Part III: What is the History of Saint?

Saint was established July 31st, 1997. Everything did not just fall into place. We had no production, we had no "collection" per say and we had no stores. What we did have was a lot of excitement!

My first design samples were cute. The very first piece was the Casa Cross which is still a strong seller in the line today. It was inspired by my move to the desert. In addition to the Casa Cross, I created a cowgirl angel (Trella), a cowboy frog (Jeramiah) and a cowboy elephant (Peanut). These pieces really helped us get our feet wet. We actually still produce and sell all of these designs to this day.

In addition to working on our first designs, I did a lot of research. I looked at a lot of other designers work, shopped a lot of stores and museums ....looking at a ton of jewelry. I was trying to discover my own look and inspiration. What I walked away with was a need to create a collection that made the person wearing my jewelry feel happy and warm. I also wanted people who looked at one of my designs being worn on another person to feel happy when they looked at them. My idea was to create pieces that could create connections between the wearer and the actual piece of jewelry as well as those around them. It was very important that the pieces had a story behind them with some sort of meaning that the wearer could relate to. I also wanted the quality and design of the pieces to be so exceptional that they would stand the test of time and trends and could be passed down from generation to generation. I liked the idea of mothers and daughters passing their Saint pieces down to one another and the pieces would always have intrinsic value as well as a strong design aesthetic.

After I had figured out what the concept was for my collection, we all agreed we needed a name. I was never comfortable using my name for the collection. I preferred using a different name that had meaning and could work well with the product. My parents and I settled on "Saint." We liked that it was a strong word. When we hear the word "Saint" we think of someone who is very strong and has integrity and character. We also liked that it was graphically very strong and easy to remember. So there it was!

My first real collection was actually the blossom. I named the collection the Tuilleries Collection and it was a total of four pieces (ring, cuff, earring and pendant). My next grouping of about six styles was with the bee (Buzz) which is what Saint is most well known for today.

Meanwhile, my parents and I are dealing with the fact that we have no production capabilities and everything we are doing right now is in the basement of a very talented jewelers home in Kansas!

After having our samples made of the bee and blossoms designs we were determined to get into some stores. We made an appointment with Neiman Marcus jewelry buyers to show them our collection. We were thrilled that they loved the line but regretfully said "you only have a handful of styles here. You will need at least sixty to eighty pieces to fill one of our cases." They politely asked us to stay in touch and come back when we have our collection completed. WOW!

We all worked relentlessly the next four months and we came up with enough styles to merit a second meeting with the buyers. This time they were pleased with the collection but said it is brand new and never tested in the market and asked us to test it in their stores for the next six months by doing trunk shows at all their stores. So, for the next six months we traveled with the collection to all the stores and introduced Saint to the company. All said and done, after working out a lot of kinks and surrounding ourselves with people that had experience in the jewelry business we were able to launch Saint in eleven doors the following season.

Exceedingly pleased with opening our new account, we had to deal with the issue of being able to actually fulfill orders. While all of this was going on, I was trying to find someone in Phoenix to make my designs and having no luck. Everyone I worked with was either not up to the skill level that we needed, or were not able to handle the ammout of pieces we would be needing or they would start out with great quality work but it would slowly regress. I was extremely frustrating. In the meantime, my parents continued to work with the same jeweler in Kansas and he was producing excellent work. We finally decided to just do the manunfacturing ourselves in Kansas, and invested in our own equipment and jewelers. This enabled us to created quality, handmade designs in the United States at our own whim.

The business operates as such from there on out. The most significant changes are the addition of my sister Ashley and my brother-in-law Lance to the business. They both have played integral roles in keeping Saint running and thriving. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Sara G. who heads up our production and accounts (she is quite a woman).

Now thirteen years later in our journey, we are proud to still be in business and we count our blessings everyday. We value every sale and every customer. Our relationship with our customers is extremely important to us. We want our customers to not only enjoy their Saint pieces but to enjoy their experience with Saint. It goes hand in hand with each piece we sell.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about Saint please feel free to write me!