Modern Fashion: Elaina Mansour of Nijma M Fine Jewelry On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today
An Interview With Candice Georgiadice
Humility can be so difficult sometimes. I personally want to be involved in every aspect and everything related to my business (and I am for the most part). But, I can’t do it all alone (I wish there were more hours in the day!). Knowing when to reach out to other professionals to get the job done is key and what you need to successfully lead a fashion brand. I knew I had luxuriously interesting jewelry designs but needed an effective strategy to get them seen among my target demographic (PR certainly was not my area of expertise). Thanks to my publicist Lori Harito at Boulevard of Dreams, we sat down and carved out a successful plan to get the word out there.
Many in the fashion industry have been making huge pivots in their business models. Many have turned away from the fast fashion trend. Many have been focusing on fashion that also makes a social impact. Many have turned to sustainable and ethical sourcing. Many have turned to hi tech manufacturing. Many have turned to subscription models. What are the other trends that we will see in the fashion industry? What does it take to lead a successful fashion brand today?
In our series called, “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today” we are talking to successful leaders of fashion brands who can talk about the Future of Fashion and the 5 things it takes to lead a successful fashion brand in our “new normal.”
As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Elaina Mansour.
Having spent years studying science and medicine, and practicing as a naturopathic doctor, Elaina Mansour, wanted to pursue another dream of hers — designing her own jewelry line. Her love of jewelry began from a young age. Growing up in a Lebanese household, Elaina admired the exquisite jewelry her mom wore. That stuck with her. Jewelry became part of her fondest childhood family memories. It is those memories along with her own appreciation for jewelry and how special it makes the wearer feel that inspired the inception of her own designs and Nijma M Fine Jewelry. Nijma M. Fine Jewelry is Elaina’s dedication to her Lebanese culture and ode to her mother’s love for fanciful, bright, joyful jewelry that was worn as a celebration of the everyday — never saved for a special occasion, but always chosen as the main event.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?
I grew up in Sudbury, a small city in Northeastern Ontario in Canada. My parents are Lebanese, and having grown up in a Lebanese household, it had such an influential impact on my upbringing and fostered an appreciation for business, fashion and jewelry. From the age of 10, I knew I wanted a career as a designer. After unfortunately getting quite sick when I was young, my attention was turned elsewhere and I decided to pursue a career in medicine. Little did I know that life would lead me back to fashion and jewelry many years later.
Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?
Before stepping into the world of jewelry design, I was a practicing naturopathic doctor. I still have my medical license to this day and naturopathic medicine will always have a place in my life. But, I realized that there was an overwhelming creative energy I had that wasn’t getting a proper outlet. After much deliberation, I realized that it was time for a career change and I was finally going to pursue my dream of being a jewelry designer.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One of the biggest highlights was the media dinner we held for the exclusive launch of our inaugural capsule collection. It was an honor to be able to share my story, vision and jewelry designs with some of the most established journalists in the industry. It was such a special evening and I will always remember it fondly.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
If I had to choose just three character traits, I would say being realistic, decisive and having passion for what you do.
Starting a brand from scratch and building that brand is hard work. Period. It is so important to realize that and manage expectations. But, with that being said, it can be done. Many romanticize the notion of entrepreneurship too much without realizing the truths about it — it is a 24/7 job with ups and downs. I was so excited to launch my designs and website to the world, and I had to quickly remind myself it takes time and consistency to build trust with your clientele.
So much of entrepreneurship is about making decisions. It’s how you establish your business and push it forward towards growth. Some decisions are easier to make than others. One of the most fundamental and early decisions a leader needs to make when it comes to their business is what to name their business. I remember struggling for a while, wanting a name that represented me, as the jewelry designer, but also communicated what the business does. ‘Nijma’ is the Arabic word for ‘star’ and the middle name given to me by my parents. The ‘M’ represents the first initial of my last name. The ‘fine jewelry’ portion of the name was the easy part.
It can be considered such a cliché to constantly hear, “do what you love”. But when you are truly passionate about your career, you energetically draw others around you. People love connecting with other people. They want to hear about what you do and why you do it, it doesn’t matter what it is. I couldn’t ignore that little voice inside any longer that was telling me to follow my passion for jewelry design. I wake up thinking about it and go to sleep setting intentions and looking towards the future.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
It is so important to us to establish direct relationships with our customers. One way we strive to do this is through a concierge style customer service and part of this is offering complimentary shipping and a generous return policy (which isn’t very common among luxury, high end designers). Buying jewelry online can be tricky, and it is most important to us that our customers are pleased with their purchase (we exclusively sell online to our customers). In addition to this, we also offer post purchase customer care meaning any issues that may arise, we’re happy to help our clients figure it out.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favourite life lesson quote is, “Get out of your own way”. We are often the only ones telling ourselves reasons why we can’t do something. Life is too short for that.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Do you see any fascinating developments emerging over the next few years in the fashion industry that you are excited about? Can you tell us about that?
Definitely the emergence of fashion being more accessible to people, and people embracing their own sense of fashion. Fashion rules are not as rigid anymore and self-expression is encouraged. I think more brands will be influenced by content creators and what they’re seeing online than the other way around, how it has typically been. I believe the emergence of tech in the way we shop (live shopping) will be a big trend in the fashion industry!
Can you share how your brand is helping to bring goodness to the world?
