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Nov. 27–Starting a small business is hard enough, but try doing it from 1,500 miles away.
Just ask Phyllis Dakil Duncan, owner of the Charmed, I’m Sure kiosk in Norman’s Sooner Mall.
Duncan, a 1976 University of Oklahoma graduate who lives in Modesto, Calif., is one of several area retailers who sell Italian charm bracelets, a new variation on the traditional, dangling charm bracelets.
The stainless steel bracelets are like stretchable watchbands, so customers can interchange the links with any number of different charms. The base bracelets start at $6; individual charms range in price from $9 to $45.
Charmed, I’m Sure is the first in the country to offer officially licensed OU charms, and what better time to start selling them than Bedlam Week? Duncan is counting on that Sooner magic to propel sales so her company can expand its line to include Oklahoma State University and other colleges.
Duncan, the sister of Oklahoma City auctioneer Louis Dakil, opened her kiosk in August. But starting the business was anything but charming, she said.
“I had no idea of what I was getting into,” she said last week on a trip to Oklahoma City to prepare for the rollout of the OU charms. “It’s very taxing, but all my friends have helped and I’ve had lots of help from the younger people we have, including my niece and her friends from college.”
In fact, Duncan’s niece, Rachele Dakil, an OU student, helped so much that Duncan made Dakil a part owner of the company, she said.
Duncan commutes from California to Oklahoma several times a month and wants to expand cufflinks her business into other malls.
The former coordinator of tobacco health education programs for a hospital foundation in Modesto quit her job in July to concentrate on the business. She had moved to California from Oklahoma in 1984 when her husband, John, was transferred to a new job.
“I love my state,” she said of Oklahoma. “My son loves California, but I’ve found people don’t have the same camaraderie there as people in Oklahoma.”
Italian charm bracelets, introduced in that country in the late 1970s, made their way to Northern California about three years ago, she said. They’ve exploded in popularity there and have expanded to the East Coast, Florida and Texas. Duncan hopes the fashionable bracelets will stretch into Oklahoma and the Midwest.
She said feedback from customers here has been surprising at times.
“We got two booths at the Italian Festival in McAlester and I had five people come up to me who said they had them sent from relatives in California,” she said. “After that my husband and I talked about it and decided to get into the Oklahoma market.”
But she’s not alone in that market. Theresa Leonardini and her husband, Kevin, opened a kiosk, Italian Charms and Me, at Oklahoma City’s Quail Springs Mall in the spring. Other versions of the bracelets are available in jewelry stores and clothing outlets such as The Limited.
Leonardini said her customers range in age “from 6 to 80.” She said she was hopeful about sales in the holiday season, with her kiosk doing well at Mother’s Day and graduation earlier in this year.
“You do see more women than men buying them,” Leonardini said.
“It may take a while before you see guys in Oklahoma wearing them.”
Helena Krodel, a New York spokeswoman for the Jewelry Information Center, an industry trade group, said many women’s fashion magazines are doing articles on charm bracelets for their spring 2003 issues.
The trade group doesn’t track sales figures on charm tiffany jewellery, she said, but several designers are introducing high-end traditional charm bracelets — including a $10,000 version from Cartier.
“We’re seeing a big trend in sentimental pieces,” Krodel said.
“People are looking for jewelry with more meaning after Sept. 11.
Fine jewelry has always been very personal and passed down from mother to daughter or father to son.”
Duncan, whose quest to get an official license to sell the OU charms began in May, said she hopes expanding the college line will be easier now that she knows the ropes.
“It took a lot of work to get the collegiate license,” she said.
“It was a very long process — very detailed. They’re very picky about it.”
While the Italian charm bracelets could go the way of other fads, Duncan is optimistic about the jewelry’s future.
“I think it will hit a peak, but they’ll always be here,” she said. “You can start with one charm or 20. It’s not like ordering a coat from a department store. It’s a lot more personal than that.”
Credit: The Daily Oklahoman