Why jewellery designer Monica Vinader has chosen this New Town location for her first Scottish store

The chic boutique will be opening on November 9

Tis the season to start making heavy hints about Christmas gifts.

Thus, Saturday November 9 couldn’t be a better time for the first Scottish branch of jewellery shop, Monica Vinader, which was founded in 2008, to open. 

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The company’s 25th boutique, with established branches across the UK, US, Hong Kong and Singapore, is filling the former Molton Brown slot at Edinburgh’s 35a George Street, with its demi-fine range of contemporary and sustainable jewellery. It’ll open at noon and the first 30 customers in the queue will get a gift voucher, with anyone who spends £150 or more in store over the opening weekend bagging a gratis Mini Paperclip Chain Necklace (worth £80). There are also free and exclusive tote bags for Saturday shoppers.

We spoke to their eponymous designer and founder, who is originally from San Sebastian, about coming to Scotland. 

From our digital business, we know that we have a devoted community in Scotland, particularly in Edinburgh, so it was only natural for this to mark the next chapter in our UK retail expansion. We wanted to bring our full-service offering closer to our Scottish customers, allowing them to experience our products and in-store services – like popular ear-piercing and bracelet welding services – on home soil for the first time.

Has this been in the pipeline for a while?

Opening a store in Scotland has been in the cards for quite some time. Last year, our store expansion in the UK led to opening new boutiques in Bath and Leeds. We were motivated by the growth in these markets and we have been working hard on the Edinburgh opening ever since. At the core of our retail strategy, expanding our store presence aims to physically connect our consumers with our brand and products, emphasising the importance of fostering in-person relationships and cultivating firsthand brand experiences. 

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Have you been to Scotland before, and does anything about the country inspire your work?

I have – many, many times! I absolutely love Scotland. I have always felt a special welcome there. I used to visit quite frequently with my fabulous Scottish friends to celebrate Hogmanay, when I learned that I love Scottish reeling.

I caught my first salmon on the River Dee and have fly-fished throughout Scotland with my husband, where I collected many of the river stones and pebbles that inspire my collections. The natural wildness of Scotland is a huge inspiration.

I have so many great memories of weekends staying with generous friends in Inverness and Fife, walking up glens and moors, buying cashmere. In fact, I showed my first collections at Jenners in Edinburgh when I very first started.

Monica VinaderMonica Vinader
Monica Vinader | Contributed

What have you done to the property?

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We’re very excited about the Edinburgh opening as it also features another first for the brand - our new store concept which aims to provide a unique and immersive experience through art and craft.

With a focus on raw materials and conscious design, much like our jewellery, we took inspiration from earthy textures and organic forms in an ode to the natural world, sourcing genuine long-lasting materials such as sand, stone and wood. In line with our sustainability ethos, we also looked at innovative materials such as red mud, which is a by-product residue of the alumina industry. 

Art has always been one of my primary inspirations and influences some of our greatest designs. Pieces found in the store were selected from some of my favourite Spanish artists such as a ceramic vase from Dora Alzamora Good and hanging textiles by Adriana Meunie, which adds a very personal and special touch for me.

Will it feature all the collections, or an edited selection?

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As our first store in Scotland, we are excited to share our full product offering for customers in this market to come see and experience in person. Some of our latest launches have taken the brand to new levels in terms of design and aesthetics, including our Nura Wrap collection which captures a sense of motion in the designs. We have also been growing our range of lab grown diamonds, which offer higher clarity, quality and value versus our like-for-like mined diamonds.

Has the trend for multiple ear piercings been a boost for the brand?

We offer in-store ear piercing services in select locations, including Edinburgh, which we first introduced as a direct response to the rising trend, allowing our customers to build a very personal ear stack. In an effort to ensure our customers have a fully customizable experience, we offer free jewellery styling and customers can get up to threepiercings in one session.

What do you think will be the bestsellers on the run up to Christmas?

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Our range of personalised jewellery is always popular, but we particularly see our customers gravitating towards our engravable pieces during the festive season for a gift with a personal touch.

We also just launched our new lab grown diamond initial pendant charms featuring 100 per cent recycled 14k gold. Our lab-grown diamonds are made using 100% certified renewable energy and have exceptional clarity and colour. These new pendants will make for an original and conscious gift.

What is your all-time bestseller?

Our all-time bestseller is our Corda Friendship Bracelet which quickly became a classic style for the brand. However, we’ve seen recent growth in some of our other collections like Signature Link and, more specifically, the Signature Link Bangle, an iconic design that we recently launched in new styles with the goal of creating a Signature Bangle for every customer.  

Sterling SIlver Corda braceletSterling SIlver Corda bracelet
Sterling SIlver Corda bracelet | Contributed

Do people still buy jewellery as a gift, or do they tend to buy for themselves?

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People definitely still buy jewellery as a gift, and our customers often purchase a range of our products as meaningful gifts. 

That said, we also see strong self-gifting even through the holiday period. The Monica Vinader brand was built on the idea that people should buy jewellery for themselves. We wanted to offer an accessible way to do so that still felt modern and relevant as opposed to waiting to be gifted it on special occasions. We believe that people should be able to treat themselves to high quality crafted jewellery whenever and however they want.

Is it important to have a physical store?

People are making much more considered decisions when it comes to shopping these days, both in terms of quantity and quality. They want to touch and feel – and ultimately get to know – the pieces they’re buying into. Physical retail provides the perfect setting to do this. It also allows us to raise awareness of our brand to new audiences as well as to hear from our customers on a daily basis.

Online shopping serves different but equally important needs. Not only does a digital experience make shopping at any time or place easy, it also provides us with invaluable data that informs our future collections. In addition, our website is able to highlight specific details about our industry-leading Product Passport program, which allows transparency into our supply chains so that customers can shop with confidence knowing their pieces have been produced with integrity and care.

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