Everyone deserves to stand out and unapologetically be their awe-inspiring selves.
My jewelry is meant to inspire the wearer to express themselves in a way that allows them to connect with others and themselves. I’m a big believer that jewelry should spark joy through a maximalist aesthetic and encourage people to dress up everyday and not just on special occasions. Every day is the occasion.I was taught that from a young age and I continue to embody this through my designs which have a classic, timeless sentiment but with a modern twist.
Can you share with our readers about the ethical standards you use when you choose where to source materials?
A lot of research goes into which jewelry manufacturer to work with because ethical and sustainable practices is part of the Nijma M Fine Jewelry DNA. The use of recycled materials like gold and sustainably mined precious and semi-precious stones are a must for our designs. In addition to this, being able to trace the source of these materials (though ideal, not always possible currently) is also something we look for. We strive to work with manufacturers that value the art of handcrafted designs through the employment of skilled bench jewelers, as well as those that value their employees by paying a living wage.
Fast fashion has an advantage, that it is affordable for most people, but it also has the drawback that it does not last very long and is therefore not very sustainable. What are your thoughts about this? How does your company address this question? Fine jewelry, such as the Nijma M designs, may seem to have an expensive face value, but the beauty is that solid gold fine jewelry will last a lifetime! Would you rather continuously have to spend money replacing your fashion jewelry or finding a fine jewelry piece you love knowing it will last forever AND something you can gift as an heirloom one day? It’s also an economically smarter choice in the long term — gold is a precious metal with an ever increasing price. It’s a pretty easy choice if you ask me. But, with that being said, each customer has to choose what is most feasible for them.
Thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand”. Please share a story or example for each.
The first thing I would say is flexibility. You can plan and plan and plan and get everything lined up to execute your plan. The reality is that not everything is going to go your way all the time. So being flexible and pivoting in order to take that detour but still accomplish your goals is key. After weeks of searching for the right packaging supplier, I finally found one based in Italy with offices in NYC. It was the packaging I dreamed of for Nijma M! Unfortunately, due to staffing issues, they couldn’t fulfill my needs as a customer. In the end (and after more researching and much more frustration), I found another packaging supplier that really was the packaging supplier of my dreams. Also based in Italy, they are responsible for our gorgeous white crushed velvet with gold tassel packaging and I couldn’t be happier.
Speaking of flexibility and accomplishing goals no matter what, you also need a vision. You need to be clear on what your goals are. Without clear objectives, it’s difficult to articulate them to others and to build a team that is in sync. You also need a vision of what people want in the upcoming seasons, what’s going to be trendy, what people will be talking about. When I’m designing jewelry, I always look at trend forecasts like Trend Vision specifically for jewelry and even those like WGSN for the fashion industry as a whole.
Humility can be so difficult sometimes. I personally want to be involved in every aspect and everything related to my business (and I am for the most part). But, I can’t do it all alone (I wish there were more hours in the day!). Knowing when to reach out to other professionals to get the job done is key and what you need to successfully lead a fashion brand. I knew I had luxuriously interesting jewelry designs but needed an effective strategy to get them seen among my target demographic (PR certainly was not my area of expertise). Thanks to my publicist Lori Harito at Boulevard of Dreams, we sat down and carved out a successful plan to get the word out there.
The fashion industry is full of talent. In order to stand out, your message, your product has to make a statement in order to be seen. Take risks and don’t be afraid to be bold — whether with your messaging, branding, advertising, etc. I knew I had to be bold with the photography for Nijma M Fine Jewelry designs, especially with a heavy online presence. Photography for fine jewelry can often be subdued but I knew I wanted the opposite. Fine jewelry can be luxurious AND also modern and playful at the same time. I reached out to Sarah Wright at Yes & Studio in Toronto and she took my initial photography ideas and theme and turned them into purely magical photos.
Balance. I know, this is such a cliché! But, it cannot be stressed enough. Designing and creating in the fashion world is so rewarding but can also be so draining. In order to keep on giving and designing from an inspired place, proper rest and self care is needed. Self care looks different to each person. Not only does your business deserve so much attention, but so do you. Those are the doctor’s orders! My self care routine includes resurfacing face masks, lots of Arabic music and organizing my house (a total ‘Monica’, but a clean space equals clear thoughts and creative motivation for me).
Every industry constantly evolves and seeks improvement. How do you think the fashion industry can improve itself? Can you give an example?
In the fine jewelry world, there have been some great achievements especially when it comes to mined, natural diamonds. The Kimberley Process is one such example (they’ve drastically reduced the amount of diamonds from conflict areas entering the mainstream supply chain by close to 99.8% ). The continued pursuit of transparency in the industry is key. Companies willing to be transparent about their policies, where they mine their precious and semi-precious stones from, is not only what customers now want, but also is beneficial for the business in creating trust. It benefits everyone.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
A pressing issue in the fashion industry as a whole is fair wage and working conditions for all workers in all countries. There has been a lot of coverage on this issue, but not enough has been done to force the change that is needed. How about consumers and workers team up? Companies can’t ignore their customers and their employees.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Nijma M Fine Jewelry’s Instagram page is the best way to find out what we’re currently up to (@nijmamfinejewelry). Also, our website has all our current designs and is where our designs can be exclusively purchased www.nijmamfinejewelry.com.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Modern Fashion: Elaina Mansour of Nijma M Fine Jewelry On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.