IMPACT 0432: XVXII – DESI JEWELLERY WITH A TWIST

Hi, I’m Vidhi Modi, a 21-year-old owner of local jewellery brand XVXII that specialises in tarnish-free and waterproof jewellery.

Since young, I have always been into business, although I never knew what field I wanted to go into. This changed during my trip to India in 2019, where I fell in love with the craftsmanship offered in their jewellery, and was inspired to bring it over to Singapore. As an Indian, I love my heritage and culture. Bringing Desi jewellery to Singapore was the most ideal way for me to start a business with my culture incorporated in it.

I started XVXII in 2020, representing my father’s birthday in Roman numerals.

When I first launched the brand, I relied heavily on Instagram and word of mouth, and most of my supporters were people who already knew me such as myfamily and friends. But all that changed for the better when I got onto TikTok. I feel that my audience could relate more to the brand as they saw the work that goes on behind-the-scenes, and makes them feel closer to the brand on a personal scale, which helped to exponentially grow the brand.

While COVID-19 forced many local businesses to go online to focus on the e-commerce marketplace, I gained radical courage to take a leap of faith to take on a physical retail space when I saw my online store amassed over 23,000 followers on TikTok.

Launching a retail store is a dream come true. As much as e-commerce is a thing, the feeling of “touch-and-buy” is irreplaceable. I would encourage those who want to venture into a business to not be afraid to start, as you  would never know if it’s going to work out if you don’t give it a try.

I can’t give a false hope that it would definitely work out, but it’s such a good learning experience knowing what works and what doesn’t work, so definitely start what you want to start.

This article was published on Mar 15, 2022