Tribe started out like many of our customers as a tiny retail business trading off a plastering table at country shows, gift fairs and PTA pamper evenings. By starting this way (and trading this way for about 4 years) it gave us a great insight into what the end customers and those selling to them are looking for.
The wholesale arm of Tribe was started just over a year ago, after a large number of customers asked if the jewellery I sold when I was trading as a retail business was available for shops and other businesses to buy. The requests were mainly for the leather ranges and as a large amount of this range is made for us so 'Tribe Wholesale' and 'Tribe Leather' was born. Spring Fair 2010 was the first time the whole leather range was available to trade customers and the response to it has been fantastic.
Our philosophy is to keep a large percentage of what we stock to limited quantities, making the jewellery and accessories we sell as unique as the people who buy it. As we source our range from a wide number of countries, each season's collection is a fantastic mix of style, colours and designs that are often unique to us.
In the Spring of 2010 the jumbo leather brooch, that forms part of our Tribe Leather collection, was short-listed for Gift of the Year - a fantastic achievement for such a young company.
The 'Tribe Leather' story....
A large part of Tribe's range is made up of leather jewellery and accessories and people often ask what started us down the leather track. Here's what happened and looking back it really was by accident.
A few years ago I bought a leather flower brooch whilst on holiday. It was a treasured accessory and worn regularly on numerous outfits and on numerous occassions (it still is) and people would say 'Where did you get that brooch from?'; 'Is that really made of leather'; 'I'd like one of those brooches?'; 'Will you sell me your brooch?' - no, I'd say not this one but let me get back to you on that - I had an idea.
Having bought a brooch that was hand-made by the people who actually sold it to me I got back in touch with them and asked if they would make specific leather items for me. They said they would. Some designs they already had and they could provide me with straight away and some were in my head and were made specifically for us. A number of interesting drawings were produced and some of these have now resulted in some of the items that are now made especially for Tribe. Working this way has meant that it gives anyone who buys 'Tribe Leather' items the uniqueness of both the product they buy and the variety in the range itself which we add to and adapt on a regular basis (usually with some extra drawings and a little bit of colouring in). The range now consists of brooches, bracelets, earrings, belts, necklaces and key fobs and is regularly expanding.
So that's it. That's how it started, with just one brooch and the rest as they say is history.
