While the restrictions of the pandemic are slowly beginning to loosen, designers like Viviana Langhoff from Adornement + Theory are continuously working to adapt and further build their careers within the industry. In an interview with JCK, she discusses those challenges and recent collaborations.
When asked about the recent collaborations with Instagram jewelry designers, Langhoff said, "I wanted customers to see that there are people behind what they are buying. I actually started that [series] five days after quarantine began [in March 2020]. At that point, I wasn’t pushing product, because everyone was financially frozen. I found it morally irresponsible to make people feel guilty about buying things in the middle of a crisis. I decided to just talk to [designers] in their studio, and I got extremely comfortable being in front of the camera. Before 2020, I had been light on Instagram, and at that point, I thought, “Okay, I’ve got to face forward.” I got over my self-consciousness fast."
"I feel like the pandemic tested the grittiest of us," said Langhoff about how the pandemic affected her business as a designer in particular. "I really had to watch my thought life and my mental diet. Some people stayed online and doomscrolled all day, but I realized that wasn’t going to be beneficial for me, so I poured my creativity into marketing and custom orders and virtual consults. I rethought the whole design experience, from packaging to bringing [clients] champagne. I have a little Vespa, and I did home deliveries. Everybody’s anxiety manifests in different ways, but for me, it was, “Let’s do this!” I leaned into it, and my creativity went up 1,000 percent."
When asked about how the pandemic affected foot traffic to her store and if it's improving, Langhoff said, "It’s slowly coming back because more and more people are vaccinated. We’re seeing fewer clients, but [sales at] higher price points. A lot of people are seeking us out because of Instagram and wanting to buy local and support a minority business. We also deconstructed our website and built it back up in 2019. We had a huge [sales] explosion on our website during quarantine, but often, people would spot something [online] and then come in to see it in person. Local people like the connection of coming in."
Information originally sourced from JCK.