is very important to exercise the ability of the new designer to plan, organize and realize it.

There are so many brands in New York fashion week, but there are very few factories in Manhattan. Every designer and every factory is catching up. Everything is not going to be carried out step by step on the day of the show. So there is a need for very rigorous planning and plans, including cooperation with the fashion designers, and how to make the idea from each one play a good team work experience.

The most important thing is that the exposure of fashion week is really high and anyone will be noticed.

Reporter: in the process of creating brand and opening the market, what details should be paid attention to? What suggestions do you want to provide for other designers who aspire to create jewelry brand?

Z:, I think it is affirmative to take care of your own business, your team, customers and partners.

When dealing with partners such as retailers, we must be punctual and make promises. For example, when I go to meet partners, I will play a Google calendar, and write in the scarlet letter every procedure that he should have to divide, so that his works can be completed on time. Otherwise, some designers are too concerned about the design and will forget the time and lead to a very awkward situation.