Thea Grant - february 14, 2019

63b Pearl Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 | 917-330-9258 | theagrant.com | @theagrantdesign

Thea Grant is not your ordinary jewelry store. Located in the heart of DUMBO, it feels as if you are stepping into another time… full of unique, high-end pieces that can be treasured for years to come.  I caught up with Thea and Nico last week for this interview, just in time for Valentine’s Day!

RN: When did Thea Grant officially begin?

TG: 2004

RN: What led you to start your own business?

TG: I always felt that I would eventually be an entrepreneur and have my own company, but I didn’t know exactly what the focus of my business would be. After working at several different jobs in fashion and fashion accessories, both in design, production, press and sales, I started as a sole proprietor by designing and building my own jewelry collection on the side. I’ve always had a passion for jewelry and a love of collecting interesting old things and it seemed a natural direction to move in.

RN: What were you influenced by?

I was influenced originally by what was going on in urban fashion and street-wear. I was designing very gritty, sculptural, statement pieces that were in contrast to both the tradition of fine jewelry, as well as the mainstream, dainty pieces that I felt were ubiquitous. At the time there just wasn’t any jewelry in the market that was reflective of a raw, de-constructive style.

RN: Nico, your husband later became your partner in business. What is the story behind how you first met?

TG: Nico was working as a manager at a design store in Williamsburg. I really admired this store and their curation and thought it might be a good outlet for my work.  I was actually exploring Williamsburg with my parents on a particular day when he was working at the store, so he met them at the same time as he met me!

RN: How did that evolve into working together?

TG: Things moved fast after we started dating – we had moved in together and were married less than a year after we first met. Nico’s background in industrial design gave him a lot of experience with 3-dimensional design, prototyping, production and making things. He started playing around with all the materials at my workbench at the house and was intrigued by the jeweler’s ability to manufacture things right away–a process which takes much longer in product design. He also had a lot of experience with graphic design programs which was an area where I was lacking. Nico helped me create the catalog for my very first collection, which gave us the pivotal experience of working together. There was just a really good synergy between us; we each brought skill-sets and assets to the collaboration that complimented and helped the other.

When Barneys New York called, the spring after we were married, I asked Nico directly if he wanted to be a part of it in a more tangible way. I needed help to present the collection, which at the time I couldn’t even carry by myself. When Barneys placed an order for all Barneys Co-op stores, we just looked at each other and thought…is this it? is this what we want to do??? We decided to give it a go and that was the impetus we needed. I left my part-time job and we started making everything on our kitchen table that summer, eating on our couch in the living room–it was truly La Vie Boheme.

RN: How would you say that Nico changed Thea Grant?

TG: Not only was Nico well-versed in production and graphics, but he was an accomplished and confident designer too. He brought his own viewpoint and interpretation to the work that I had been doing – for example, everything I was designing then was asymmetrical, but he made some beautiful symmetrical designs one day which are still among some of my favorites from our collection. The collaboration was rather nebulous at first, but I really loved the work he was creating. In that first season we were together, we created some of our long-term best sellers – personally and professionally it was amazing and exciting to be able to share that style of work with someone, and see it get selected by store after store after store.

RN: What is the secret to working together and maintaining a healthy relationship?

TG: One of the primary challenges of working together is that you spend a lot more time together than most couples. Ergo, the foundation of your relationship has to be strong and your communication has to be open. You have to be ready for the conflicts, and also the recovery from the conflicts. When we first started working together, we learned not to sweet talk each other. If one of us didn’t like what the other was designing, we learned to be gut-wrenchingly honest about our feelings. That was really hard in the beginning, but also really critical. If we were going to move forward and put energy and money into anything, we had to both be on board and feel passionate about it – not just accept someone else’s work because we loved them. I think those aspects are really key. Nico and I don’t feel the need to compete and each one of us brings something to the table which the other values. We compliment each other really well, and still like spending time together when the work day is over.

RN: Family is an important part of your business. How do you juggle it all?

TG: When we decided to expand our family we realized that our lives were going to change, and our roles were going to change. That was a hard learning curve because Nico and I are both workaholics. We knew from the get-go, however, that we didn’t want to have our home-life separated from our work and vice versa. So it was a natural decision from the very beginning that our children would be a part of it all and come with us wherever we went. If we needed to go somewhere for work, they would go with us, strapped on, in the stroller or held by the hand, and would come to be involved in one way or another. Our kids have grown up literally from day 1 in the studio and on the road with us. They’ve been on almost all of our business trips, trade shows, sales events etc. witnessing our work and being a part of it. I don’t think that is the most natural way of raising children today, even in New York, but it is now second nature for us to have three generations of family working in our business at any given time. This is how general stores and family businesses used to be.  My parents help with running the store on weekends, and also help pick up the slack with the boys behind the scenes while we are working. The kids help out with the shop’s small daily and weekly tasks all the time – stickering/labeling, putting together kits, pinning jewelry, and unpinning displays. Everybody is very hands on, and it’s very much a family venture.

RN: You recently opened your first Brick and Mortar store in Dumbo – how has that changed your business?

TG: We were preparing to open a store for a some time, so it was a natural transition for us. We had begun to shift our business model from majority wholesale to majority retail, so we were excited to open a full-time retail outlet. On the other hand, we were new to the rhythm of having a retail store. Our experience was in pop-ups and special events which are essentially like a sprint – they go by very fast, you see a lot of people and potentially (hopefully) sell a lot of product in a short amount of time. Having a store is a much slower pace. It feels more like preparing for a longer run, and is about consistency and building relationships in your community and with your customers.

