I’ve been getting lots of emails and DMs wondering when pieces will be back in stock and asking why they keep selling out, so I want to give you a little transparency and insight into our current stock issues.

When you keep selling out of a particular style, that’s usually good news - people love your product! It makes for great PR too - you know the headlines - “The silk pajamas this indie brand can’t keep in stock!”. Well, we can’t keep anything in stock but we’re not happy about it. Every time a style is sold out, it means there is revenue that we’re not getting in the door to keep the lights on and the rent paid. While it's great and encouraging that our customers love our jewelry, being sold out is not fun for us, trust me!

 

1. We make our jewelry in small batches

We don’t do mass production for a couple reasons. The first is because of quality, but the second is that as a new business we don’t have thousands of dollars laying around to invest in huge runs of stock. We try to make about 30 - 50 of each style at a time and it takes about 6 weeks for batches to arrive in NYC from our Istanbul studio. 

2. Supply chain issues

We only sold out once before the virus hit, and I doubt we would be sold out of so many pieces right now if it hadn’t. Supply chains are seriously disrupted. Did you know that almost all high quality chains are made in Germany or Italy? They’re too technical to make in-house so most jewelers source from these high end suppliers. But most of them are sold out because their factories are shut down. When it comes to sourcing our gems, that's also difficult because stonecutters and vendors in NYC have also closed their doors. 

3. Shipping shutdowns

We source our ethical diamonds and other precious gems here in NYC and then ship them to our studio using a specialist transport company, but almost all flights have been cancelled which means we can’t get the gemstones out of the country. One of our other delivery companies has also decided out of the blue to stop shipping any loose diamonds because some people use them to launder money (not us, obviously!!!). We tried to ship diamonds four times and each time they got returned to sender until that company informed us of this new and bizarre policy. 

4. Studio capacity

Finally, to ensure social distancing, our studio is operating at 20% capacity, with staff rotating in and out and specialized cleaning crews coming weekly. That means things just can’t move at the rate they used to. 

Ok, so what are we doing about it?

We’re doing our best to get all our pieces back in stock, wrangling new suppliers and shipping methods. We're taking pre-orders and fulfilling them as soon as stock comes in, which is sometimes early and sometimes late, depending on how many flights are cancelled each week. 

I’m also shipping orders from my apartment - wearing a mask and gloves as I package each piece with my husband - instead of shipping from our warehouse so that no warehouse workers risk exposure to the virus. 

I’ve also been taking this time to design our second collection, which I can’t wait to show you in a few weeks!

Take care and stay safe,

Torie