“When I talk about really providing tools of self-discovery and self-expression to people,” said founder and creative director of FoundRae Beth Hutchens, “I mean it.“
Hutchens’s personal take on fine jewelry offers much more than just well-crafted pieces to adorn — she thinks of her pieces as modern heirlooms and from the beginning centered her work around self-actualization tools intermingling symbols from different cultures, time periods, tenets, affirmations, and bits of age-old wisdoms about the human experience. Like a story, pieces are highly personal with creations evolving along with the wearer, allowing them to set their own intentions through jewelry. “I want to be able to give them an experience that feels inspiring and empowering,” she said of her work’s ethos.
Launched in 2015, Hutchens diligently grew her jewelry and lifestyle brand step by step, maintaining a small wholesale network, a brand website, e-commerce and a single store on Lispenard Street, a tiny street tucked away in downtown New York City which serves as boutique, design studio, residential library and an intimate peek into her creative world.
Starting a new chapter, Hutchens is shifting into expansion mode opening not one, but three new stores: A second store uptown in NYC, and new boutiques in Los Angeles and Miami, boldly charting the next phase of her nearly decade-old business.
“We had no intention of opening up three stores,” she said with a laugh, acknowledging it was a daunting task but with a bit of soul searching, she knew it was the right next step. “I feel like I had kind of almost strangled our growth, rather than feeding it,” she candidly explained of things up until now. “But my fear was stopping me from really doing what’s right for FoundRae and for our community. It’s about much more than just me. It’s everyone that works for us. It’s everyone that comes into the store.”
Each new space — which read like chic cabinets of curiosities — is designed differently. “It’s like a home. They’re different spaces. They each have their own soul,” she remarked, avoiding a sameness in her approach. “That’s not very stimulating, for me or for the people that walk inside.”
FoundRae’s Madison Avenue store.
FoundRae/Adam Weiss
While three stores weren’t her goal, the turn of events are right in step with a brand built on self-actualization. The stars aligned through conversations with friends of the brand, a bit of mysticism and, of course, luck. “Sometimes we’re really led, you know, by external forces,” she said. Case in point, lucky number 7, with 777 Madison Avenue, which she knew right away had to be hers. “Every residence I’ve ever lived in is either 7 or 14 or 52, which you can add up to 7,” she said of the personal symbolism, including a tattoo on her finger.
Diana Vreeland’s iconic Park Avenue apartment, located just a few blocks away, inspired the store design with a vibrant red interior mixed with a muted cinnabar red tone, the same tone used in FoundRae’s Strength tenet-inspired pieces.
Next she was led to 8405 Melrose Place in Los Angles, debuting the brand on the West Coast with a vine-covered stucco on the exterior. Inside a backlit composition of symbols spanning the entire ceiling, Hutchens calls it a map of the FoundRae ethos, a constellation of emblems representing the brand’s foundational principles with inspire each collection.
The third location is her most ambitious, a flagship boutique at 4012 Northeast Second Avenue in the Miami Design District in the landmarked Moore building, a crown jewel of the district. A 1920s Neoclassical exterior juxtaposed with a modern Zaha Hadid installation in the four-story interior arcade, it’s a stunning space. While she considered Miami eventually and was open to explore, things fell into place from a suggestion from Brian Bloke, founder of the retail concept store The Conservatory which carries Hutchens’ brand. “We didn’t have any big plan. But this perfect situation for a unique situation came up to create something really unique to the area,” she remarked.
“The scale was intimidating,” she said frankly. “But then at the same time, then we could do something really different,” How about a baby grand piano to plead her case? “I mean come on, I love a piano!” Her vintage baby grand Steinway comes covered in symbols. Another point of difference, a 12-seat dining space. “It’s actually this tiny, narrow, long, windowless corner of the store, which you would think like, ‘well, that sounds like a closet,’ but it actually, we opened it up, and it’s this just beautiful, seductive dining room that’s moody and you want to spend time in it.”
The Moore is the only historical building in the Design District, “so I felt inspired. When you’re a creator, you can really get carried away by inspiration, it ends up kind of giving you this energy that you didn’t know you still had,” she said, an energy that helped her with all three locations. “Really that is what happened to me over and over.”
Each has creations customers cannot find anywhere else, with her discovery drawers filled with a curated magpie mix of special one-of-a-kind pieces that didn’t go into production, “For one reason or another, maybe they are too difficult to make, or the scale isn’t for everyone but we are pretty obsessed with.” They aren’t photographed, aren’t on her website or with any wholesaler; instead she hand-wrote a description of each, the kind of special personal touch she has imbedded in her work since its inception. “They really are discoveries.” Boutiques have a bench jeweler, polishers and engravers, in step with her letting customers join in on the creation. “Oftentimes people don’t have access to that kind of talent (a bench jeweler), or they might bring in a vintage medallion that they want to add to their piece. We do that too. I think that it really allows each story to be truly their story. A personal expression for them.”
From her debut with a trunk show at Barneys New York, Hutchens realized customers were buying more than just jewelry, they were taking a journey with her through symbolism. “Every single piece means something,” she explained. “I really intended someone to feel connected right away.”
FoundRae Melrose Place location in Los Angeles.
Courtesy FoundRae
Before FoundRae, Hutchens cofounded and served as CEO of Rebecca Taylor but after fashion, her ideas of symbolism came forward. “I really was looking for a vehicle in which to express that. But jewelry really was a hallmark of my personal style. And I really was attracted to the idea that it was a permanent part of your story, that it could last for generations. That is very different than clothing.”
The expansion of her retail footprint opens her up to do what she loves, create more, trying new things like one-of-a-kind pieces using substantial gemstones, a taste of what’s to come.
Back on Lispenard Street she is also trying new things. Last year she went big with her first billboard in SoHo. “This is our home, but the reality is, Lispenard is a street that’s two blocks long, and it’s behind Canal. Most people don’t know that that street exists.” The marketing push saw her foot traffic increase by 70 percent. “Clearly people did not know we were there.” It’s a strategy she plans to use with her new locations.
“It’s time to get the word out,” she said.
