100 Malaysians, 100 Milestones – LSA100 this year spotlights Jenn Low, the mastermind behind the local jewellery house Wanderlust + Co. Now in her fourteenth year with the brand (and fresh from its fifth store opening), Jenn reflects on her journey from mompreneur to business powerhouse as the brand continues to grow.
“Ooh, love the bracelet,” Jenn Low comments from her makeup chair, the Australian lilt in her voice lovely and clear. She’s grinning as she nods to my wrist — at least as much as she can while her face is being powdered — and I grin right back. For this specific interview, I’m sporting the Chunky Curb chain from Wanderlust + Co, hoping she’d notice at any point during our chat. She catches it immediately when I help unfasten her jewellery before the shoot, our gold pieces clinking together. (It’s nice to see that she’s a ‘gold girlie’ like me.)
It’s pretty wild to think that Wanderlust + Co is celebrating their fourteenth year this year. The brand’s been deeply immersed in the local fashion scene, so much so that it feels like it’s been around forever. But while Wanderlust + Co shone in the e-commerce scene in its first decade, its offline footprint began only four years ago. And in these four years, there have been five (and counting!) physical stores across Malaysia and Singapore.
“More than 70% of our online community is actually focused in the US, Europe and Australia,” Jenn tells me. “So, during the pandemic, we were much more grounded in our home country here, in Malaysia. And so my team and I took the opportunity to be introspective about what we could do physically in our home country.”
The pieces from Wanderlust + Co have been seen on many international fingers, wrists and necks; even some Hollywood’s biggest celebrities such as Jessica Alba, Selena Gomez, and even models Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner have sported the brand. I remember scrolling through the Instagram feed of one of my favourite London-based online creators and seeing Wanderlust + Co tagged in her jewellery box amidst her Vivienne Westwood and other vintage pieces, which was very cool. There’s such a cosy, personal sense of girlhood that surrounds the brand that just draws you in. Jenn herself coined the ‘#WCOgirlgang’ movement, celebrating all the creative ways that girls style their Wanderlust + Co jewellery.
Over the course of the interview — and even during the shoot itself — Jenn speaks a lot about “making the most of this one precious life”. As a mompreneur who’s helmed Wanderlust + Co to its success, she’s grateful to be able to enjoy it in its prime. She’s counting her blessings and learning to appreciate all the good things that are coming her way — and prepping herself as best as she can for what’s to come.
First of all, a belated congrats on the fifth Wanderlust + Co store (and second in Singapore)! It’s been a really busy and eventful year for the brand. What were some highlight moments of the year for you?
My goodness, that’s a trick question! The key highlight really is being able to grow the brand into a physical offline footprint, a physical store. I think success for me is when you’re able to embody all parts of your life together. And as a working mom — a mompreneur — the year to me has been really full of ups and downs, you know. Wins as well as lows. But a key highlight for me is being able to stay true to our growth plans, and growing our omni-channel presence as well as online community, while staying true to the brand values as well as my personal beliefs.
This year, Wanderlust + Co also unveiled its offline-exclusive personalisation experiences for its customers. How was the creative process to develop that, and what went into it?
So, we celebrated 14 years of Wanderlust + Co, and that’s crazy! We spent the first decade, the first ten years building online. And as a result, more than 70% of our online community is actually focused in the US, Europe and Australia. So, during the pandemic, we were much more grounded in our home country here, in Malaysia. And so my team and I took the opportunity to be introspective about what we could do physically in our home country. And that actually spurred on the decision to open the five offline stores across the last four years. We would always hear Malaysians travel abroad and say and express how fun certain, you know, store-experiential moments were. And we wanted to not just open a store, but open a jewelry hub filled with fun moments for our community. That was how the experiences came about.
Currently we have a whole range of different experiences. We’re very known, first and foremost, about piercings. And so, we’ve done so much R&D into not just the piercing moment, but the healing process after, the education around, you know, how surgical steel titanium is best for quick piercing healings. We have had so many people share with us horrific experiences that have scarred them. So we believe that every person deserves to have an enjoyable educational moment with piercing. We also have a locket-printing service where you can just AirDrop a photo from your phone and the store team will print out the image and pop it into a customised locket of your choice so you can gift not just a jewellery piece, but a memory, to a loved one.
