Zia Couture Jewelry
In their own words
“There’s a rotating collection of thirty different artists that I find from all over the world. I also create my collection, which is called Sticks + Stones. My mother’s Japanese American, and my father’s East Indian, and I was born and raised in Kenya and East Africa. I have the Japanese, Indian, and African cultures to influence the jewelry. There’s a minimal characteristic to it with a tribal edge—and it’s quite colorful. I always incorporate either sterling or gold-filled metals and make it an unusual shape. My mother always told me, make it big, make it light.”
-Zia Sachedina
Jason’s Interview with Zia
Jason
Today, we're on the line with Zia Sachedina from Zia Couture Jewelry. Can you tell us a little about your history and how you started the company?
Zia
I opened in 2005, so fourteen years ago. I was twenty-four years old at the time. My mother was in the jewelry business when I was growing up, so I was around it quite a bit. I went to university here in Savannah for interior design. I realized that interior design, although my passion, wasn't what I was meant to do. So I took after my mother's footsteps and started selling jewelry, and here I am fourteen years later.
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Jason
Can you tell us a little about your mom’s journey? Growing up seeing her in the jewelry industry must have been inspiring.
Zia
I think like all people who grew up in family businesses, who are kind of made to work in the family business when you're younger, you kind of hate it. I think I did. I never saw that I was going to end up in this career. Until one Christmas, I was home helping my mother in her business, which she had for thirty years. It was a small jewelry store. I'd always begrudgingly gone in to help her over the years, but this one particular Christmas season, for whatever reason, it was really working. I was enjoying working with the customers and they were enjoying what I was offering. And that was my first taste that I was good at this and that maybe I should continue pursuing it.
Jason
How excited is your Mom now that you’re in the business?
Zia
She’s thrilled. She's retired now, my sister actually took over her business. She taught me everything I knew. I was on the phone with her twice a day for the first two years, every single day. She taught me everything, how to buy, where to buy, accounting, sales pitches, everything like that. She was a major influence in my career.
Jason
Can you tell us the uniqueness about your design and your inspiration? Being an interior designer, you must have your own design flair.
Zia
I do. I buy and sell from other people as well. There's a rotating collection of thirty different artists that I find from all over the world. I do a lot of traveling. I also create my own collection, called the Sticks + Stones collection. My mother's Japanese-American, my father's East Indian, and I'm born and raised in Kenya and East Africa. I have the Japanese, Indian, and African cultures to pull from, to influence the jewelry. It's got a sort of minimal characteristic to it with a tribal edge as well, and quite colorful. I have items that are called Sticks + Stones, Falling Leaves, Waterfall, Raindrops, Dew Drops. There are a lot of nature-inspired pieces. I have a sub-collection called the Kalahari Collection, which is more African tribal-inspired pieces, which have a lot of batik-died bone, cow horn, feathers, beetles’ wings, things like that. I always incorporate either sterling or gold-filled with it and make it in an unusual shape, or big and lightweight. My mother always told me, make it big, make it light.
Jason
Where do you see the trends going this year? Is there an inspiration you have for your new Sticks + Stones collection?
Zia
I don't really follow the trends, I never really have. It made me very sad when I saw there was a period where a lot of jewelry was getting really small and delicate. That's never really been my style. I just continued to go big. Luckily, I've been able to stand out from the rest of the crowd that does follow the trends, because I think there's a lot of people out there that don't follow trends. Those are the kind of people that I congregate towards.
Jason
Can you talk to us, not all 30 amazing artists, but maybe there's a few that are top of mind to highlight?
Zia
I love going to Turkey. Turkey has a lot of really amazing jewelry designers and stones and minerals. I love the aesthetic of Turkish jewelry. I also love going to India and jewelry bazaars in the markets over there, which is fantastic for natural gemstones and unusual handmade pieces. In Kenya, where my family is from, the markets are really amazing as well. That's really what I love doing—working directly with local makers. A lot of it is fair trade. It's direct to consumer from the artisans.
Jason
Do you guys have any causes that you're aligned with?
Zia
Animal charities are my thing. I'm on the board of an animal charity in the town I live in called For the Love of Paws. We donate towards local dog and cat shelters that take in animals and save them from the kill shelter. Every year, we have an event that's geared towards the elephant orphans in Nairobi, Kenya. These little baby elephants are saved when their parents, their mothers, have been killed for their ivory or poisoned for eating crops of the villagers. They take the babies in and rehabilitate them, and then re-introduce them into the wild. It's a really amazing cause.
Jason
Where's the best place to actually purchase your product? Are there any specific shops across the country?
Zia
Right now, just online zicouture.com and our brick-and-mortar in Savannah, Georgia. We have a great staff. Everyone’s trained really well. I don't call them sales associates, they’re more stylists because we try to assess what people would look good in.
Jason
What is the experience like as we're coming into your doors?
Zia
I've always thought there's nothing worse than when you walk into a store and you’re ignored. We try to make it a really hearty welcome to the people as they come in the door. We are in the touristy location, about 60% of our customers are tourists. We like to engage with the customer and find out where they're from. Then we try to gauge what they're interested in, gold or silver, stones or no stones, big or small? Start setting things by the mirror and help them start trying things on.
Jason
And your ideal customer, what do they typically look for?
Zia
Our statement pieces, the bigger the better. And the more unusual. Two doors down from us is Kendra Scott. That's where you can get your basic, everyday jewelry. We're kind of more unusual statement pieces.
Jason
Got it. Do you have any customer stories that you can share with us?
Zia
After every sale, we send an email to thank customers and also direct them to our Yelp and Google pages, and I've [been] very touched by the number of positive reviews that people have left for us. People who have come back to us, year after year, every Christmas, Mother's Day, and people who've been shopping at my store before I even opened, when I was just doing trunk shows. Those people are still my customers today. It's been a wonderful experience to stay in touch with people like this and see their support over the years.
Jason
Was there a moment in your journey that you didn't feel so good about the experience or you questioned it?
Zia
I actually used to be wholesale as well. I was producing my pieces and we were in 400 stores in seven countries. Very successful, but the lifestyle was extremely hard on me. It's a lot of travel and I had my retail store as well. The store wasn't doing quite as well, because I wasn't able to keep my eye on it and I was spread too thin. The profit margins of wholesale are razor-thin, so you really have to do a lot of volume in order to make it worth it. I’ve noticed that even with my buying patterns for my store, I've stopped going to the trade shows as much or narrow down how many trade shows I go to each year. The cost for the wholesale is extremely high to go to these shows. The pressure is really on. I made the decision to stop doing wholesale after five years and focus again on the retail store and quality of life as well. It's the best decision that I've made, honestly, because I now have my life back. And my store is doing better. I'm happier, and business is better.
Jason
Can you tell us a differentiator in the Savannah market?
Zia
I think also the customer experience. It is such a tourist town, I think a lot of people get treated like a tourist, like they're never going to be seen again. We try to do the exact opposite because we look at everybody who's coming from any part of the country or the world as a potential returning customer. Our customer service is a really big differentiating factor. And then obviously having the most unique pieces. We've been honored to have been voted Best Jewelry Designer and Best Jewelry Store the past several years by two different publications in Savannah.
Jason
If there's anything else that you want us to know, about you or your brand or your store, what would it be?
Zia
Buy local and buy handmade. The more we can keep small, independent businesses alive the better. Otherwise, it's going to turn into any-car-USA everywhere.
Jason
If people want to get ahold of you, is there an email or phone number you can share with us?
Zia
Just reach out on the website ziacouture.com.