INDIVIDUALITY IS KEY FOR THIS HANDMADE BRAND
Story by Brittany Maynard
Photos provided by Quoise Jewellery
Based in Toronto, Quoise Jewelry designers, Paula Joseph and Trisha Homeward, put love into every single piece they create. With attention to detail, personality and the incorporation of new and recycled materials, these designers strive to maintain a brand that is elegant, unique and affordable, and they’ve retained their individuality while keeping up with the ever-growing demand for their peices. Plaid caught up with the designer duo to discuss how they’ve made the transition from creating pieces for friends and family to building their brand.
Can you give us some background information? Specifically, who are the main contributors involved in Quoise?
PAULA: I typically handle the creative aspects of our business such as sketching our designs, maintaining our blog, and I also do a lot of one-on-one work with our graphic designer, web designer and photographer. Trisha is very hands on with our finances and with the progression of our brand. She basically is the glue that keeps Quoise running smoothly. We were both born and raised in Toronto. We are not only friends but cousins who have grown up closer than most.
TRISHA: I can’t say we finish each others sentences, but give us a few years and we might!
Can you tell me about how you made the transition from creating pieces for friends and family to creating your collections?
TRISHA: It was a mutual friend that planted the idea in our heads that we should turn our jewellery making into a business venture. Once the idea was there, as the saying goes, the rest was history. Paula was the one who looked into how to get our items into stores. Our initial pieces, now looking back, were quite “different” then how they look today. We have fine-tuned our look and been able to make our line a more cohesive visually.
It’s clear that uniqueness and individuality are extremely important aspects to your pieces. How do you continue to grow your brand, while trying to maintain the individuality within each piece?
PAULA: For us a key factor to maintaining our brand authenticity is not mass-producing our items. This allows us to preserve our brand’s integrity by not diluting our product line with the aim of constantly providing an excessive amount of items to sell.
TRISHA: We both create every piece of Quoise jewellery with our two hands. We strongly believe that this will maintain the quality [of the] jewellery.
As you do not mass produce your items, do you find it difficult to keep up with the demand for your jewellery?
TRISHA: At times it can be challenging to keep up with orders from retailers as well as our online orders. For the most part we have been doing well in keeping up with the demand. Whenever we get an influx of orders we pretty much get together every moment we can in between work and other family duties.
PAULA: There have been times when we worked through the night crouched over our work benches creating pieces to fill orders on time. Also, our retail partners have been great working with us by giving enough lead time to fill orders.
How important to you, as designers, is maintaining pieces that are affordable to your customers?
PAULA: We do not believe that it should cost anyone an arm and a leg to be able to put an outfit together. We are just like our customers and hate paying for items only to find that the quality was not equivalent to what we paid for them. We always keep our customers in mind. We have a clear vision of the type of woman who wears our jewellery.
TRISHA: The woman who wears Quoise is your everyday city girl. Her style is versatile, eclectic and has a little hipster flare. She’s casual but still maintains her individual style. We know and understand that the price and quality of our items go hand-in-hand. We have a certain price range in mind when we create our items. We always ask ourselves if we’d personally be okay with buying our pieces at a specific price. This helps us settle on the price of our supplies and materials which ultimately determines the price of our jewellery.
Among many of the unique aspects to your brand is the use of recycled and modern components. Can you tell me more about how you have used recycled materials in the past and perhaps how you plan to in the future?
TRISHA: Using recycled materials are quite important to us as we are very aware of our carbon footprint. We have the view point that every little bit helps no matter how small that contribution might be. Using recycled items adds a vintage edge to our pieces which distinguishes them from the average pieces you find in the marketplace today.
In terms of accessorizing an outfit do you believe in the “less is more” approach, or do you feel an abundance of accessories can also work?
PAULA: Well, Trish is an advocate for the “less is more” mantra. She adores the fashion elegance of Coco Chanel, Audrey Hepburn, and Elle MacPherson to name a few. Yet we both believe that there is a time and place for abundance. What may be too much for one can be the perfect amount for another. We feel it all comes down to the individual, their personality, and the occasion they are dressing for. We truly believe that it’s important to have fun and explore all avenues of fashion to find what works for you.
TRISHA: We also think it is important to reference different trends but never be a follower!
Can you tell me about some of your favourite pieces?
TRISHA: We absolutely adore the “Zoe” necklace. It can be dressed up or down. We picture it with a tank top and a chunky knit cardigan, skinny jeans and three inch laced-up combat boots. Add the “Coco” and “Catalina” bracelets on one arm, the “Chloe” ring on the other and the “Ivy” studs to complete the look. Love it!
As your brand is continuing to expand, where would you like to see your pieces in the near future?
PAULA: Everywhere, haha! We want to see Quoise all across the GTA and then throughout Canada. We hope to eventually expand the sale our pieces across North America and who knows what’s next. For now we want to be a brand that is known in our city and our country. We are proudly Canadian!
TRISHA: We are also hoping to work on the public relations aspect of this business. We hope to eventually have a few magazine features, be included in gifting programs and develop some great media and blogger relationships.