The store has also allowed us to have direct contact with customers, which was nearly impossible before we opened. We never knew how consumers were responding to our work until we heard from other retailers or when individuals occasionally reached out to us to give us feedback. Remarkably visitors to the store don’t necessarily know that we have designed or made what they are looking at, so you have a rare opportunity to hear exactly what they are thinking and feeling about your work–an invaluable resource for a designer!

RN: What do you love most about being a retailer in DUMBO?

TG: I think having the shop has been rewarding in that we feel even more a part of the community in DUMBO. We’ve been working here for over 10 years, but we before the store we didn’t know our community face to face, and the community never knew us or what we did more than in passing. Being in wholesale, and not on the ground floor of our building, we weren’t visible or open to the public. We feel like we have become something of a cornerstone in the neighborhood now, and that we are a place people know about, enjoy visiting, and even in some cases rely on for services. It took us more than a year to gain some of that traction, but with time we feel that more and more people recognize us and seek out our store. One of the pleasures of being in the shop is meeting people who come in the door and getting to know them. We see a large number of tourists in DUMBO and it’s a joy to be able to share with them not just our work, but the history of the neighborhood and the local sites of Brooklyn and the city at large. Visitors to the shop often tell us they really enjoy the aesthetics of our store and our style and many have said they feel that it is synonymous with the Brooklyn experience, which is such a pleasure for me, personally, being a native of Brooklyn. It feels great to be held in such high regard in my home town.

RN: What are your favorite pieces in the store right now?

TG: My favorite things change all the time but usually involve both the older, smaller, sparkly things as well as the biggest, chunkiest silver things.  That and turquoise – you’ll notice we have a lot of turquoise in the store. Victorian turquoise and Native American turquoise are both really beautiful and are among my perennial favorites.

RN: What would you recommend for Valentine’s day?

TG: Valentine’s Day is often about showing and/or sharing your heart so we always have sentimental jewelry – lockets, keepsakes, engraved pieces, and heart shapes of course. I personally love hearts and pieces which evoke another time, a nostalgia, a way of living and a narrative history. This penchant really informs our curation of jewelry overall.  But currently we are seeing a lot of interest in rose gold, coral, and stacking rings, so we have been sourcing more of those–all very appropriate for Valentine’s Day.

RN: What is your favorite collection?

TG:The moon and stars designs are some of my favorites–really all of the celestial themes inspire me. Some of them are individual antique brooches or earrings that we’ve taken apart and made into one of a kind pendants. Some of them are cast in small capsule collections allowing us to experiment and dabble in different metals.

RN: What makes Thea Grant eco-conscious?

All of our work involves an eco-consciousness.  Our work is made from 99% re-purposed vintage and antique materials wherein in we give new life to old things. When we cast, we use a local smelter certified in using recycled metals. However our eco-awareness goes beyond just our products. We believe in not creating new waste and using recycled, renewable materials in a vertical sense from top to bottom – a big goal in any production industry so we are constantly re-assessing our supply line of packaging, printing, electricity, stationery etc.

RN: How would you describe your brand philosophy?

We think there is an intrinsic beauty and quality in old things because, among other reasons, they were made in a time of slow manufacture. We strongly believe in slowing things down, and not creating work which is mass produced. It is important to us that our customer will enjoy wearing our work for a long time to come, that it will last beyond trends and a single fashion season. We believe in cherishing things and being selective in your choices in what you wear, what contributes to your style and what you surround yourself with. We like to share with our customers the story told by what we are selling, where it comes from, and what makes it special.  We believe it gives our customers an opportunity to connect more deeply with what they choose to buy from us, to make it theirs.

RN: Where do you source materials for each collection?

We source both our vintage raw materials and our antique jewelry worldwide with a focus on France, England, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Canada and of course, America.

RN: Do you have a favorite Valentine’s Day memory?

TG: The first year our elder son was a baby, we were not only new-parent-entrepreneurs, but had a trade show scheduled to start right after Valentines Day. We were under a huge amount of pressure, tensions were high and as a result we couldn’t manage to agree on anything the entire day.  By 11pm, we were exhausted, it was snowing, the baby was in need of attention  and the looming to-do list was daunting. It suddenly dawned on us that we were missing the moment: our life together, our new baby, our pursuit of happiness.  So we came home just before midnight and whipped up whatever was in the refrigerator and served it by candlelight. It was incredibly romantic. There was no light apart from the flickering candles illuminating our faces around the table. I cherish this memory because we chose to stop and take time for ourselves at a moment when we didn’t have a lot of time. Nico and I practically fell asleep at the table, but it was among our most humble and memorable Valentines.

RN: You both have a very distinct sense of style… how would you describe it?

TG: Most of the things in my wardrobe are antique or vintage and come from another time period. I would say I like to cross styles and time periods to create my own story–such as Frida Kahlo colors and silhouettes mixed with high Victorian details or 1930’s Ginger Rogers-era dress and native American jewelry.

Nico: Simple with accessories – it’s all about the details. Gentleman workman style.

RN: As self described gourmet-gourmands, what’s your favorite food to cook as a family?

TG: Current family favorite is cheese fondue and for our mutual sweet-tooths, chocolate peanut butter bars sweetened with honey.