Current Vine

By Denise Tong

Sometimes the pressures of a professional partnership can strain even the best of friendships. Luckily for Sarah Lee and Min Park, their 14-year friendship has only strengthened since they founded their jewelry company Althea.

The two New Yorkers met as teenagers; at that time, neither had given much thought to accessories entrepreneurship despite their shared interest in fashion. It wasn’t until a few years ago that the twosome started making jewelry as a hobby; the positive feedback they received led them to consider starting a company together.

In August 2005, Althea was launched. Inspired by the graceful femininity of the althea flower, the company’s elegant jewelry is made from onyx, quartz, jade, and metals.

The company has so far amassed a young New York clientele and was hired in summer 2006 as a vendor at a Mary Kay industry event; custom anklets and bracelets went to the fashion editors of major magazines.

Lee and Park sat down with Current Vine to discuss their design plans and the rewards of starting a business with a friend.

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Q: What it was like to embark on this journey together into new territory?

SL: There is a general entrepreneurial spirit within immigrant communities. When I was growing up, my parents always owned their own business and worked for themselves, and that’s really all I knew. This is an adventure for Min and me, because we get to experiment and figure out what works—all the while learning about ourselves.

MP: My first job out of college was for a privately owned small business. I saw first-hand the personal investment of both time and capital that the owner put in to grow her company. I also saw her pride and her passion for her work. It’s a lot of hard work but the rewards are boundless.

SL: We try not to take things too seriously, since we really want this to be a positive experience more than anything else. We believe that our success will be achieved with perseverance, honesty, trust, and by always looking at the silver lining.

Q: What influences your designs?

MP: They’re influenced by current trends and retro styles, particularly from the 1950s. I like mixing past and present, and I love to go to antique jewelry stores for inspiration. For the spring collection, we used a lot of cultured pearls and crystals interlinked with gold chains for a modern twist on classic pieces.

SL: We like to stay current with color palettes, but mostly we observe and absorb, and then try to stay true to our own styling. We come up with different combinations to create something that we would love to wear and to see on other women.

Q: Who are some of your favorite designers?

MP: David Yurman, Diane von Furstenberg, Zac Posen, Valentino, and [architect and furniture designer] Charles Eames.

SL: Lee Angel, Stella McCartney, Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel, Alexis Bittar…too many to mention!

Q: Where are your designs—and the company in general—headed?

MP: In the future, we would like to experiment more with metals—welding different types of metals and chains together for more design flexibility. As far as the future of the company, in the short term we would like our pieces to be sold at selective boutiques nationwide. Long term, we would like to open our own retail store.

Q: What has been most gratifying so far?

MP: The Mary Kay event. We were able to utilize all of our skills—creativity, negotiation, budgeting, inventory management, presentation, time management, and vendor relations. We were so proud of our end product and the event was a huge success.

SL: There’s also the support that we’ve received from family and friends. It is amazing how much they believe in us and our potential.

Q: How would you describe your experience in general, particularly with respect to your longtime friendship?

SL: It’s been quite rewarding; more than I could have ever hoped for. Min is such an amazing person—talented and caring with very respectable morals. I value our friendship more and more with every passing day.

MP: Sarah complements me so well and we are both good at different aspects of the business. We balance each other out and we have mutual love and respect for each other, which is very important for a partnership to work.

SL: It’s very hard for us to juggle everything, but we’re taking it one step at a time. Most challenging are our schedules and lives in the Big Apple.

MP: Since we are both new to owning our own business, a lot of it is just figuring out what we need to do and what the best way to run our business is, which can be frustrating at times. However, I have one of my closest friends going on this journey with me, so overall it’s been a blast. No obstacle has been too big for us to tackle.