1.Describe how you felt when you first set up Molly Brown London.
Relieved. There were so many moments when I was totally out of my depth but I had to keep going, mainly because I had already told all my friends about it!

2. What have been your biggest challenges and how have you overcome them?
Establishing quality contacts with jewellery manufacturers, most of the people I approached wouldn’t help so it was rather soul destroying until I finally made a breakthrough. I don’t have any jewellery design training either so setting up a collection from scratch with no previous experience was hard. I was so relieved the day after our press launch and the feedback was extremely positive. Having said that as the brand grows, I think I probably have some of the biggest challenges still ahead…

3. What is your favourite piece that you have designed?
I love the Aurora Collection. I wanted to design the perfect Christening collection and took inspiration from The Sleeping Beauty fairytale. The Collection features three sterling silver and enamel fairies which each bring a gift to the baby girl which is depicted by a freshwater pearl. The fairies are incredibly pretty, very delicate and have such lovely detailing such as the 9ct gold slippers – and their little legs wobble!

4. If you could go back in time, in which era would you like to have been a jewellery designer?
The magnificence and intricacy of early 17th century jewellery is incredible. I love rings so I think I would have had a marvellous time creating very over the top, extremely expensive gemstone rings.

5.What has exceeded your expectations in creating Molly Brown London?
Lots of things to be honest, consistently being the best selling children’s accessory brand in Harrods, winning the Best New Product Award at International Jewellery London, being a finalist for UK Jewellery Brand of the Year at the 2010 UK Jewellery Awards. Receiving recognition from within the industry is particularly pleasing.

6. What excites you about your Japanese venture?
The children’s jewellery market is fairly underdeveloped in Japan and so I hope that we can quickly establish Molly Brown as the leading brand over there. We are due to launch for autumn/winter 2010 with the top children’s department store in four locations as well as one of the major fashion department stores in Tokyo.

7. If you could start again, would you do anything differently?
No! I couldn’t have wished for more for Molly Brown and the brand seems to go from strength to strength. I hope I’m not tempting fate by saying that…

8.Describe your perfect weekend.
Maybe a weekend skiing in Zermatt or a weekend in Paris in the spring or Christmas shopping in New York or a weekend in Rome or a weekend in Florence or Siena…shall I stop now?!

Information about Molly Brown London
The Molly Brown Collection is a designer range of jewellery especially for girls. Created using precious metals, gemstones sourced for their colour and clarity and pearls chosen for their lustre. Each piece of jewellery is instantly recognisable through the Molly Brown Sterling Silver logo tag.

www.mollybrownlondon.com

Thank you so much for taking part in this interview.