Meet the face behind the female-founded jewellery brand!
Meet Loris- the face behind LORI-LORI, a female-founded jewellery brand that combines colourful and classic pieces, with a focus on creating and sustainably distributing products. Today, HOLR is sitting down to chat with Loris about everything- from her brand journey to her best-selling pieces to what the future holds for LORI-LORI.
Keep reading to learn all about Loris and LORI-LORI!
Tell us about yourself and your journey to founding LORI-LORI.
I’m Loris and I live in a small village in The Netherlands. I went to high school in a larger town in Eindhoven. I graduated With Merit and went to law school afterward. I quickly found out that I did not like it at all. Being in the books 24/7. All I did was study at home with no room for any creativity. At least not in the way I would’ve liked to express my creativity.
Being stuck in an environment I wasn’t happy in, has inspired me to start my business. I started to think of ways to create my dream life. That I didn’t want to become a lawyer or anything related to that, was obvious. So I did a 360, quit law school and started studying personal shopper/personal stylist, and got a job for a designer brand as a sales assistant. That felt a lot more like me, but I just realized that I really wanted to do something for myself. I just didn’t really know what that would be yet. I had some spare time as I only worked 10-16 hours a week and I studied personal shopper from home and I could do it whenever I wanted to. I got creative and took my old bead box, from when I was younger. I always made some bracelets with my mom and grandmother. I made some items, didn’t like it much, so I wanted to add something more special and went on the look for some freshwater pearls and clay beads. Before I even knew it, I had collected thousands of beads and had some creations that I wore on the daily. I got a lot of compliments and family and friends started to wear them as well. This is when I knew, this is going to be it.
How does your brand combine playfulness with classic design?
LORI uses classic items, like pearls, with colourful and playful beads, like smileys. This creates a very fun design. When founding the brand, it was important for me to have a brand that is for everyone, whoever you are and whatever your style is. I, therefore, created collections that are classy, playful, and a combination of both of them. For example, the Cali Necklace is a combination of 2 different pearl sizes and letter beads in the middle. The pearls are very classy and mature, the letter beads are inspired by the bracelet I got when I was born in the hospital. These beads are often used in birth bracelets in The Netherlands, to easily identify the children. I thought it would be fun to combine something so classy with something so fun. The letter beads are also a very important part of the brand, as every item can be customized with any text you’d like – so no names are excluded.
What are some must-have pieces we can shop from the brand?
The Island Babe Necklace in blue is something you absolutely need if you ask me. It gives you the beachiest vibe ever and I can’t wait to wear it at the beach with a white linen blouse. Also, the Bubblegum Earring is absolutely one of my faves. The earring itself is very chunky and it has a pink enamel heart charm. This earring goes with literally everything and can really dress up an outfit.
Talk to us about how sustainability plays a part in production and packaging.
As a small business, there are many economic barriers to being fully sustainable. We are proud of how far we’ve come and are excited to continue improving our efforts as we grow. For the product, we handcraft everything in our atelier in The Netherlands. Everything is made-to-order, so we do not hold stock. Therefore, there aren’t any leftovers and no stock or product goes to waste. The samples from previous collections are always given away for free to our loyal customers. We recycle everything and try to keep a zero-waste policy. Beads that we couldn’t or no longer use are given away to children.
Our shipping boxes are recycled and can be recycled again. For international orders, our packaging is plastic-free. Our shipments within Europe are completely climate compensated.
What does the future hold for LORI-LORI in terms of what’s next for the brand?
We’re hoping to expand worldwide. We currently covered USA and EU, but are hoping to be able to ship worldwide this year and get the brand out there. We’re planning on doing more wholesale to warehouses, so our customers can see and admire our pieces in real life. Having a store for LORI-LORI would be great, but for now, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Also, we just introduced a new item: sustainable and drop-proof claw clips, so we’re hoping to grow in the hair industry swell.
Published by HOLR Magazine.