Every fashionista knows accessories can make or break an outfit. Stores have sprung up, from Claire’s to Charming Charlie’s, to help buyers find the perfect piece. At MU, freshmen Margaret Cleveland and Katie Niemiec have started their own line of hair accessories.
Cleveland said she started making hair accessories last semester after seeing a “do-it-yourself” idea online.
“I basically just taught myself how to make them,” she said. “Katie saw me making them, and I taught her how to do it, and we’ve just kind of gone from there. Some of our friends wanted them, and then we decided to charge a little more.”
The girls expanded their products from bows to include fabric flowers and headbands. They choose the materials they will use, but their customers can choose from that pool of material if they want a particular color.
Cleveland said she previously wouldn’t have described herself as a craft-oriented person.
“When I see something I really like, I could probably create it,” she said. “I just wouldn’t be able to come up with the idea by myself.”
The entrepreneurs said what started as a hobby has grown quickly over the semester.
“We got requests from friends, and now people are contacting us that we don’t really know,” Cleveland said. “It’s great for us working together. Figuring out how much to charge, costs and looking at the partnership has been our main thing. We don’t really have a developed business, but developed or not we’ve learned a lot from it.”
Cleveland and Niemiec said other students could follow their example of selling crafts, as long as they are interested in the activity. They said dedication was important, because production takes a lot of time.
“We started selling toward the middle of the semester,” Niemiec said, “So we’ve been making a little profit, but we have to remember all the fabric and materials we had to pay for.”
Niemiec said they don’t market the bows toward a particular demographic, but buyers for this business are almost entirely college women.
“I know people have been making bows,” Niemiec said. “And a lot of girls have been into that, especially in sororities. If people still want to buy them, we’ll keep making them.”
The on-campus business’ black and gold hair accessories sell very well. Small bows range from $3 to $5, and the most expensive headbands are about $10.
Cleveland and Niemiec don’t sell their hair accessories at any particular place.
“We make them in our dorm so we don’t really have a business card,” Niemiec said.
Sophomore Flavia Santibañez bought one of the fabric flowers at the Belle in Bloom fashion show in April.
“I love how much of a creative idea it is,” she said. “So I decided to go local and support aspiring business women and purchase it. I think that in these tough times, any way of making money is a good idea, and to do it in such a creative and beautiful way is really inspiring.”