We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carmen Cambrelen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carmen below.
Hi Carmen , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
I named my brand Lydia’s Unique Boutique after my daughter and maternal grandmother, it is also my middle name. I wanted it to be very unique in its own way, every item that’s in my shop I make myself. I hand sew a lot of the accessories like hair bows, jabots, collars, bags just to name a few. I only make one of an item because I love the idea of it just being one, in its unique way. My designs are literally what my mind creates in the moment and that’s special to me
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a mother of three beautiful, talented, and empathetic children, alternative model for almost 25 years and now designing my own wearable art jewelry. In my younger years, I used to make clothes for my Barbie dolls out of my mom’s old clothing and always had an interest in fashion, but in a more unique way. I never really went with the trends lol I always just followed what my heart desires. As I got older, I continued this unique look and people loved it! Since COVID, a friend suggested I design jewelry, I had lost my job so what better way to keep me busy doing something, right lol. I started with earrings and then BOOM this creative creature emerges and haven’t stopped. I’ve since upgraded the materials I create with, I use semi precious gemstones, high quality seed beads, a variety of pearls and glass. I don’t usually have like a set design in mind, I just touch or look at my beads and let my mind take off lol, sometimes customers would request or send me supplies and just let me do whatever comes to mind, I love doing that cause they are intrusting me and they know whatever I create it’s for them and I won’t duplicate it. That’s what I aim for, that’s what I’m about, Uniqueness, because we are all unique and different but special in our own way.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Building an audience on social media was a bit challenging because I was new to this field and without having to physically see or touch my products, people were a bit reluctant to buy but with setting up photoshoots wearing my product, I slowly was getting noticed. Had a few close friends wear my stuff as well to market for me. My advice, if you’re just starting out, post post post lol everyday or every other day on whatever platforms you use to get people to notice, tag your favorite magazines, set up shoots with your friends wearing your product and keep pushing. You need to start somewhere, you may not see that you’re being noticed but trust me, people will and ARE noticing you
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I didn’t initially have a set budget so to speak, I just bought stuff, made stuff then sold stuff lol but as time went on, I said to myself ok I need to really think about what I’m buying, how much I’m buying, who I’m buying from. So I budgeted in a way that if I spent a hundred dollars on all the supplies I need, I would create enough to double or even triple what I spent
Contact Info:
Image Credits
All photos of my creations were taken by me
Artist profile photo credit goes to Irven Sumlar