Designing Women

Mari and Malene Davis carve a retail niche with their beaded and woven jewelry line.

by

Sisters and DIYers Malene “Lani” Davis and Marianna “Mari” Davis turned making jewelry for their mother’s friends into a full-time job. Since starting Iram-Inal Designs (the sisters’ nicknames backward) in 2007, the duo has expanded to 30 locations nationally, from St. Louis to Manhattan. With bold yet affordable creations—made by hand in St. Louis and Atlanta—the pair think as big as their bright, woven necklaces.

What sets you apart from other jewelry designers?

Malene: For us, it’s really important that we’re still part of the production process. For a lot of designers, the bigger you grow, the less you actually have to do with the jewelry. We always make sure our hands are touching each piece in some way.

How does a piece of jewelry come together?

Malene: If it’s a semiprecious-stone woven necklace, you buy the beads in bulk. They come in 16-inch strands. We’ll buy a couple of those strands, and we’ll split them apart so the beads are loose. Then we take what’s called a flex wire, and we’ll begin the weaving process. We’ve gone up to four strands, and seven for runway shows.

Where do you find inspiration for your designs?

Mari: It’s nature. It’s the ocean. It’s the sky. It’s looking at National Geographic. We’re really into birds right now, because they signify freedom.

How often do you update your lines?

Malene: Because we make everything ourselves, we have a little bit more time than the bigger designers to get out our line. March is our spring 2010 line debut, and then in late August or early September, we put out fall 2010.

What’s new this spring?

Mari: At Saint Louis Fashion Week, we showed this fantastic crest earring that was humongous and was unfortunately made of brass, which is very heavy. When we discovered that women love these earrings, I figured out how to create the same look with old CDs. I make the same crest shape from laser cutting or carving a CD. It’s a much lighter, wearable form.

The brand’s available in at least six different states and online. How have you gone about expanding?

Malene: To me, it’s all about market research. I do a lot of research online to see what boutiques carry local or independent designers. I’ll send out an email introducing us with photos. People love that they can meet us, and that we can modify jewelry on the spot. The product speaks for itself, and we’ve been really fortunate. Our goal is to have a growth of four stores—four new locations—every quarter. [So far], we’ve accomplished that goal.

Iram-Inal Designs are available at these st. louis stores:

Sign up for the Recap, St. Louis Magazine's email overview of the week's top stories.
Or, check out all of our newsletters.