Cora Thomas | Design Director @ Cora Thomas Designs

Hello. This is the closest I'll ever get to an Oscar speech, so I should be crying right now. Hi everyone. Can you hear me? I'm really tall, so I feel like— is that good? Can you hear me now? All right. What? Make it higher. Oh. Okay, hold on. That guy in the corner want to help me? Just a little higher. A little. That's perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, um, my name is Cora Thomas, and, um, I'm so excited to be here tonight, and I'm closing the show. That's a lot of pressure. So I did not memorize, because my memory is that of a fruit pie. So I have to read off of this paper. But I will try to not do it as much as I think I need to. Okay, so my overarching theme for my story, a common theme, but an important one in today's world, is when one door closes, another door opens. So I'll take you back to New York City almost 12 years ago. I was 22 years old, a year out of graduating from Parsons School of Design, one job under my belt which I had quit, promptly quit because of a less than pleasant boss. I decided like any 22-year-old with a chip on her shoulder, no money and very little experience to start my own company, because that seems smart. This wasn't totally out of the blue. While at Parsons, I knew in my senior year that accessories was really where my passion laid. The margins were great and I love the size. There was no size. There was just one. It fit on your ear or it didn't. And I loved it. And I loved that you could take a pair of earrings and throw it on with a pair of jeans and t-shirt and it totally changed your outfit. It really was my passion and still is. So anyways, here I was at 22 starting a jewelry line. I was making the wax carvings, which I'd never done before. I was sourcing my materials in New York, producing it in New York. And to be very clear, I really had no experience doing this. I barely even had sketched jewelry prior to this. And well, besides for that odd pair of earrings that you make at your local bead store in high school that you think are really cool until you lose them 2 days later, that's about the extent of my experience. But anyways, I was just doing it. And the one thing I did come to realize very quickly was that I loved having my own company and I loved having full creative control. Creative control of something. I was lucky to get some press behind the company. I was written about in Elle and Harper's Bazaar, Lucky Magazine, and clearly in my mind I was bound for incredible overnight success. This is it. At 22, I was gonna make $1 million making jewelry out of my kitchen in the East Village. Okay. Yeah, the dreams of your youth. Well, okay, so as you can imagine where this story is going, it totally fell apart. I didn't know how to run a business, and just plain and simple, I really just needed more experience. So I packed it up, embarrassed and frustrated, and just decided, okay, I have to move on. So that door was shut, but I realized how much I love designing jewelry and knew it's where my focus should lie. My next opportunity came when I landed a job at J.Crew. A new door had opened. This was my first real experience in jewelry on a large scale. And I can't stress enough how important and influential that experience would prove to be. I learned how to merchandise a line, my, My sense of color and silhouette grew, and I built invaluable production connections, most of which I still use today. So realizing that had I not attempted that first company, and I wouldn't have been in that position, and which essentially completely expanded my professional career. So over the next few years, I'd left J.Crew. I was freelancing for some different brands, designing jewelry and doing some concept work. And I was feeling really stifled. I still love designing, but something just didn't feel creative enough for me, even though I was in such a creative field. In the midst of all of this, I started dating someone, a photographer. A door I probably shouldn't have opened and gone through, but I did. So you live and you learn. Anyways, this photographer, on a really tight budget for a shoot, asked if I would cater lunch for the following day. As my friends know, some of who are here tonight, I love to cook. It is my second love. Also very creative. So I said yes, of course, and completely unknowingly walked through a new door. For the next 2 years, I ran Cora Thomas Catering. I know. And catered shoots for Teen Vogue and Zara, Harper's Bazaar, Neiman Marcus. It was such an unbelievably exhausting experience, but it was It was so rewarding seeing people's happy faces when they piled up a plate of my food on a shoot and just seemed happy for the first time in their day. It was so great. And it was the same feeling that I got when I saw someone try on a piece of my jewelry and had a smile on their face. It's kind of a trend in my life that around the 2-year mark, I realized, like, what was I doing getting up at 5 in the morning to prep breakfast for a 7 AM shoot? This is crazy. I'll never forget running down Wall Street in New York at 9 AM, dodging businessmen, trying to get back to set, holding a tray of fennel sausage and thinking to myself, I can't do this long term. Like, this is crazy. And to think like 2 years ago, I was designing chandelier earrings, and now I'm like hoofin' it in the financial district with like a hot tray of meat. This is not for me, but it was great and an experience nonetheless. It was a true labor of love, but again, not sustainable for my future. But it solidified that I, how fulfilled I felt being in full creative control of something and owning my own business. So I jumped back into jewelry design, working for Club Monaco, which eventually led to me going back to J.Crew's other brand, Madewell. And at the time, I knew the creative director from my time at J.Crew, so I got the job designing their jewelry. Which again was such an amazing experience and just really solidified that accessories is where— is what I wanted to do. So 2 years at Madewell, that 2-year itch starts again. Definitely a trend for me. And in the fall of 2015, I made the tough decision to quit my job and leave New York after 12 years. So I— sorry, I lost my place. Oh, and move without a job, without an apartment, without much besides great friends to help cushion any falls to move to California. I just had this feeling that if I moved, something great would come of it. So much of California spoke to me. It offered great weather, a great burgeoning design scene, and most importantly, space. And if anyone has lived in New York for longer than a month, they know what I'm talking about. But also emotional space, which we talk a lot about in California. So it was in this new environment that I was able to finally define what I wanted to do. I took all the pieces from my past, all the conflicts, and success, all the things that made me tick, and laid out my dream scenario. I started— to start a company that would design and produce accessories for many different brands, constantly challenging myself, being able to work with a range of brands and appeal to different audiences, stretch my creativity, keep me on my toes, and keep my career feeling fresh. So Cora Thomas Design started in my tiny apartment in Venice. And now it is in a beautiful office in Santa Monica with 3, hopefully soon to be 4 employees, and 5 brands under its belt. And it's the most rewarding feeling that I've— most rewarding experience I've ever felt in my life. In addition to my company, with a very good friend of mine, we launched an accessories brand called Baranow, which this past fall, which has been also just such an amazing outlet for both of us who also have full-time jobs on this. Well, we have full-time jobs and we do this on the side. So it's crazy, but it's great. And lastly, he was supposed to be here tonight, so this is gonna be really sweet for me to say to him, but he's not, but I'm gonna say it anyways. On a very personal note, One more note, on top of all the happiness and success that California has brought me, I also met my husband here a year ago. So that was really, really special, a little cherry on top. So what I hope you can take away from my story is that don't be worried about not staying on track. Run down the street with those sausages. Do anything you can. Walk through every door that opens. And no failure is ever really a failure. It is just a tool to help you further define what you love. So thanks.