In Conversation with Ian Charms
In an exclusive interview with the charm queen herself, Lisa speaks to us about how she got started and what it is about Ian Charms that has caught the attention of so many people in such a short amount of time. With necklaces that range from Judge Judy to Nathan Fielder-themed, Lisa has completely changed the jewelry game. She is starting to make her way into designing clothing and rest assured her designs are about to pop off as much as her necklaces have.
Read the exclusive interview below.
First off, how are you? What have you been up to today, anything exciting?
I'm very good. I feel like it's an exciting Monday as we are moving into clothing. The majority of today is sorting that out. We're working with a print shop and dealing with blanks, and also just designing. So today's like really heavily focused on that, which is cool. And every week, we still do these drops, which is crazy that we managed to do them every week. That whole process starts over again on Mondays for me, so that's always pretty exciting.
Can you walk us through how Ian Charms came to be? Did you ever think that you would reach the height that you're at now?
No, definitely did not expect that. I was working in entertainment as an assistant in reality TV, bottom of the line. It was a mix of it being COVID, and they had cut all of my overtime pay. So I wasn't even making enough to pay my rent at the time. So I kind of needed something on the side. I was wanting to make a necklace for my boyfriend at the time, and everything kind of mixed together where I made one for my boyfriend and I, and then friends wanted them. So I started making them for friends, and still had my other job. Then once their friends started wanting them, which was very quick, like within a month, it already became really hard to balance. Then basically once stylists started reaching out, which I just didn't even really expect or realized that that's how this worked, it fully took on a life of its own. I became so much busier than my other job, and then finally in February made a decision to do this full time.
Oh, that's incredible.
But never thought it would be a thing at all. Even I remember my bosses asking me in December, "Are you going to leave and do this?" And I was like "No, like, why would I? I don't make jewelry, it's just a little side project for now." So it's kind of crazy.
Talking about Instagram, I feel like you're very authentically yourself and you play by your own rules. You respond to comments in such a funny way. Do you think that that has kind of been a reason for your success?
Sure, I think the cool thing about a lot of people starting these small brands, by people that are in their 20s, is everyone's just mixing up the game of not following these traditional rules. It's interesting, I had storied a comment that I replied to someone's rude comment on our posts the other day, and someone that's close to me said, "Oh, do you think as a brand you should be doing that? I don't know if that's super professional." And I was like, that is the brand. The brand is not doing what brands typically do and not having to follow specific rules. So for sure, I think people resonate with just how chaotic and free we are. There's no structure to it. We never feel like we have to do things the way it has been done by other brands before which is really freeing and nice.
Other people too have created their own renditions of charm necklaces, what do you think it is about Ian Charms that make all of these people come to you to buy their necklaces?
I think there really isn't anything like it in regards to both not only quality, but it has this very personal sense of humor to it. So usually when I'm making one for someone that's a celebrity, I'll make them what they want for their custom and then I'll also follow that with a gift that I think they'll find really funny. So for Pete Davidson, I made him that Lorne Michaels necklace and he wears it everywhere. He was like, "What is this bizarre necklace someone made me?" Or for Scott Disick, I had made him one of Todd Kraines. I think it has this super current pop culture, fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously. And when these celebrities wear it, we're so genuinely still shocked and excited that it's nice when you're a small business because I feel like everyone gets so excited with you. When Bieber wore his it was basically an accident. And my 'Most Likely To' in high school was, 'never say never.' I have a photo of me with a cutout and I just looked terrible, so I posted those with it. I feel like we're allowed to be like, "holy shit, Justin Bieber is wearing this piece." People feel that because it's such a small brand and feels so personal.
There is humor in pretty much all the stuff that you do, whether it's your necklaces, or there was even one of Kris Jenner with all those like memes on it. Do you think it's an homage to not take life too seriously?
For sure. Especially in jewelry, it really follows the same formula, and it's very feminine and aesthetic. So it really just throws a wrench in what's expected, and it's just so non-traditional, not what you expect. And a huge part of it, for sure infusing humor in something that humor hasn't really been in before. People love the customized aspect of it and the fact that it's limited quantity. So if you are one of the 10 people that got this Kris Jenner necklace, it will never be sold again.
Can you walk us through your inspiration behind your different necklaces and the different themes you come up with?
