JUNE FASHION SPREAD: SERENDIPIA ACCESORIOS

SERENDIPIA ACCESORIOS: BY TALIA LANZ

Talia Lanz is wise beyond her years, not only does she have one of the most upcoming jewelry lines, but she also happens to be very business oriented and is always in perspective trying to find what´s next in fashion. She told me her story of how everything started...

How developed do you think is Mexicans culture towards buying indie deisgners´ stuff?

I love what I do and I love meeting people that do the same as me; you realize there are so many talented people that do amazing things and people don´t really know them and once you meet them, you realize you can buy truly unique pieces that no one else will have. I think Mexico is still missing that culture of adquiring unique pieces from independent designers but it´s growing; when I go to bazars I notice how every time there´s more and more people attending and I think it´s a really cool platform to become known.

"You go into any boutique in the USA and everything is so cheap; americans don´t really care

what brand they´re using as long as what they´re using is cool.

Whereas in Mexico, they really care about showing off their money, but I do think they´ve

changed, they´re a bit more open to what they wear. Now it´s

more about looking different when some time aback it was about looking the same."

In which bazars and expos have you been in? Have you had to travel because of this?

I´ve been in a lot, I´ve even been in fashion shows like the one at Ibero and at the Fashion Collective. As in for bazars and expos I´ve been in: Capital Urbano, Bazar Condesa, Expo Sarpro, Expo Deco Estilo, Expo Joya... Right now Cantinflas´s son is organizing an expositon in Campo Marte the last weekend of May, Saturday and Sunday. He is doing this to help a humanitarian foundation and he invited a lot of celebrities to sign autograps and the money they make will be donated.

I have had to travel to Guadalajara, Culiacan to attend events but I also have been to Israel, Palestine, USA, China, all because of my brand. I get inspired by different things in each city I visit. For example, when I went to Jordania I saw some gypsies that had this really Jack Sparrow vibe and it was what inspired me for my bohemian line.

How did you get started in your business?

I was really young, I was about 18 when I started importing clothes and then selling them. Then I got together with some friends and we opened a fashion line but since we all went to school it was very demanding so we had to quit a and that was when I got inspired to start my own accesories line. I remember being in Hong Kong and thinking: What can I do on my own? And that was when it hit that I could do this.

It all started as a importation; I started saving and investing money and that was when I could finally design my own stuff. Of course it was really hard at the beginning, I mean my biggest supporters were my family and friends, they were the ones that bought stuff from me but then, when people started getting to know me, they started buying too.

I´ve seen that there´s been celebrities wearing your brand, how did this occur?

There's two sides of the story, it's been either because of recommendation or because they've looked for me, or because I've looked for them. There's no other way to it. It's the same with the evnts I've been in, at the beginning it's about looking for people and for ways to become known because there's filters and you have to show your portfolio, nobody knows you when you start but fortunately you begin to grow and now sometimes I even get invited to places without me having to write to people.

And you've got quite a peculiar name Serendipia (serendipity), what made you choose this name for your brand?

The whole concept of serendipity excites me a lot, because serendipity means finding something amazing that you hadn't been looking for. That's the concept I try to portray with my brand, that my designs suddenly take you by surprise or that when I travel in search for something new, that it surprises me too. I love getting that serendipity feeling that suddenly inspires me to try something new towards what I do. I love finding or experiencing incredible things.

Speaking about incredible, I love it when people go to bazars and they come up to me and tell me that they follow me on my social networks or that they went there just because of me, it's a really gratifying feeling.

SPEAKING OF SOCIAL NETWORKS, BE SURE TO CHECK OUT HER ONLINE SHOP, THE BEST PART? SHE SHIPS WORLDWIDE:

https://www.kichink.com/stores/serendipiaaccesorios#.VUZb8I5_Oko

Do you have any plans to add up to your brand?

Yes; I started with necklaces then I added bracelets and earring, up next came the rings but I started seeing how the rings and earrings weren't selling so well so that's when it hit to make adjustable rings. Earrings are always a bit harder to sell since woman usually wear their permanent ones but I wuold definitely like to open a fashion line again in the future. I love using quality materials and I think that reflects on what I sell and I will continue doing this for as long as I can.

Before ending this interview, any advice you wanna give young entrepreneurs:

Always prepare yourself for the future, you have to know what´s next because this is your brand, you're alone in this and there´s no one there to save you. If you´re in a company and you lose money, they always have a backup but here you´re alone and it´s your money, your time, your everything you have to become a problem solver, do not get stuck and find what to do next. Recently I've been moving a lot about that because it is always about looking for things.