{"id":32177,"date":"2016-04-08T01:01:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T05:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=32177"},"modified":"2016-04-08T01:01:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T05:01:21","slug":"i-stand-with-marla-aaron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/i-stand-with-marla-aaron\/","title":{"rendered":"I Stand With Marla Aaron"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Consignment is the biggest business challenge for fine-jewelry designers<\/a>. I’m not sure if there’s any other business where a retailer with annual revenues in the billions of dollars will “order” from $1,000 to $250,000 of high-value product from a one-person company and not pay one cent in return for an indefinite period of time.<\/p>\n

In 2013<\/a>, I explained that consignment translates to “Give us all your jewelry and we\u2019ll pay you when this sells \u2026 if it sells.\u201d (I should have added this retailer postscript: “Oh BTW we don’t guarantee we will even display the free jewelry in the store while we hold onto it ha ha ha ha ha.”)<\/p>\n

Last year, the Financial Times<\/a> more soberly described consignment as “where the retailer pays the wholesale price after the sale, returning any unsold pieces.\u201d And there will definitely be unsold pieces. As designer Melanie Georgacopoulos told the FT: \u201c\u2026 if the stores aren\u2019t buying, they simply don\u2019t put that much effort into selling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure, some apparel designers start by placing a few pieces on consignment, but that’s something that they usually grow out of. Retailers might not pay clothing companies fairly<\/a> or in a timely way, but there is an understanding that the clothes need to be paid for eventually. Based on the promised payments, a clothing designer can borrow money from factors<\/a> in order to have enough cash flow to produce a collection.<\/p>\n

Independent fine-jewelry designers are on their own, financially. Because the retailers haven’t committed to paying anything, there are no future sales against which the company can borrow.<\/p>\n

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Many of us have gone along with consignment anyway in return for “exposure.” However, as I’ve written before<\/a>, people can die from exposure in more ways than one. You can’t pay your mortgage with press clips (not that any store has gotten me any meaningful press) or buy the gold you need for your work with a story about how you’re in a hot little boutique that’s popular with discount-seeking celebrities. It’s not just newer designers that are affected. The jeweler Henry Dunay<\/a> founded his design house in 1953; when the company sought bankruptcy protection in 2011, the filing noted that the majority of Dunay’s assets were held “on consignment with Neiman Marcus Group<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Luckily, the growth of social media — from blogging to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat and so on — has enabled many of us designers to reach our gorgeous customers directly. Traditional retailers aren’t the only way to find designers anymore and not only can clients find us, they can talk to us! I’m always happy to answer questions about my designs. Hell, I’ll answer emails in the middle of the night. Find me a sales associate who is going to take a picture of the back of a necklace for you after store hours!<\/p>\n

Retailers should be studying what technology did to the music business, especially to record labels<\/a>. I need to give a lot of credit to retail-industry publication JCK, which has been bold about pointing out the changes afoot in the industry, including this piece that Jennifer Heebner wrote in December<\/a>. Jennifer’s story starts with her anti-consignment advice to jewelry designer Marla Aaron<\/a>. I met Marla this January at Jewelers of America\u2019s GEM Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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So happy to meet this funny, talented and smart lady! #Repost @marlaaaron \u30fb\u30fb\u30fb I met someone whose work I admire enormously. That was during cocktail hour. And then I got to sit next to her during dinner. Thanks @adornmentality for hooking this up and @wendybrandes I may have switched the place cards to sit next to you and you have not seen the last of me…. #gemawards #jewelryball<\/a><\/p>\n

A photo posted by Wendy Brandes Jewelry PR (@wendybrandesjewelry) on