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Mermaid Stories was founded by Victoria Weber in Copenhagen, in 2016, with a simple yet whimsical idea: to unite the Scandinavian minimalist aesthetic with some magic, seen in the well- crafted details, like the imprinted mermaid on the back of each watch and the natural coloured pearls in the jewellery. In this interview, the team at the Danish studio talks about the motivation to launch the watches and jewellery lifestyle brand coming from a gap in the market and advices future entrepreneurs on how to find a unique voice and stand out.
Project M: What motivated you to launch the brand?
Mermaid Stories: When we started, we already had a clear design aesthetic in mind. Watches were only the start of the Mermaid Stories product portfolio. Our goal is to build a lifestyle brand that is all about luxurious quality and products that can become your favourite over a long time. As for why we started with watches: Our founder Victoria observed that many women wore a lot of jewellery on their wrists, but not necessarily watches. Then, she asked many of them why. Two things came up: One was that many women couldn’t identify with the technical, male, or preppy brands on the market. And the second one was that many were lacking a lightness and comfort in watches and said they, for example,didn’t like the stiffness of the leather bands.
Project M: What are the biggest challenges you have faced so far?
Mermaid Stories: In the product development phase, we found out that we only wanted to work with very great leather, which led us to vegetable tanned leather. This doesn’t imply the typically used tanning processes with chrome and heavy metals. It took a long time until we found the supplier that we work with now. This made the product development part take much longer than expected – but fortunately we managed to launch the first collection in time for Christmas, in November 2016.
Project M: What advice would you share with those thinking about creating a business?
Mermaid Stories: Today, it’s a lot about details and finding a voice. Everything that makes you more unique is good, because it is so easy to set up a business today. Each product or service has to have a clear voice or aesthetic so people will notice it.