The Women Behind This NYC-Based Jewelry Label Are Here to Change the Way You Shop

By Hannah Weil McKinley
AUrate
AUrate
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If AUrate cofounder Sophie Kahn had it her way, you'd already be shopping one of her storefronts in your city. That, she believes, is the key to brand awareness, and giving consumers everywhere access to the smaller, NYC-based fine jewelry label might just be their most pressing item of business. Still, the fact that AUrate has thus far existed only online, in pop-ups, and at their NYC showroom doesn't seem to be a hindrance to its growing popularity. According to Sophie, who chatted with us via phone, AUrate is up a whopping 400 percent year over year. That's a testament that something is clearly working, and we have some ideas.

Born from two Princeton business school grads with impeccable taste in accessories and the know-how to reinvent the fine jewelry market, AUrate may just be one of the smartest accessory collections out there. When Sophie teamed up with her former classmate, Bouchra Ezzahraoui, they agreed on one key thing: there wasn't a place to buy beautiful, lasting jewelry at an affordable price point.

"We saw a problem," Sophie explained. "I have a background in fashion [I was at Marc Jacobs]; Bouchra was in finance, and we met in school. We were having brunch in NY, and we were talking about doing something for ourselves. We'd love to make our own mark. We were talking about different industries and what we would do, and at the time I was wearing a ring. I won't mention what brand, but it was expensive and it was costume. My entire finger was green. Bouchra is from Morocco, and she said the gold in Morocco isn't that expensive — I don't know why it's so overpriced here. And I started thinking that it's crazy that when we want to buy something nice for ourselves, you either have to go to the big brand names, the Cartier, the Bulgaris of the world, or David Yurman, which is often a little bit more traditional in terms of its look and feel."

From there, the two zeroed in on a timeless, minimalist aesthetic and set out to sell it differently. While most jewelers sell wholesale, often incurring three to 10 times the cost, Bouchra and Sophie saw the value in the direct-to-consumer models that retailers like Everlane recently popularized, and said "let's do it for jewelry," a brilliant impulse rooted in practicality. "It's not like all my life I wanted to make jewelry; it really came from an issue we saw [and] something we wanted for ourselves," Sophie admitted. "We almost started just making it for us, and then it got traction. I was still at Marc Jacobs and working on [the jewelry on] the side and then we started realizing that people really liked it. We sold out of our first collection really quickly. Press started coming at us. We had no idea if that would work or not, [but] you don't know until you try. We started realizing we really had something there. So we started doing more and more."

Sophie's enthusiasm, even over the phone, is obvious; but it's her thoughtfulness that resonates. The product isn't successful just because it's pretty. The founders put an emphasis on materials, quality, and — one step further — a conscious component that gives customers the chance to give back. Instituting the same buy-one-give-one model used by brands Sophie and Bouchra admire, like Warby Parker and Toms, AUrate empowers shoppers to give back by donating books to underprivileged children with every purchase.

That mindfulness is at the core of what Sophie and Bouchra do, and the timing couldn't be better in an industry currently plagued by designer burnout and fast fashion. At AUrate, Sophie and Bouchra are committed to designing something that lasts and giving consumers who identify not just with their aesthetic, but also with their thoughtful outlook, a brand they can feel proud to shop. Forget pop-up shops; that's how you build brand loyalty.

Inside, I had the opportunity to chat even more with Sophie, picking her brain about the values that make AUrate so special and what's next for the brand. Read on to get to know the jewelry line you're about to see everywhere and one half of the team making it happen.

POPSUGAR: The jewelry is beautiful and has that great minimalist feel. I'm guessing the business model and the design is very organically driven by your own aesthetic, is that fair to say? And how would you describe your personal style and how it translates into AUrate?

Sophie Kahn: I think for sure, in terms of aesthetic, we prefer the minimal clean aesthetic. For [our] personal style, we mix and match and play it up and down for sure. But we actually generally think that, especially now that we're getting older, it's important to be very clean and very minimal. We found that apart from the price points, the whole direct-to-consumer business model, there was also a need for jewelry that was minimal and clean. There was a lot of jewelry that was statementy and had a strong voice, but didn't have jewelry that had the beauty of gold to speak for itself. That's what we wanted to do with materials. A brand like Céline is something we really like, where it's the cut and the form and the geometry and the material that makes it stand out. We wanted to do the same with jewelry.

We started this a couple years ago, and there was no way to find that kind of jewelry. Where on the one hand, it's timeless, so you could wear it when you're 80, but also contemporary. It was that mix we were looking for. From there, it flowed. We always have too many pieces we want to make.

PS: What's your philosophy on trends? How do you see them playing into what your customer wants?

