Founder and CEO Ippolita Rostagno: 'TikTok is not the right place to be telling this brand story'

The move to working-from-home may have correlated with a rise in comfortable fashion, but as the work pants came off and sweatpants on, the desire for luxury brands did not falter. “Jewelry and accessories were favored because so many people were on Zoom all day long, [and] the only thing that you could [use to] accessorize were earrings," said Ippolita Rostagno, co-founder and CEO of Ippolita, on the Glossy Podcast. In addition, for Ippolita, the timelessness of the brand aligned with consumer desire for jewelry that can last beyond the pandemic. Rostagno, who founded the brand 20 years ago, said she focuses on “designing things that are relevant at this moment, but that, at the same time, have a classic enough feel that you know at the time of purchase you’ll love it 10 years from now.” Whether it can be attributed to Zoom or Ippolita’s philosophy or both, the brand’s recent success cannot be denied. Ippolita saw a “very steep increase” in online sales to 10% of total sales, up from 2% before Covid-19. “People have become much more comfortable with learning and making up their own minds, and therefore purchasing online,” said Rostagno. However, she said, "when you're in a store, you have that opportunity to think you're looking for something and find something else. And that is part of the retail experience that needs to be nurtured and come back.” As for Ippolita’s retail presence, while the brand will continue to team up with retailers, like Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s, "owning our own retail is the direction that we'd like to take the business,” said Rostagno. Ippolita has seen success with trunk shows, which Rostagno attributes to the tangible experience that customers can have with the jewelry. “[That] was the motivating factor for completely redesigning the customer experience in my store that I opened in the middle of the pandemic, in Chicago,” said Rostagno. Rostagno was inspired by the concept of a physical jewelry box when designing Ippolita's Chicago Store. “You’re walking into a felt box, and then all the walls are magnetic and the jewelry is out; there are no cases,” she said, of the store’s layout. “The idea is that a customer can walk up to the jewelry, try it on, look at it, feel it … ahead of having a conversation with a salesperson.” In regard to Ippolita’s virtual presence, while many brands have chosen to use social media platforms like TikTok to spread brand awareness, Ippolita hasn't followed suit. “This is what women buy for themselves. This is not occasional jewelry, this is not what husbands buy for a woman’s birthday,” said Rostagno. “This state of mind, this sense of self-possession, is not something that is targeted to a young audience, so TikTok is not the right place to be telling this story.” Instead, Rostagno sees places like Milan as the right setting in which to grow Ippolita. Montenapoleone, where Ippolita's next store will open, is “the street for luxury in Milan, and also in Europe,” according to Rostagno. She added that she feels “very confident” about the future success of the store.