Evgeniya Lisichkina is a Sydney-based jewellery artist with international background in fashion and art, founder of organic boutique jewellery brand JaneJu. After graduating as a designer of shoes and accessories, Evgeniya switched into fashion journalism. She had obtained a degree in journalism and after that in sociology and had been working as a beauty and fashion editor in a number of glossy magazines for 10 years. She had been writing for such magazines as Vogue, ELLE and Marie Claire. After moving to Australia she decided to create her own brand of jewellery and accessories, whilst developing her skills in silversmithing and precious stone setting. Evgeniya is a member of The Union of Artists of Decorative and Applied Arts in Russia. Her jewellery was featured as the editor choice in Marie-Claire Magazine and Stylebook of Glamour as well as in the book of “Best Russian Artists 2018. Decorative and Applied Arts”. Evgeniya is a Member of Australian Fashion Council since 2018.
Me-Version5.0: Evgeniya, you resigned from a high-profile job in fashion industry and started your own jewellery and accessories brand. Could you please tell us how this change has happened?
Evgeniya: I didn’t plan it really. It was quite spontaneous. I worked as a head of Body&Mind ( Fashion and Beauty) section in “Psychologies” magazine and I was always quite passionate about my job. Being a beauty editor is not only about writing or editing. It’s about creating visual parts as well as the text and content. On one hand this life was quite exciting. I had a lot of perks going with my position – travelling, a lot of gifts from the advertisers and businesses. And I’ve met very interesting people. One the other hand the cycle of producing a magazine – sometimes it just felt like Groundhog Day especially if you are a beauty editor…
I loved (and I still love) to do research, to interview experts about social functioning of fashion, and to write articles. But the pressure I felt from other parts of my job – from deadlines, from necessity to communicate with advertisers and all the staff, from the commercial side of managing a glossy magazine… it just became boring and stressful at the same time. It didn’t have the same taste for me anymore. I started feeling like I was producing a sort of a ‘verbal landfill’ – trendy, catchy, fast changing, and disposable. You have to do it because these are the market rules. And that feeling started to bug me.
I had wanted to leave my position for quite some time. But for some reason every time when I was almost ready to resign, something would make me stay. Then one day I just felt that it could not go on any longer. I didn’t have any job to move to, but I just had to leave. And I left.
Most of my friends said: “You have to go forward, take some editor in chief position.” And I started going to interviews. But I didn’t see my ‘ideal’ position. Now I understand that I didn’t have that inner desire to proceed with this career, but at the time I thought I was looking for something more satisfying.
It was unlikely that something would have come up during summer months – this is when I started thinking about an ‘around the world’ trip. I was a good writer (well, I AM a good writer 🙂 ). I was pretty sure that I could do some freelance. I knew I would find things to write about and that I would find media interested in my writing. And if not now, then when?
So, I went on the 9-months trip and during the travel I was writing for Elle magazine, working on a “body and mind” blog and wrote a number of articles for Psychologies magazine.
I was not going to give up on the industry all together. I was planning to come back from the world trip and continue looking for my ideal position and opportunities. Now I see that it was just a rationalisation for my mind, making the change look less disturbing. 🙂
And when the trip started all other changes started coming in. I met my husband-to-be and we decided that we should be together. We discussed a bit if we should move to Moscow. He was reluctant to do that. So I had to move to Australia. 🙂
Me-Version5.0: How did you feel about this transition? After all, it was a big change. 🙂
Evgeniya: I sort of understand what you are talking about, but the whole ‘transition theme’ for me is like: “what transition?” It’s just life goes on and your circumstances change. And my life has changed 150 thousand times in many different ways. This is just a new stage. Although, I have to admit that this time my life changed much more than the usual. 🙂
Me-Version5.0: How did you start your business? And why jewellery?
Evgeniya: My first profession before journalism was a designer of shoes and accessories, and my jewellery business started as a hobby. I was still working – writing, translating, editing a book about fashion – when I started making jewellery collections for tango dancers. And then quite suddenly and unexpectedly it had turned into a business. And I am happy that I am making things with my own hands.
Me-Version5.0: Tell us about your business approach – what are your Dos’ and Don’ts in business?
