It has never been easier to launch a brand.
A class of manufacturers around the world service small companies and entrepreneurs, ready to work with them remotely to translate concepts into product lines, even in modest volumes of just a few pieces. But the micro-manufacturing infrastructure poses challenges when used by the luxury sector, which places a greater value on quality control.
For Ona Chan, an artist and businesswoman originally from Toronto now living in Hong Kong, close proximity to the factories that produce her flourishing jewellery line has been a key advantage. She uses two workshops in Thailand and one in China, centres of micro-manufacturing, which is why her current base has allowed her to expand more quickly.
“I felt: ‘I can do this now.’”
Every piece of product requires a lot of attention to detail, even after delivery from the workshops. The Thai factories handle stones because they are closer to the necessary suppliers and they have a lot of expertise, the silver is mostly done in China, and Ms. Chan plans to use a Hong Kong workshop in the near future for gold products.
“I look at everything myself,” Ms. Chan says. “As an artist, I like things to be perfect.”
For her jewellery, it is important that the rings, pendants, necklaces, bracelets and hair accessories look exactly as she envisions. “I would be embarrassed if people bought my things and were unhappy with them.”
After finding suppliers at jewellery expos and setting up a system with two part-time employees, she launched Ona Chan Jewelry, initially selling through trunk sales, bazaars and private orders in Hong Kong, and on the Canadian lifestyle retail site goneshopping.ca.
She hopes to graduate to exclusive North American department stores, her home market and where she eventually plans to return. Her pieces retail from $21 for a small silver charm, to $520 for a gemstone ring in silver, to upwards of $2,000 for specialized items, gold jewellery and more elaborate, stone-encrusted necklaces.
The “Mimi Too” series of silver jewellery was inspired by drawings done by her then-five-year old daughter. Ms. Chan also draws on personal experiences for inspiration, such as a visit to a lake in Vancouver, where her husband hails from. Ms. Chan began making jewellery in New York eight years ago. She carves prototypes out of wax, which she then sends to a goldsmith in Hong Kong to make a mould. She orders about a half-dozen of each design from a workshop, and has the items transported by courier.
Ms. Chan meets at the workshops every few weeks and, being in the same time zone, works easily with them through phone calls and e-mail several times a week. “There is no substitute to meeting with the people who make my jewellery. It is easier to correct problems early in the process,” she says.
The constant attention, she says, has led to strong relationships with the workshops. At the start, she says there was much “hair-pulling, yelling” to get things to meet her standards. Clasps weren’t the way she wanted them, or a stone didn’t sit right.
“I would say: ‘You have a sample, my mould and a photo, why is it not the same?’”
The factories would then fix the problem.
After graduating with a degree in fashion design from Toronto’s Ryerson University, she initially moved to Hong Kong in the early 1990s to work in the garment industry, supervising orders for North American companies subcontracting in Asia. She spent several months travelling frequently to the rough factory districts in China and Macau, dealing with suppliers, when a junior marketing position opened up at Louis Vuitton. She spent nearly a decade in luxury branding, which included marketing roles at Gucci and Prada.
Ms. Chan and her husband returned to North America in 1998, living in New York, where she focused on developing her artistic side, taking courses at Parson’s, designing jewellery and learning more about metal crafts. When her husband’s career brought them back to Hong Kong in 2008, she was ready to take her brand to the next level. “My jewellery is a big part of my life,” Ms. Chan says.
“It is important that it is how I want it, especially because I put my name on it.”
Special to the Globe and Mail
Alexandra A. Seno has written about economics and business trends in Asia since 1994. She is a regular contributor to Newsweek, the International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal Asia. She lives in Hong Kong.
