We are not the designs you see sitting at the bottom of your mums drawer, or the pieces you will see in a shop window.
LKC is here for more. We are hungry for more.
We believe jewellery is about intimate conspicuousness. You will not just purchase a piece to throw it on, then forget about it a year from now. Our designs are a collaboration. A collaboration with us, with you, with your lover. It is a two way street and we want to walk down this path with each of you.
We can tell you who designed your piece, who crafted it, where our stones are sourced, what the story is; and you are who gets to be involved in every stage.
We ask for more of you because we know each piece designed with us will carry meaning and moments which will transcend time.
With you, we want to write stories in precious metal; to cement moments in design.
We are here to start a change in what it means to wear bespoke jewellery. One by one, each person we work with is starting a revolution with us. We are building a movement of LKC wearers. Let's turn design on its head, challenge us.
Come with us into the centre of what it means to be part of our culture.
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Why?
It all comes down to the idea that we want to ensure that when you take the time in your life to come see us - you have our FULL attention. No we are not tossing between you and another "customer" whilst trying to land a sale. You, are it.
At LKC we make sure we book an entire slot for your private appointment just to get to know you. Because really, how can we design any piece without knowing the person behind the design. How can we claim to be involved, and romanticise the bespoke experience if we don't give a chance for organic conversation, connection and memory to become incorporated into each new handcrafted jewellery piece?
Another factor of having appointment only based consults means we circumvent 'window shopping' - you might ask why would LKC want to avoid this fun past time? We may even get new clients from the public passing by?
Simply put, we refuse to prey on the impulse buy. Everything we design and create is made with so much thought and intention. Jewellery to us is not an accessory - it is a fragment of time. A memory and a moment.
To have it purchased through a sale, or from impulse will only take away your chance to a connection with this moment.
You're worth more than a quick sale, a regrettable purchase; a fleeting loss of control.
You, and your design are worth the wait. Take a step back with us into slow, intentional creation.
- Love, LKC x
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Recently on Instagram, we held a survey to find out how many of you have ever felt intimidated inside a jewellery store - Over 90% of you came back to us claiming you have had moments where you felt too uncomfortable to even enter, let alone browse inside a retail jewellery shop.
These results, although disheartening, were not surprising. For the longest time, the jewellery industry has worked off of being both unattainable and
]]>These results, although disheartening, were not surprising. For the longest time, the jewellery industry has worked off of being both unattainable and intimidating; seemingly operating from behind a curtain and facade in an attempt to create an air of mystery and authority. In this model, all we are allowed to see are the polished sales pitches and near identical end products.
Layla Kaisi Collection is here to change that.
Because we hear you - hell, we still get nervous before we walk into a jewellery store ourselves. This is exactly what we wanted to challenge when LKC was created.
- We asked why it had to feel like such a scary experience?
- Why were we worried we would get pushed into a sale?
- Why can't we ask for exactly what we want and be given a clear answer, instead of being taken to a "close enough" design of what we imagined?
When we had first time clients coming in, they would sometimes be so nervous their hands shook, or they were too afraid to speak their minds - we saw ourselves in you.
This pushed us to evaluate exactly what we wanted to be about in the future, we wanted to break outside of this mould of "sale intimidation" and bring back the personal into the professional.
During consults we we share laughs and love stories, we listen to the special moments of your lives as well as tell our own; we make dorky jokes, we don't care, just be yourself as that is all we can ever be.
So when you stop and really think about it, why can't this experience be a comfortable one? You are here to design some of the most important fine jewellery pieces in your life. Who the hell said it had to be this official structured procedure?
We are not sales assistants. We are real people who we saw the issues and thought, this was not good enough. LKC is here to change this experience struggle - one design at a time.
Here's to the real.
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But what does it really mean? What makes our diamonds and precious stones conflict-free?
We hear you! We are here to share what this LKC value represents and how we achieve just that:
At Layla Kaisi Collection our most important core value is to ensure our design process remain ethical, never allowing our brand to prioritise production + profits over human rights.
Being conflict-free means we only work with a select number of trusted suppliers who our founder, Layla Kaisi, personally gets to know and researches.
The suppliers we use at LKC often directly work with the miners who sourced the gems, or are in fact the ones who mined the stones themselves!
Additionally, each supplier we work with strictly operates under the Kimberley Process. This is an international initiative which ensures all diamonds and precious stones we deal with are certified from sources free of child-labour and conflict.
Layla personally selects our suppliers from the contacts at the Jewellers and Watchmakers Association of NZ, or via recommendation from the close knit jewellery industry we are part of in NZ.
This way, not only are we accountable for work, but our suppliers are accountable for their ethics; no trade happens if they do not follow the Kimberley Process Initiative.
Here's to you lovers, keep questioning, keep asking and keep pushing us. We want to be challenged and transformed as we grow with you.
Layla Kaisi Collection creates slow, intentional design in a world of fast fashion.
Come with us into the new -
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