Evgeniya: From the beginning I decided that I was not going to make any huge investments or take any business loans and I would have organically growing business, step by step from the smallest income. I don’t really have any business goals. I don’t think about the revenue, I even don’t have a business plan. It’s developing like an art one can say, not like a manufacturing business. But I see that in four years it has grown steadily and became a sustainable business. It is very important for me that my business is environmentally-friendly. I am not consistently organic or vegan or a zero-waste person, I just don’t want to bring any additional chaos into the world. I decided not to use certain chemicals and found some organic ways to clean silver and to polish metals. I use only organic packaging, crafted here in Sydney by an Australian crafter from recycled cardboard. I’ve developed a foldable origami-style packaging without staples, foam rubber, or any plastic stuff inside – just a cardboard.
I don’t support a pricing policy game – sales. I am sure every smart person understands that if you are offered a 70% discount, it’s already built into the initial price, which means that the initial price was inflated, tripled from the start. I see it as a manipulation and I don’t want to play this game. When new customers who don’t know me that well ask about sales and discounts, I usually say that my price is fair from the beginning and doesn’t include any extra margin for sales. If I give a discount, it means that I give away my profit and just get paid for the actual work – hours and materials. With that in mind I may still give it as a gift or make some personal discount. And it’s ok by me. And I am still looking for the most effective marketing solution that suits me and works well for my business. For instance I don’t feel I am particularly good at online sales. And if you are not manipulating, or using particular marketing ‘hooks’, it is not that easy to grow your client base.
At this stage the marketing solution that works the best for both me and my business is a “jewellery party” and ambassadors. I have found it intuitively, like almost everything in my life. And at this point it seems to be the best strategy for me.
Me-Version5.0: What is your source of creativity? Do you have a feeling of Groundhog Day in your business?
Evgeniya: Yes, of course. When you are your own business, you have a lot of different tasks. My favourite task is to create things, but I have to do other things as well – photo shoots with models, participating in exhibitions, meeting people, trying to promote myself and my jewellery. I learn to enjoy that too. And besides, I have two sides to my business – art jewellery and fashion jewellery, which is a great thing for me. Fashion jewellery is an absolutely different theme, different as a business and as a creation process. Art jewellery has a long cycle for design and manufacturing. Manufacturing can take at least one week, and whole project from idea to the ready piece takes months, whereas for fashion jewellery it’s much shorter and –often, but not always – you can see the result pretty much immediately. And it’s much lighter and much more playful. And it is much easier on my hands. In fashion jewellery you have to keep up with the trends and it is great for photoshoots and models styling. It’s very joyful and nourishing.
Me-Version5.0: In your opinion what is be the biggest value that your business brings?
Evgeniya: I believe that I create something unique. When you go through a creative process, you put in your uniqueness, skills and love to create something special and beautiful. And when a woman wears it she can connect to these qualities in herself and feel her own beauty and uniqueness through your creation. And I think this is really essential. We should have this feeling every day. Things you posses should give you an experience of owning something special, a special beautiful thing that is only yours and not just faceless goods of mass market. I believe that consumer behaviour is changing and will continue to change during our lifetime. And maybe not because we are all going to become highly conscious, but just through intuition, people will want to have more beauty in their lives. Perhaps they will start buying antique furniture or handmade Japanese tableware or anything they like, things that were made with love and attention to detail. People will be fed-up with mass-production, they already are! A lot of people I know have already closed their needy gaps 🙂 – they do not want quantity, they want quality. And I believe there will be more and more people like that. And to own something special is not just about loving things. It’s about loving yourself.
Me-Version5.0: Looking back at this transition would you do anything differently?
Evgeniya: Not really. I see that everything has a natural progression and if you change something, you could miss something else. Everything has to come to its conclusion. If you leave before the time is right, you will regret. You will be thinking: “Maybe I shouldn’t have done that?”
Me-Version5.0: What are the best lessons you’ve learned during this transition?
Evgeniya: That feeling good is an indication that I am on the right path. I check if what I do resonates inside. If it does then this is the best way for me. It’s not necessarily the best in the eyes of other people. It doesn’t have to be the best for everybody. But this is something that gives me confidence and strength.
Nature’s Elements Collection by JaneJu
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