Designers behind Kimai, a Meghan Markle-loved jewelry brand have shared how the royal’s approval helped their small ethical business.
Meghan Markle wearing the Kimai semi-hoop earrings. Photo: Instagram.com
As a highly-talked-about public figure and a former senior royal, Meghan Markle‘s influence reaches far and wide, particularly, when it comes to her sartorial choices. During her time as a working member of the British royal family, Markle’s wardrobe for official engagements consisted of both, established and up-and-coming designers to help support the local creative landscape. One such brand to benefit greatly from this, is Kimai, a London-based ethical label that works exclusively with lab-grown diamonds and recycled gold.
A few years after Markle wore a couple of the brand’s statement earrings in public, co-founders of Kimai Jessica Warch and Sidney Neuhau have shared how the royal’s support helped their small business secure huge funding. “We launched without any investment, and then two months after our investment, we got Meghan Markle to wear our pieces, which enabled us to grow the revenue significantly, and from there, we raised $1.2 million,” Warch said in the latest episode of BBC TV show Dragon’s Den, on which they secured the investment. When investor Steven Bartlett asked how they got Markle to wear their jewelry, Warch replied, “Cold emails. We’re big believers in cold emails. It’s the same way we got all of our investors, we didn’t know anyone in this space.”
Photo: Instagram.com
Markle was spotted wearing Kimai’s earrings on different occasions, with the first being to the Smart Works’ London hub in 2019, where she wore the 18-karat gold Felicity earrings, and later sported the semi-hoop earrings to the 2023 Invictus Games. “It’s so exciting for us, especially as we just launched in November,” Neuhaus told People after Markle first wore a Kimai piece. “Her team contacted us, and we sent them to her a month or so ago. She really loved these earrings.”
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