Desi Making Waves

By Elaine G. Flores

Jewelry Designer Mousumi Shaw Leads A Continental Journey

Cultural curiosity and a passion for travel have led Mousumi Shaw to such far-flung destinations as Argentina, Cuba and Israel. In fact, she's been to more than 30 countries. Now, Shaw is taking other women around the world via her jewelry line, Sikara & Co. Even the name speaks to her wanderlust. Shaw, 31, explains, “I was looking at Indian baby names, trying to get inspiration. I actually created the name Sikara, but it has some meaning behind it. We have this whole concept of taking our customer on this journey, so it's inspired by 'shikara,' the Indian word for houseboat.”

Sikara, which is based in Austin, Texas, features “Modern Fusion Jewelry” and is a travelogue of sorts. Shaw says, “I always felt the best way to learn about the world is to just go to the country and meet the people.... I just love coming back...with the stories and the photos. I really love sharing those experiences with people.”

The current collection includes pieces from India, Eastern Europe, Mexico and Egypt. Shaw works with international teams of designers to create distinctive pieces such as an arabesque medallion inspired by architectural cut-outs found in windows and doors of Egyptian buildings. The Eastern European collection features warm amber stones, while the Mexican collection offers sleek silver creations. Art Deco onyx leaf drop earrings are inspired by modern Indian design.

Shaw, who is first generation Indian-American, got her first taste of the jewelry business during her adolescence while working in a jewelry store owned by her mother. “That's where I got my feet wet with customer service and merchandising and helping her pick out things,” recalls Shaw. “Our lines are very different, of course, but she's always been such a great role model for me.”

Still, Shaw didn't initially set out to go into the jewelry business. “I left Texas, and I went to the University of Pennsylvania where I did my undergrad [work], and I studied Business and South Asian Studies. After that, I went to New York City, where I was a consultant and within a year,” she says, “I got the entrepreneurial bug. I launched a company; it was in the technology space. I did that for about three years, but unfortunately when the dot com bust happened, we ended up shutting our business down.”

At a crossroad, Shaw headed to graduate school. “I went for my MBA at Harvard Business School and also got a degree at the Kennedy School of Government. I was really fortunate because I have a couple of passions,” she notes.

“I thought, 'Okay, I love business, I love traveling, I love the arts…I know the jewelry industry. Let me see if there's any opportunity there.' So it's really a combination of the passion and the business experience.”

And so the graduate student began market research. “When I was at Harvard Business School, I was able to access some great resources. I was able to meet with Tiffany and the head of QVC. I realized that in the jewelry industry there are very few brands and the brands are high-end: Cartier, Bulgari, Tiffany. There's no real Coach-style brand in the jewelry business with that affordable, luxury price point. It's all the high-end stuff or all the fashion stuff you'd see at Banana Republic.”

In addition, Shaw considered women's buying power. “With changing demographics, you have women getting married later in life and they are beginning to buy jewelry for themselves.”

The challenge was to create a line with emotional resonance. Shaw points out, “Usually if someone gets a Tiffany piece or Cartier piece, it's gifted, so there's an emotional connection with that piece, but when the woman buys for herself (Shaw says 90 percent of Sikara customers are women doing just that), how do you create that emotional connection beyond the design?”

That's where the global theme comes in. “What we do is celebrate the culture where the jewelry was designed. When somebody buys a piece, they get a story card about the significance of jewelry from that place.”

To get her start, Shaw launched Sikara on campus. “I started doing trunk shows in my apartment. We took advantage of fashion shows on campus. It was a great place to incubate the idea and get support before I went into it full-time. I worked on it about a year and a half when I was in grad school. My classmates supported me and bought the jewelry, but I always told them not to buy just because they are my friends because that would be false hope. I told them to only buy if they loved the piece.”

These days, she is steadily establishing Sikara. “Building a brand takes a lot of money. I'm a big believer in grassroots marketing. We do wholesale, we sell to museums...There's a cultural angle that we can approach museums with. We sell to jewelry boutiques, and we do a lot of direct-consumer, sample sales and trunk shows.”

The entrepreneur acknowledges, “When you think of an MBA and what you could be making, I definitely took a big risk. But I felt very confident about this concept. And we've exceeded our revenues for the first year.”

Recent successes include debuts at Austin Style Week and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Sikara also triumphed over 40 companies to win the 2005 Harvard Business Plan Competition.

Shaw continues to innovate. She hopes to launch a program that will allow buyers to support a philanthropic cause in the country where their jewelry originates. I'd like to get into the department stores and expand the distribution…I want to be cautious and make sure we have the capacity and we are ready for them, but I want to pursue the Neimans, the Barneys, the Bergdorfs. I'd love to open stores, but that's down the line.”

Elaine G. Flores is a feature writer for Soap Opera Digest, columnist for the St. Louis American and freelance writer. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and lives in New York.

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