It wasn’t so long ago that handcrafting jewellery was a hobby Sarah Gittoes squeezed in around her full-time job in a fashion boutique.
From a workbench at her studio apartment in Sydney’s Bondi she would create and wear pieces she’d made, filling orders for friends if time permitted.
Fast-forward six years and Gittoes and her business partner Robert Sebastian Grynkofki have 15 staff, including six jewellers, and an Alexandria studio. From there they craft and sell Gittoes’ designs under what is now the jewellery brand Sarah & Sebastian.
Priced from $400 up to about $3000 for the finer, more complicated pieces, the jewellery is made from nine- and 14-carat gold, using semi-precious gemstones and diamonds.
But to call Sarah & Sebastian recently emerged would be to sell them short.
The pair met in 2008 while both were on exchange at Canada’s Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. Gittoes was midway through a design degree at the University of New South Wales while German-born Grynkofki was studying industrial design and gold smithing in Germany’s Schwäbisch Gmünd.
Gittoes began devoting every spare minute of her time to experimenting with jewellery, supported by Grynkofki, who’d moved to Sydney and was working as an industrial designer. Gittoes’ creations began to get mentions in the fashion media but it wasn’t until a stylist rang to name-check the brand she’d just shot that Sarah & Sebastian was born.
“I hadn’t even thought about naming the brand,” says Gittoes. “We had to quickly think of something. Robert was helping a bit at the time, so Sarah & Sebastian was coined.”
Dio Lee, Hatmaker partnerships
Early signs that they were onto something came in the form of partnerships with Hatmaker and Dion Lee, the latter requesting 20 pieces for his 2012 show at the Sydney Opera House.
But it wasn’t until 2013 and 2014 that Grynkofki and Gittoes had the confidence to quit their day jobs and focus full-time on the business.
“We did everything ourselves – built our own website, designed the packaging, ran the social media,” explains Grynkofki.
“For the first two years it was a side project, but we were both very passionate about it. I think it helped form the brand. Because our time was so precious, every opportunity that came in we had to assess: is it worth our time to make it?
"If we believed it was in line with our vision we did it, otherwise we said no.”
That vision includes a belief in the beauty of handmade, limited-edition collections inspired by visual artists such as Alexander Calder, and crafted by local artisans using recycled metal and locally sourced stones where possible.
In 2013 Daniel Blizzard, the husband of one of Gittoes’ friends, came on board as chairman and the third shareholder, investing an undisclosed amount in the fledgling business.
The chief executive of independent financial institution Alleasing, Blizzard brought with him an inventory-light business model that cemented the pair’s habit of making to order, thus ensuring no surplus stock.
Appreciation for handcraft
“We control the manufacturing here, each product is personally signed with a handwritten card from the jeweller,” says Blizzard.
“It allows us to give the aesthetic we want. We’re not just selling for the sake of selling.”
Blizzard will not disclose any financials but claims that sales are growing well, helped by a recent foray overseas. In Australia Sarah & Sebastian sells through its website and studio-showroom as well as upmarket Australian boutiques such as Harrolds.
Elsewhere it is stocked by Colette in Paris and online retailers Moda Operandi and Net-a-Porter. In September it became the first accessories brand invited to display in the Australian Fashion Chamber’s Paris showroom.
Blizzard says the company plans to launch a Sydney store in the first half of 2017, and at least four more by 2020. Gittoes believes their point of difference is that they represent the very opposite of commercial mass-market products.
“I’ve found there’s a new appreciation for handcrafted, and a lot of our products have the option of being customised, bespoke offerings,” the 29-year-old says.
“People can come in and see it being made and I think that’s what people are willing to invest in.”
