Eleanor Woodsworth, an 11-year-old in Brooklyn, discovered the brand over the summer. She perused the many Elisa options in store, settling on a turquoise pendant, with a vintage gold chain. To buy it, she dropped $70 of the money she earned at her after-school job at a dance studio. When she started sixth grade in this fall, she suddenly saw the Elisa everywhere. "I've seen hundreds of girls wearing these necklaces," she says. "It's part of the clean girl preppy style. It's preppy but with more neutral, understated colors."
Kendra Scott, now 50, founded her eponymous brand 22 years ago as a single mother, with only $500. She wanted to create the kind of jewelry she couldn't find: affordable and elegant, that sits somewhere between tacky costume jewelry and pricey fine jewelry. She made the first pieces herself, selling them at boutiques in Austin. The concept took off. This year, it will make upwards of $500 million in revenue through its website, fleet of 130 stores, and retail partners ranging from Bloomingdale's to Target.
The brand's success is partly due to its broad appeal. It has found a way to win over millennial moms, along with their tween daughters. This is not an easy feat, given how different tastes and budgets are across these demographics. Many other brands that are hot with today's middle-schoolers-like Garage and Edikted -thrive precisely because parents would never shop at these stores. Yet, Kendra Scott has cracked the code. And it's fueling the brand's enormous growth.
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