Reworked: Samantha Siu Reimagines the Family Trade in Sustainable Fashion
Sustainability is seldom a synonym for the jewelry industry in this era, as luxury companies embrace extravagance and costume lines compromise quality for cost. Though, multi-generation manufacturer Samantha Siu is steadfast in her commitment to ecology within her burgeoning brand. Samantha Siu New York is “half mass [market], half avant garde: not too expensive, purposefully. I wanted people to get what they’re buying. We’re not in the costume range, nor the luxury range, yet we’re still a luxury product.”
With nearly a decade of the brand under her belt, Siu is thrilled to tell the tale of her origins. “I’m an open book. I’m thrilled to be able to even have anyone interested. It’s very endearing to get our story out there and be able to capture this weird phase we’re going into, exploring the story behind the luxury brand.”
Beyond craft and concept, Siu is no novice to the intricacies of business development and management. “My family was in manufacturing. They had factories in Brooklyn during ‘90s factory surge, and then capitalized on the 2000s jewelry production surge in New York City.”
Siu’s path may have been charted from inception, begetting a chicken-or-egg conundrum (what came first, Siu’s family’s prominence in the business, or her destiny to become a titan of the industry individually?). “My family put me to work during weekends, at first for free, then one cent per earring in a Ziploc,” she laughs, “That was my first apprenticeship. At 16, I started going to convention shows and selling, acting older than I was and gaining invaluable experience. I didn’t know I wanted to be in jewelry. It’s a family thing— in Asian families, it’s a collective, so you help each other.”
Even in the face of an educational and vocational pivot, Siu could not be kept from creating at its first beckoning. “I went to college for psychology. While I was there, my family invited me to come back to the business after college. I wanted to put school aside immediately— I was like, “Hell yeah!”— but I graduated from Fordham. After college I became an account executive, helping my family take the business to the next level. They wanted me to get outside experience for this reason, so I became a merchandiser. I was going to school for jewelry design at FIT, in the studio until 2 a.m., with work at 8 a.m. the next morning. I was secretly sleeping in the sample room!”
Innovation remains tantamount in Siu’s creation, a tenet borrowed from her early experimentation in the industry. “The fundamental years of my education were where I realized I had a knack for wax carving. I could envision things in a very 3-D way, and this was around the time CAD came out. There was new technology, allowing the production process to take place much quicker.”
Mastery of such new technology allowed Siu to, in kind, forge offerings never-before-seen in the fine jewelry market. “I created a reversible necklace for class. The reaction of my professor and my peers told me it was something special. I kept that design until I was ready to begin my own line. When I did, I fell in love. I dropped everything, left my job, and traveled the world in search of inspiration. I had a concept, but not a story. I created a necklace from each place I traveled, so The Love Affair is an autobiographical jewelry line emulating my journey and paying homage to the places I traveled— the people, the culture, the food. Why is jewelry so special? It’s the stories jewelry tells that render it so precious. Everything can be worn multiple ways to increase wear, creating more memories with your pieces. Each collection has a quintessential story and meaning behind it. I have a pair of earrings that can be worn 30 different ways. You invoke a bespoke feeling in the piece.”
Worldly wandering built the success that Siu relishes today, though this is only the beginning for the luxury brand. “We have our eyes on London Fashion Week. The brand does so well in London, so we’d love to be with the British Fashion Council. We’re going to drop the bracelet line in June, where the links come off. It’s size inclusive.”
Siu’s intersectional background, both in interdisciplinary studies across various vocations and personal experience, lends itself flawlessly to artfully delivering an elevated, versatile ethos within her work. “We’ve been evolving, thank god. As a female as a minority, I haven’t seen a female jewelry designer infiltrate the market with intricate designs. We would love to see our signature on people and have it be recognizable, for people to know our core and want to be part of that family. To compete with the high ballers in our industry— I have so much more to design and execute— it is about having the same playing field.”
Unlike many offerings on the market today— in any industry— Siu has spearheaded the initiative of world-building around her product (and this goes beyond mapping worldwide experiences through necklace narratives). Siu’s Phoenix Foundation expands her impact, folding globalized philanthropy into the lifeblood of Samantha Siu New York. “We’ve begun the Phoenix Foundation, servicing developing countries with medical pop-ups. We’re working with animal conservationists and the Save Elephant Foundation in Thailand. One of our primary tenets is to enhance education, so we’re also developing a science curriculum in Cambodia. The sustainability and non-profit side is one of the biggest factors of our brand identity for me.”
In under a decade, Siu has blazed a fresh trail through an age-old, often insular industry. The line’s commitment to philanthropy, as well as the focused ecological morality of each piece created, exemplify the extraordinary nature of Siu’s brainchild, set to shake up expectations of what consumers seek in heirloom purchases. “The concept is working, just needs a mouthpiece. Thankfully, people are beginning to realize it’s important to know the ethos behind a company. Our company itself has the heart and foundation of unity, but looks of luxury. It’s hard to do: what are we selling, what’s the story behind it? A lot of people don’t get the opportunity to see where it goes. When you buy the Samantha Siu New York product, you’re making a change.”
Written by Delaney Willet