God, that's a hard question. It really is whatever I'm finding funny at the time. So when we started the Crush Collection pendants, the first one that we had ever done was actually Justin Bieber's. So many people have really strange obsessions with something in pop culture. It can be as serious as Megan Thee Stallion or Timothée Chalamet, and someone's really obsessed with them. Or we literally do Lord Farquaad or we did Judge Judy. It still has that level of how ridiculous can we make this thing? And I think in regards to just making pieces sometimes specific beads will inspire me or colors. For instance, I got my nails done by this really cool artist that I work with and I was like, "Oh my god, I totally want to make a necklace with these colors. I never would have thought of this." So whether it's something that Wendy Williams said that we find super funny that inspires us or just literally colors, we'll kind of just follow our gut with that and design pieces of whatever that week feels super relevant.
What kind of role do you think Gen Z has played in the success of your brand and finding that similar humor?
I think that Gen Z really appreciates irony. Also, they're super into this nostalgia from the 90s or 2000s. So they definitely are a big customer base. The cool thing is that we really do skew up to even older than me, I'm 27, for customers. So it really is a whole age range. But I feel like Tik Tok is so much about being so open that it's disturbing or it's like TMI central and that's very Gen Z. They love it feeling personal and they're very anti Corporation and like supporting small artists, so I feel like Gen Z has definitely helped blow it up.
You mentioned already a handful of high-up celebrities that are wearing your stuff and you're getting all of this recognition for your own brand. What would you say was kind of a pivotal moment for that when that all sort of started to happen?
Honestly, 1,000% Dua Lipa. I had worked with her stylist, Lorenzo, maybe in November. And every time she got customs she literally just wore them everywhere. And still to this day, when she wears one, it's as big of a deal as the first time she wore it. But I think lately, Pete Davidson was really huge for us. Also, just because it's so his vibe, and not super serious, and he wears them in really funny places. He and Bieber have been really big for us. Because I don't know, I think guys are really getting into jewelry and accessories.
You're a very proud Armenian. Do you think that your culture and sort of your upbringing plays a role in your designs and your aesthetic?
For sure 1,000%. I think people don't even actually realize how personal a lot of the brand is. A big emblem for the brand is the Ferrari Testarossa, which I have a little tattoo of, but it's super personal about my dad. It's kind of this symbolism of just living life. We have a design coming out of our shirt with the Testarossa and also, we also have new jewelry boxes that are going to be a Testarossa that open with the jewelry inside. So all of those were kind of nods to literally my super conservative Armenian dad. I think so much of the brand really revolves around my Armenian side of the family. And just being super proud and honored to represent my family in everything I do, whether or not people know it.
Yeah, and it makes it really special to you where you can have that love behind your own brand and have it represent just much more than what the actual product even is.
It's funny, because whenever we're designing clothes if we're unsure about something, and it's super personal or has one of our emblems on it that's Armenian, I always say I just want it for myself. So let's just make it and if people don't want it, whatever. I just want it and I think it's cool. I'm like, if I don't fucking love it, I don't want to make it because what's the point?
How do you deal with people creating exact dupes of your stuff?
People love to say imitation is flattery, and I'm just sort of like, "No, it's not. There's a mere billion things you can do within a jewelry piece. I'm kind of bummed when someone copies it because I'm like, use your own sense of humor and create something totally new that's exciting. We just had a big brand make a copy of this piece, which is the first piece I ever made. It's literally called the Denali, which is my middle name and it was just such a bummer. They ended up actually not selling it and taking it down. But I think when you're a small brand each piece means a lot. It shows such a lack of creativity when a small brand is duped because there are so many things that people can make that are funny and personal and cool and colorful. So what we do to combat that is like, you want to build moats around your castles. So we do a lot of custom beads. So literally, no one can even copy them. And we're just constantly pushing the limits of how custom we can make things so that they're literally uncopyable. It honestly just fuels me to make something way crazier that they would never post on their brand because it's not brand friendly for a typical big brand.
What's next for Ian Charms?
Without giving too much away, the clothing that we make a lot of it is with other artists that I found that are fucking amazing that we're collaborating with. But I think we really don't have any limits on what we're going to do, which is super exciting. We started this brand-making jewelry, which we literally knew nothing about and honestly still know nothing about. And it made it so you don't have the typical boundaries that people have in that industry because you don't know what's really possible or not. I'm really curious where that takes us with clothing because we're really thinking like, "what can we make that we would wear that we've never seen before or that's super cool?" I think a limited edition will definitely stay and clothing should be coming out within the next few weeks. It's cool because the expectations are kind of just not there. We can really push every boundary and do whatever we think and it's going to be reminiscent of the jewelry in the sense that it's very wacky, very crazy, and usually super funny.
