secrets of an accessories queen
HAPPY DAVID, ACCESSORIES DESIGNER EXTRAORDINAIRE, SPILLS THE SECRETS OF HER ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS TO DANIEL BETANCOURT
Would you still go to work at your current job if you weren’t getting paid for it?”
Every now and then, entrepreneurial souls such as Happy David challenge themselves with this question. And always, they arrive at one comforting realization – that they have the satisfaction of waking up every day to a job they actually like to do. For those of us who still haven’t taken the plunge to go it alone in business, people like Happy David serve as beacons as to what entrepreneurship can bring: freedom, the potential to be rich and, best of all, control of one’s life.
What does it take to make an entrepreneurial venture work? Is it luck, a spine of steel or a great product? Or is it just a loan officer who is really, really nice? Happy David tells us it is simply bravery, creativity and, last but not least, passion.
A BRAND OF HER OWN
Happy first fi ddled with costume jewelry as early as fourth grade. Back then, she and her sister would make simple hoops of strung-in beads when they were at their mother’s supplier’s shop. Their mom later sold whatever they put together at her craft shop.
However, it was only in college when play transformed into something serious. After visiting a trade show, she realized she could make her own beaded jewelry. Her friends (and then friends of friends) started asking for them, and then, as they say in the Philippines, the entire barangay too!
But the Oprah “aha!” moment, when the creative lass discovered that her hobby could actually be a money-making business, came when a referral to retail tycoon Ben Chan gave her an unexpected break. She won a contract to supply HUMAN, one of the high-street brands of Bench, the most important Filipino company in fashion retail. She cannot recall how much money she had made from that overwhelming order, but it was exhilarating to see her jewelry sold in shops.
What came next was a giant leap forward: creating her own brand. It was actually her mother who suggested that she put her own name on her pieces, and so it came about that in 2001, the offi cial Get Happy brand was born, legally registered as a business.
Soon after that, her work landed on the pages of fashion magazines in the country. And the ball just kept on rolling.
Now, the Get Happy brand is carried by Rustan’s Makati as well as stand-alone lifestyle shops such as Mag:net Plus and Ishq in Manila, Chimes in Davao and Spruce in Cagayan de Oro.
Her recently launched second label, the luxe brand Lucy in the Sky, is also found in Rustan’s Makati and on the racks of House of Laurel, Firma and Solea.
STRONG SUPPORT
Having started at an early age, she acknowledges that her family and friends have been the most important contributors to all of this success she now enjoys.
Her mother, herself a businesswoman, dealt with customers and watched the inventory. Her teachers reminded her of the value of accounting and operations while her friends formed the initial base of her sales.
Her father, on the other hand, taught her the social responsibility of business. “My dad always drilled in us to ensure that we have our principles in place,” she says. “Everything else will just follow, he said. So it is important for us take very good care of our own people.”
HIGHLY INGENIOUS INDIGENOUS CREATIONS
Entrepreneurs go out into the world with the fi rm belief that they have something unique to offer – that they are doing it differently.
For Happy David, it is accessories that buck the trend, pieces that pull the eye, jewelry that puts the avant in avant-garde.
So, while everybody is going for Swarovski’s bling (which is totally passé now, by the way. Sorry, Paris!), her jewelry is fabricated using indigenous materials.
“I work with a lot of local and indigenous materials because they are abundant in the Philippines,” she says.
“We have so many different variants of shells, wood and seeds. I can have them painted, shaped and dyed according to my specifi cations. As for shells, there are a lot of inconsistencies during the processing [because one piece is different from the other], but their uniqueness is where the charm lies.” While the inventiveness of other accessory designers might stop at materials and design, Happy raises the bar by proposing new treatments and ways to wear jewelry.
In her recent collection for Get Happy, she has Y-necklaces that skirt a woman’s sternum, anchored by a polished conch or a metal and gold-lined resin pendant. She also has a one-of-a-kind designer piece where she aligns miniature Russian dolls with charms, turquoise and coral.
Meanwhile, for Lucy in the Sky, Happy experiments with the dialogue between geometric and organic, inspired by a recent visit to the Adolfo Schlosser retrospective in Madrid, Spain.
SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
She reveals that her ideas come from absolutely everywhere. “I’m inspired by a lot of everyday details,” says Happy. “For instance, irregular shapes or curves of furniture can manifest themselves in the drape of a necklace or the beading of a bracelet. It can also be as mundane as needing something to match the outfi t that I’m wearing that day.”
For custom-made pieces, Happy uses a different approach. “If I’m creating a piece for someone in particular, I imagine how the spirit of the person would be best represented by a place, a favorite song or even by the material I’m using – would the person be shiny and bright or textured and dark?”
It is no wonder that Happy retains such a diverse following: fashionistas, college girls, yuppies, housewives, mothers and their daughters, boyfriends on the hunt for anniversary gifts, and yes, even men!
One thing unites them, however: a personality teeming with self-assurance. The woman she designs for is a woman “who isn’t afraid to push the envelope when it comes to style”.
PASSION ABOVE ALL
Flying solo is never without turbulence. There are tempests to brave and mountains to scale on the journey to success.
Happy believes that there have been efforts within the Philippines to encourage entrepreneurship, like the Department of Trade and Industry’s online registration system for new businesses, or the private sector’s “Go Negosyo” campaigns. Nevertheless, red tape bureaucracy and “under the table expenses” are still prevalent, often very discouraging to start-up hopefuls.
Furthermore, external support – whether fi nancial, logistical or administrative – is still limited. In a 2004 survey of costume jewelry businesses, only one in four said they received some sort of assistance from donor groups or government agencies. Sixty per cent said they fi nanced the businesses themselves.
For anyone trying to break into the local design scene, there are other warning lights on the runway. Happy cautions that despite the wealth of talent, there aren’t enough jobs or local customers in the market to absorb the output of Filipino designers.
“Everybody is fi ghting for the same clients,” she confesses. Moreover, the government and institutional support that does exist for designers is limited. “The government does not see design as a sunrise industry,” explains Happy. In other words, it is not an industry that can create jobs as it does in countries such as Thailand, Italy and 
France. “Strong design schools with experienced faculty are lacking,” she adds.
Tests and trials do come with the territory. So how does she overcome them?
“If you want to succeed in this business, you’ve got to be determined. You must be able to see the opportunities in both the bad times and the good times, and have a strong vision to keep on track,” she says.
“You need to be fair, ethical and move with the changing times. Above all, you have to have that passion for whatever you’re doing. When you’re genuinely enthusiastic about your product, it won’t be hard to get your audience excited over it as well.”
WHEN — AND WHEN NOT — TO ACCESSORIZE
1. Choose accessories that make you feel good or excite you!
2. Your accessories must match your outfi t. They should complement and not clash or fi ght for attention. If you feel that your eyes keep moving from one detail to the other, you’re probably wearing too much.
3. Look like you’re the one wearing the accessories — and not the other way around! The more vibrant the personality, the bolder the accessories.
4. In corporate environments, it’s wonderful to be fashionable by adding one or two accessories, but avoid pieces that are more suited to a party.
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