Monique Anderson knows how contestants on CBC’s Dragon’s Den feel. The founder and designer for I’Moniq Accessories packed up her precious creations and flew them to New York City in March of this year to defend her work in front of the assistant buyer of Henri Bendel. Twice a year Bendel’s hosts a casting call “Open See” for emerging talent to line up along Fifth Avenue and audition their life’s work. Past talent include Anna Sui, Todd Oldham and Pamela Dennis.
“I got there at 4 a.m.,” said Anderson while we chatted during her Fall Expose preview at Miracle Thieves on Dundas. “I was still behind a group of people when I lined up. Six hours later we were all putting on our heels and doing our makeup to go inside and get our five minutes.”
One month after the nerve-wracking audition, Anderson got a call from Bendel’s asking her to take part in their New York Fashion Week trunk show where her designs would be shown in store, worn by their salespeople and sold to their customers.
Now back from the high of fashion week and selling her goods in Henri Bendel’s, Anderson is concentrated on her brand– one she started just back in 2010 after a fashion design program at Ryerson and working in production manufacturing design for six years. Travel is the main inspiration behind her bracelets, necklaces and earrings. Anderson visits India on a regular basis to purchase the main ingredient for her designs: Scarves.
“On one of my first trips to India, I decided to fuse my love for jewellery and my love for scarves,” said Anderson. “That’s what India does amazingly well. I didn’t really know I was going to go into jewellery design, I just wanted to make pretty things and this is what came to be. I didn’t want to do anything that was mass produced. I wanted it to be exclusive because each scarf and textile from these places that most people will never go is different, it forces the line to be one-of-a-kind.”
The first thing I note about one of my favourite pieces, a light and dark blue seriously-statement necklace, is that its weight is substantial. The scarves that are chosen by Anderson, either for their colour waves or pattern, are washed repeatedly to relax the potent dyes and then tightly knotted until it’s the desired length for a necklace or bracelet. Then chains, pendants, gems and crystals are wound and attached to the scarf. It’s a process that can sound very easily duplicated, but Anderson admitted that she never knows what she’s going to end up with once a piece is put together. She does try to sketch out designs beforehand, but they never match her creations perfectly.
“We cut up the scarves and just experiment,” she said. “I never know what they’ll look like when I start out. I put a bunch of things together and knot it all up and see what it looks like. If it works I keep it, if not I take it apart and start again. The materials really dictate what will happen. I can plan the length and silhouette but not how the material will look. I have an idea of what I want but when I start it could look completely different.”
Offering her clients a custom piece is Anderson’s favourite part of the job. Whether they choose the scarf from an assortment of examples she brings right to their door, or ask to turn an heirloom scarf into a keepsake piece of jewellery, Anderson loves collaborating. One of her most high profile collaborations was with Grammy winner Melanie Fiona who wore I’Moniq designs while performing.
At the centre of Anderson’s most recent collection is the gem she choose to be the focal point of each piece: chunky crystals mined from all over the United States. Titanium coated and at their rawest shapes, the crystals are incredibly reflective and seem to be a different colour (or mutiple colours) when seen from a new angle.
“Every crystal set in this collection is different,” said Anderson of the multitude of shapes and sizes the crystals can be seen in. “I wanted something that wasn’t a stone and isn’t seen everywhere you look. They’re mined and kept in their original shape so no two are the same.”
Price points for Anderson’s pieces are refreshingly affordable. They start at $69 for a bracelet and $150 for a necklace, and can go up to $400 for a completely original creation.
“I wanted it to be affordable because I love each piece like children,” she said. “So if I have to sell them I want people to be able to buy them and wear them and love them. They take so long to make. My customer is someone who is confident but I don’t think of it in age terms. It’s someone who values craftsman ship over price and wants unique things in their day to day. It goes from young girls who want to pair them with tshirts and jeans to business women who want them with their suits to brides. People who love colour. They draw to it the most. They want to make a statement.”
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Bianca Teixeira writes about style for Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at @BeeLauraTee.
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