We’ve got welding as well as the patch bar, which right now you can make a bag strap with. But also, every festive season we plan to drop an exclusive limited edition piece that you can patch. Right now for Christmas, it’s actually a linen stocking. You select a linen stocking and pop patches on it. So it’s not just a gift to yourself, and instead of wrapping up gifts and having so much wastage across like paper bags, wrapping, gift rack paper, it’s a sock that you can reuse. You can put a jewellery gift in there, you can put a bottle of wine in there, you could put a plushie, anything. And more importantly, perhaps it’s a moment where you could go with a boyfriend or girlfriend and say, let’s do this together. So the offline stores for us isn’t just a moment for sales, but it’s a moment for our community to connect and to experience, something that you usually would only have when you travel abroad.
What do you think might have been the biggest factor that has helped Wanderlust + Co be successful?
There’s so many things that have contributed to the success today. One of the key things that I learned, especially in the last two years, is that it’s very important to actually make friends with your pain and your challenges. And don’t waste your mistakes. Don’t waste your pain. You know, like Meryl Streep famously said, “Take your broken heart and make it into art.” And I think from small things to big things — whether it’s like a small little glitch in operations or, like, a campaign strategy going wrong — social media these days has become everyone’s highlight reel. I think the important thing we should share with the next generation of entrepreneurs as well as kids — because now I have two little kids of my own — is what to do when you’re down. Because the truth is, any entrepreneur’s journey is not perfect. What’s most important is what you make of, you know, those little moments in my opinion.
Speaking of social media, you come from the early millennial generation — so your growth and influence has been pretty reliant on the Internet as of late. How do you feel about ‘growing with the Internet’ through your business?
It’s really wild, because when I first started the brand, Instagram didn’t exist yet! (laughs) You know, I’m an older millennial and I’ve really seen how social media has evolved from Friendster and MySpace all the way to Facebook and then Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok. And all I can say is, trends and social media platforms can come and go, but what will always be the core of a stable and sustainable business is being able to identify your key to use them. The purpose of why your brand exists and why your products exist, and not compromising that as the trends and the social platforms come and go. It’s too easy these days to constantly compare yourself and lose yourself in the process of growth. But being able to stay true to why you exist and not forgetting the people who put you there, that’s what’s important. Which, to me, is our customers, and our community and staying grateful for that.
You know, I always say to my team, like, a product might be RM200 or RM300 but you never know when that is a person’s really precious RM200 ringgit, and they’ve spent their savings in exchange for a beautiful piece from us. So, if you always operate from a place of gratitude and being grateful for every dollar that your community is willing to spend on your product, and you continue to give more back to them in terms of the quality, the experience, the intention of a product, then growth will always be there for you no matter which social platform comes and goes.
What would you say is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far, in running the brand?
I think two things. The first is silencing your own inner doubt. And the second would be definitely navigating all the changes in the industry. I think to be in fashion — much less e-commerce — you really, really have to love what you do and know why you’re doing it. Because it’s not an easy industry. It’s very fickle and things are constantly ever-changing, so being clear of your purpose and staying true to it is important.
As a mompreneur, how do you find the balance between work and as a mom?
The balance is that there is no balance. (laughs) Everyone’s striving for some big existential moment these days when it comes to balance. But the reality is, there will be some days when I’ll spend a bit more time organising things at home with my children, speaking to their teachers, catching up on their educational growth and personal growth. And then some days I’ll be on shoots, on sets, at events till really late and come home when the kids are already in bed. I think it’s important as a mom to remember to be honest with your kids that even as a parent, you’re actually doing everything for the first time. So, if you want your kids to be kind, you first and foremost have to be kind to yourself.
What are some patterns you’ve noticed over the years about women at work?
The really successful women I know are comfortable with embracing both their strong and soft sides. And they know when to respond. They know which side to respond with. They don’t sweat the small stuff. They let a lot of things go and they’re constantly learning. And they’re not just, you know, preaching it but they’re also able to embody it.
To sum up, what is one important lesson that you’ve learned in the past year?
You have this one precious life, and your only goal is to get to know your truest self as early on as possible. And to make the most out of my precious life.