SK: While we want to stay timeless, there are of course trends, which are fun! It's also what fashion is. For instance, we have the ear climbers. We noticed that some of our customers wanted to mix and match their earrings. To have one pair on one ear and another pair on the other. On our website, you can buy one earring so you don't have to buy the full pair. That works really well. Some people do that; on one hand you might have a really long gold bar necklace, and on the other you have a stud. [With] necklaces, now people are wearing really short necklaces, between the collar bones. So we add in an extra jump ring for a necklace, so you can wear it long, which is more traditional, or really short so you can stack them, those types of things. And now, for instance, we're introducing ankle bracelets, which is something that's starting again. We see what we like and what people like, but at the same time, while they're the trends, [AUrate] is still very timeless aesthetic.

Geometric Square Ring ($1,300)

PS: Who do you think the AUrate customer is, if you had to sum her up?

SK: On the one hand we're very inclusive, so it's not one type of person. But in general, in terms of mindset, it's really important that she's someone that, while she cares about fashion and her appearance, she also really cares about more than just the outer layer. It's a woman who is intellectual, who understands what's going on in the world, and cares about where her products are made. Somebody that has a deeper layer. She might look great, but she also has something inside that she really cares about. I think that's what our brand is about.

Our entire production chain is ethically sourced [without] conflict diamonds. That's where we hope and we think that the society and the consumer is heading. Especially the millennials, that you care more about what you're wearing and how it's made. But [it's] also less about buying something and throwing it away. While she might not normally have considered buying a real gold ring, instead of buying five throwaway pieces that last for a couple weeks or months and tossing them, maybe [she's] saving and buying a real gold piece.

PS: What was your first design?

SK: One of the first ones I remember taking a really long time with and being very proud of was the geometric square ring. It's basically a solid gold 14k ring. We sell it now for $1,300. It's really heavy, and I always joke if there is a recession, you can eat with that ring for a very long time and survive. What's nice is that we wanted to make a chunk of gold. First it was way too square, and it didn't look good. It wasn't feminine enough. And when it was a circle, it looked like a napkin ring. So now, we have the perfect balance — kind of square, kind of circle. It looks really elegant. It took some time to design, but now it looks like what we wanted. It sells really well, it looks amazing on. That is one of our first ones that did really well.

PS: What are your best sellers now?

SK: What's been selling the absolute best is our flower earring back. They're very affordable. Those have been selling insanely, nonstop. It's unique. It's crazy, because one of my friends borrowed one, and then they all wanted it the next day. It sells itself in a way.

Obviously basic staples always do well. Whether it's the midi diamond bar earrings we have or a diamond bar necklace — because that's the other thing; in terms of our diamonds, the price that we're offering with the quality is unparalleled. Whenever people want diamonds they come to us, too. That's a very good place to be. We're starting with our pearl collection, which we only have one piece online. In our stores we have more. Those have been selling really well already — they're not even fully in our collection. That's [something] we use the pop-up stores for, is to showcase new pieces to see how they work. Do people pick them up or not? We have them there for a week. For instance, we had Sophia Bush come to the store, and she loved them. She borrowed them all and then she had a conference with Michelle Obama, and then she wore them [to the conference], so that was great. You can kind of see how these things work for themselves. I think the pearls are going to be a good next collection.

Flower Earring Back Small ($150)

PS: Do you have a dream celebrity or a place where if you saw your jewelry, you’d know you made it?

SK: I don't really know celebrities that well, to be honest. A woman we really admire is Amal Clooney. She looks really good and elegant, but she's her own woman. She's a power woman. She studied, teaches at Columbia, and is this really renowned lawyer. That's how we really see AUrate. It's empowerment, because you're enabling yourself to wear real gold. And that's why we care about women in empowerment. The fact that we give a book to a kid, obviously it's about empowerment. Education is about empowering yourself. And we feel the same for being able to wear real gold. As for the women who we really would like to be wearing us, most are women who have their own businesses, like an Amal, or Jessica Alba. That's the most interesting for us.

PS: What's next for you guys? What do you see for the brand coming up?

SK: We're very happy with the progress we've made, but we're still growing. We've grown since last year like 400 percent. We want to keep that growth rate. I think two things are on our horizon. One is continuing with our pop-ups, maybe even at some point having our own retail store. It turns out that that really works. We're able to do our own retail, and we can keep our prices low, and we can pay for our rent. It's a concept that we just tried, but it's working. We've only done pop-ups in New York now, but I'd love to do them in LA and expand the pop-ups. We hired someone who is really our retail manager to focus on that, who is examining our online presence. As you know, it's hard to be found online, if you think about it. There are so many brands, so much going on. Articles and press helps a lot, but still, if somebody is living in a town in the middle of the US looking for jewelry, how do they find us? Thinking about that, and digital marketing strategy. If there is no pop-up around and nothing going on, then how do they find us? That's the other piece. Investing in digital marketing. We're hoping that in five years, 10 years, we're much bigger than we are, and when somebody thinks about getting a piece of jewelry, we're one of the brand names they think about.

Asymmetrical Pearl Ear Jacket ($850)