Today I am here with Matthew Harris
Owner and designer of MATEO Jewelry.
Thank you for joining us.
I'm so excited that we finally got to connect on this.
Thanks for having me.
Today we're going to talk about your career
journey and really dive deep into what it's like working in the fashion industry
and building this jewelry brand that you have today.
How did the brand come about?
What made you decide I want to work in this industry
and specifically, I want to be a jewelry designer?
You know, I'm from Jamaica, a little third world country where to even fathom
the idea of becoming a designer is just looked down upon.
I remember when I told my mom I wanted to be a jewelry designer,
she said, Come on ya yard man, come home.
And I said to her, No, I think I really want to do this.
And I got a job at Soho Grand Hotel and I served tables
while still trying to turn this dream into a reality.
At the time when I was looking for great men's jewelry,
everything was gothic and just dark, and that wasn't my aesthetic.
I didn't want to wear skulls.
You know, I live in Bed-Stuy at the time, I never forgot it, and I was moving
from one brownstone to another brownstone and a screw fell out of the wall.
And I was like, Why isn't this screw a necklace?
I turned a man's toolbox into jewelry.
I'm friends with the owners of what goes around, comes around.
They were like, Why don't you sell some of your pieces here?
You know, I think you're onto something, and
I consign some pieces to the store.
And that's how people discovered the first first set of collection.
I had a very industrial zipper necklace that Rihanna wore then,
and everybody just started blowing my phone up.
And that's really how it started.
They do think
it's important to talk about the difficulties
and the barriers in the jewelry business in terms of diversity,
what's those barriers are in your point of view.
I went to a jewelry trade show in Vegas.
Someone set up a meeting for me with the director of the trade show.
I could see the immediate shock on her face.
Sometimes being shocked is not necessarily it being racist
because she's not accustomed to someone of my color in this realm.
So she's walking me through the halls of the trade show, and she said to me,
Well, there's not many people here like you.
And I'm just like,
OK, this she did not I'm trying to say that she did not just say that to me
because I'm the minority in this field.
I think a lot of people
have taken the piss out of me because they think no one knows me.
You know, the jewelry making world is a world of privilege,
and I'm not some privileged kid coming from some trust fund.
I'm poor little black boy from Jamaica who turns water into wine.
That's just really who I am.
So obviously, we know there's been a big shift in the business
in terms of revenue and funding and support for black owned businesses.
Would you say that you have benefited from that?
Have you been able to capitalize on this moment at all?
And the Black Lives Matter movement reappeared in a in a more vigorous way
in June.
I saw more people feeling somewhat guilty, so they were buying.
It has helped in the sense that now a few more people know what the name of
the brand is.
Has it helped me in a great grand scale?
I can't say. I can't say yet.
I've seen so many people just like
they just want to be famous or popular because of the whole movement,
and everyone now has a voice and they're not really trying to help.
With that being said, I brought someone to Net-A-Porter,
another black designer, to portray who sells fine jewelry.
His name is Carey, and he already sold out, I think, ten styles,
and he's about to have a solid business at Net-A-Porter
because that for me is important is the really, truly doing the work.
I'm not just out here making noise,
and I feel like a lot of noise has happened since June of last year.
You are not shy to celebrities
wearing your pieces, but the Super Bowl is a whole different
playing field in terms of visibility and press on the scale of that moment.
How did that feel for you?
Was it a big, impactful, like, meaningful moment for you?
I've had almost, you know, a lot of major celebrities
where the brand and the needle does not move.
But when Amanda wore it, I didn't even know
my phone just started blowing up and the way she moved on camera.
You could see the ring.
So I was beyond humbled and just like honored.
Increasing sales, etc..
sort of it speaks to how she is a movement and the moment right now.
And it's not just about
another celebrity placement like, I think that's really powerful in itself.
Yeah, she she she's a force.
I think she's a prolific poet of our times, vibrant black
young woman, just like really speaking to the people.
So it's nice to have this fresh generation wearing my works.
When you see me,
I don't come off as the black brand or the black person
that needs the help when really , in fact, I needed the mentorship.
But is it changing? Yes, it is changing.
You know, I've seen it now.
I can count on my hand five other black jewelry designers out there.
It will only change because
the conversation has started, and that's all
That's all we needed.
You know, we've seen, you know, organizations
now have funds being or grants being given to black designers.
So I think it is only going to change for the future.
Hopefully, it will last.
You're going to see some resilient black brands
You have such a robust story to tell.
And I really think people will take away some of the gems that you dropped
So thank you for sitting with us to talk to through everything.
Thanks for having me.
I'm optimistic about fashion in the future.
I think it's going to be bright and I think it's going to be great.