3 ‘Women Who Rock’ Share Their Keys to Success

In my case it’s a little bit easier because a very big part of our business is online: the QVC part. And after I’m on and show a lot of pieces [sales] go very high but the customer knows the brand. We’re all branded so it’s not like buying a dress, which is more difficult.

With jewelry you know that you want it, and you can live in an area where there’s no jewelry store that carries a certain brand, so you go online and you look at it and get excited because pieces of jewelry are exciting. My online business has become very important. I think it’s the sign of the future for all of us.

Renzi: I had four stores, I was doing huge business in retail but it’s just not the same as it was. I don’t know what retail is going to turn into. I still have my lovely little store on Elizabeth Street, 16 years, that’s my little gem. It doesn’t make nearly as much as it used to. It’s all shifted to the website. I’ve had a website for 18 years at least, because years ago when we were in so many magazines, all of these little girls would call up with their mother’s credit cards.

We used to be in all of the department stores. I’m not in any anymore, I’m pretty independent; I just do my own retail and a few specialty stores. I used to do humongous collections when I was in the department stores and now I do smaller but people want more and they want freshness.

Before the market crashed it was very easy business and now it switched so that we sort of need to give [the customer] more of what you’re looking for. It used to be that we the designers were in control and now the consumer is.

“It used to be that we the designers were in control and now the consumer is.” - Robin Renzi

On the importance of celebrity and editorial placements:
Ripka: We were one of Oprah’s picks one year and our lines went down, we weren’t prepared for the thousands and thousands of people. I think it’s still relevant to advertise and I think it’s very important to have your jewelry on celebrities as much as you can.

Kosann: We do a lot of advertising in the national magazines, which has been great for establishing a customer who is 25 to 35 years old or 40 years old. I think that’s very important. I feel very lucky that the press has been so amazing with putting our jewelry on amazing stars.

It’s also great when you see [a celebrity] who wears your jewelry that you didn’t gift or you didn’t plan and, all of a sudden, you see someone wearing that piece on the red carpet or on the cover of a magazine, but to me my stars are really my customers. I love when they rock the jewelry; I still think they are really, really important.

Renzi: With most of the red carpet now [celebrities] are being paid to wear the jewelry. I don’t think you need to have celebrities to do what you love and make a business. Does it help? Absolutely. But only if it’s an authentic relationship because quite honestly if you go after it, it can take your soul.

“I don’t think you need to have celebrities to do what you love and make a business.” - Robin Renzi

On balancing family and a career as your own boss:
Ripka: On some days it might have been a family-friendly choice, on others it wasn’t. You have to love what you do, you have to be very organized at home, and you have to pray that [your children] were athletes so they wouldn’t come home from school at 3.

I look back and I think to myself, “I wonder if it would have been different if I hadn’t worked?” There’s always that question but it’s very fulfilling and I think it helped [my children] go out into the world and fulfill themselves in other ways.

On Hillary Clinton:
Ripka: Many years ago I was talking to a friend of mine who lived in Washington and she said to me, “Why don’t you make a piece of jewelry for Hillary Clinton?” and I said, “I don’t know her,” and she said, “It doesn’t matter, we’ll get it done, make the piece.”

Her husband hand-delivered it to the White House. We didn’t know until that morning but she wore it to [Bill Clinton’s] inauguration. Advertising yourself is about creativity. You need to become creative in all parts of your business.

“Advertising yourself is about creativity. You need to become creative in all parts of your business.” - Judith Ripka

On not taking no for an answer:
Kosann: When I started at Bergdorf’s, I approached them and they told me no. I said, “I’m not taking no for an answer.” When we went to our first trade show we knew nobody. I used to wait in the coffee line and look at people’s badges and try to strike up a conversation (about their store.) We’re artists. We have to have a tough skin. You can’t be afraid for someone to say no.

On supporting employees going out on their own:
Ripka: We had two lovely young women working for us for many years and they learned the business from soup to nuts. They are now in the magazines all the time; they went out on their own, Jemma Wynne, you might have seen them in a magazine, so it does happen. They worked very hard to get where they are today. You have to work hard and you have to believe in yourself.

On the consignment debate:
Renzi: Gold is very expensive so you have to have a lot of money behind you. And if you don’t then the creativity of the world is going to be oppressed. It can work, I’ve done consignment. I grew my business in 18-karat, no consignment and one day it was consignment. That’s what it is right now, maybe it will change but you can’t put your company at risk.

“[Consignment] is dangerous unless you are a trust-fund child.” - Judith Ripka

Ripka: One time I did a lot of consignment with Neiman’s but they had a different situation--they would give you money in your bank account to do consignment. In 2008 they stopped doing that, but it worked for a very long time.

But I would say don’t be tempted to do consignment, especially (if you have) a very young business, unless you have the money to do it. You can build your business doing it that way and get branded being in all the top stores because they all want consignment today; nobody wants to spend the money. But it’s dangerous unless you are a trust-fund child.