Written by Billie Bhatia

Marisa Hordern first launched Missoma from her kitchen table; now, the A-list-approved jewellery brand is loved by the most stylish women in fashion. Stylist discovers how she made it happen.

You would be hard pressed to find a stylish neck that isn’t adorned with Missoma. The demi-fine jewellery brand has transformed the way women get dressed, to the point where I cannot leave the house without the brand’s chubby gold earrings. 

Missoma’s power is that it is everywhere: a scroll on Instagram, a stroll down the street, the person jumping up and down next to you at a festival, on celebrities and on your best friends. The brand’s glittering chains and statement earrings are all around us. Just this week Missoma launched a dedicated silver collection with long-time collaborator and influencer Lucy Williams. 

But how did a jewellery brand get here? To a place where it has seen sales grow from £1 million to £33 million in the past five years. Stylist sat down with founder Marisa Hordern to discover the secrets to her success.  

“Missoma was not born overnight,” says Hordern. “The brand is 15 years old; Missoma was a hard graft. I didn’t have a background in jewellery. I just made it up as I went along. I started beading jewellery around my kitchen table with my mum while I was trying to find a job after studying history at Oxford University. But I also did it because I couldn’t find jewellery that I wanted to wear that was affordable – and actually, I think that’s where Missoma really came from. The options were either really high-end amazing pieces that were super expensive or throwaway fashion jewellery that tarnished immediately.

“Missoma carved out a category that didn’t really exist – design-led, refined pieces that were delicate and durable, but also affordable and accessible,” explains Hordern. Now, the market looks completely different – self-gifting jewellery hasn’t only become accessible but it’s a fundamental way in which women shop.

It was that genuine want to create something different for the market that has seen Missoma act as a trailblazer in the category. It was one of the first brands to adopt influencer collaborations, recruiting taste-maker Lucy Williams into the fold eight years ago. Williams’s edits of simple but standout pieces have been a core part of the Missoma business (and I say this as someone who has bought countless gold crescent and Roman coin necklaces for friends’ birthday and big occasions), with people still eager to shop her first collection today.

Longevity and authenticity are evidently a huge part of the success. “Who has that kind of a relationship with a brand?” asks Hordern. “We were together to talk about new designs and we are both still as excited now as we were when we first met around my kitchen table with some sand and some shells and ideas of what we wanted to create.”

Now that middle sweet spot in the jewellery industry is booming, with many other brands offering a version of the Missoma aesthetic. Layered fine necklaces with mismatched pendants, a series of chubby hoops climbing up the ear, stacks of vintage-inspired bracelets and rings. However, it’s Hordern’s vision for the future and the collaborators she chooses to work with that keeps the brand evolving. Collaborators like Harris Reed, who worked with Missoma just at the tipping point of its stratospheric rise to fashion superstardom, on a stellar collection of pieces that felt impossibly like Missoma, but were also undeniably Harris Reed.  

With A-listers and royals such as Kendall Jenner, Katie Holmes, Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton counting themselves as fans of the brand, I ask Hordern if that’s how she measures her success now. “My first real pinch-me moment was when Jennifer Lopez wore a pair of my hoops on the cover of Elle in 2007 – hilariously, they were credited to someone else by mistake, but those hoops became our first icon. But the real joy for me is seeing people wearing it every day. I get more joy walking down the street and spotting Missoma on people than on a celebrity. It’s actually really embarrassing because I think people must think I’m constantly staring at their chests.

“The thing is with celebrities, we’re not the brand that pays for them to wear it on the red carpet or at any kind of event. We are the brand that they choose to wear every day. So they will wear something amazing on the red carpet and return to us the next day for their flight home or their walk to the farmers’ market – we are their everyday.”

There was a moment in Missoma’s history when Hordern was a one-woman show, designing and creating by day and uploading to the website by night. Now, there are 100 people that work for the brand. A team of young millennials who started out as fans of the brand are essential to helping Hordern steer the ship now. “I love getting the team’s perspective. It’s so important that everyone has a voice and that they are heard. Our shoppers are aged 25 to 45, so it’s impossible to be everything to everyone. Instead, we are trying to be focused and intentional in everything we do.”

It’s this attitude, ethos and commitment that have propelled Missoma to be the brand that almost every woman I know turns to for a pick-me-up, a treat, a sentimental gift or just a new pair of earrings. Missoma simply knows what women want.  

Images: courtesy of Missoma 

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