Wink and Flip is now six years old. We create jewelry inspired by the trends found on runways and photographed in national fashion magazines. If we can’t make it ourselves, we find it so you don’t miss out on a single fantastic look.
The company’s first customers were students at New York City fashion colleges like the Fashion Institute of Technology, and LIM. Now we hold trunk shows at nearly a dozen schools, participate at fashion shows and appear by request at special events. Every Saturday from May to October, Wink and Flip customers flock to see us at The Hester Street Fair on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Wink&Flip has been fortunate enough to have our designs featured in magazines like Teen Vogue, where I interned for over a year in the accessories and beauty departments. At Teen Vogue, I reported on the backstage fashion show scene during New York Fashion Week, and assisted stylists on shoots. It was there that I started designing headbands, sometimes creating pieces late at night that were provided to stylists the next day! Last year I spent nearly a year in the offices of Marie Claire magazine, assisting Accessories Editors.
Currently a graduate student at The New School for Social Research, it wasn't too long ago that I found myself included in a college textbook, Entrepreneurship (Prentice Hall, 09), written by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. My time at The Network included a place in Inc. magazine's “Growing Up CEO” program at the Harvard Business School. My company’s many entrepreneurial awards have been covered by the New York Daily News, Business Week online, Newsweek, the New York Post, and on CBS, NBC and ABC News Now.com.
In 2004, I started a philanthropic piece of the business called The Pearl Project. We donate faux pearl necklaces to Dress for Success Worldwide. DFS is a non-profit organization providing interview suits, confidence boosts, and career development to low-income women in over 75 cities. Since then, the company has donated over 6,000 pearl necklaces to women who wear them to accessorize their outfits on job interviews. Thanks to The Pearl Project, I was named Youngest Accessories Entrepreneur in Accessories magazine’s “Best of 2005” issue.
Want an up close and personal view of Wink and Flip? Sign onto our Twitter account to see where we are selling next, especially around the holidays when we are involved in shows all over New York. If you’re in New York City from May to October, hop on the F train to the East Broadway stop and look for the rows of white tents. That’s the Hester Street Fair (Hester and Essex Streets), named NYC’s best vintage market by Time Out Magazine in the summer of ’10. See you there!