Hairstylist Expands Online Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
Emma Rose Bennett is a hair stylist and co-owns The Cabinet Salon. She’s always had a passion for accessories and adorning hair, in 2018 she started taking jewelry making classes as a hobby and fell in love. After COVID-19 hit, Emma’s salon was closed for 4 months, and Rose & Rain Accessories was born. Having a creative outlet has helped her through the pandemic and inspired her into taking the plunge to design a line of hair accessories.
Rose & Rain Accessories are handcrafted and made to order in Toronto, Ontario. She draws inspiration from her two nieces, the namesakes for the brand, who are both fiery and introspective. Emma’s designs juxtapose modernity and nostalgia, combining classic jewelry techniques with new and vintage materials.
Rose & Rain focuses on slow fashion and small production and uses lustrous metals, vintage finds and hand-carved cast forms. The process is slow and small on purpose. The brand wants to be conscious of not creating excess and instead creating pieces with the intention that they will find a home. Most of the hair accessory line is made to order and uses vintage materials where possible. The vintage material is not only beautiful, but material that already exists in the world that may otherwise go to waste.
Emma was grateful for the help of the ShopHERE Powered by Google program, which gives the opportunity for local artists to have support getting their business online. She found the experience very smooth. Although she had experience with Shopify, her chosen eCommerce platform, time was a challenge with COVID-19 impacting her other business. Having the help from her eCommerce Coordinator to get her creative art online “was so phenomenal.”
Emma found her eCommerce Coordinator efficient, which allowed her to get her website up quickly. She found the design was beautiful and surpassed her expectations. Her eCommerce Coordinator had great knowledge of the themes to choose from that could express the brand and function both aesthetically and purposefully for the products she sells.
Expanding her salon business into selling accessories has given Emma hope during lock downs, as it’s been an especially challenging time to be a small business.
“Helping small businesses has the potential to be very impactful in one way or another. Maybe monetarily, but it can also help to give a creative outlet, feel connected, and feel supported.”
Emma feels having a good website is the first step in developing your business’ identity as a professional brand and having help from the ShopHERE Powered by Google program is invaluable. Her advice is to take this time to be proactive. She notes it might not be easy, because it is a particularly challenging time in more ways than one, but it’s definitely rewarding.
“If you can turn the challenge into a positive by having time to focus on your business in a different way it can still be rewarding.”
Rose & Rain’s latest collection is inspired by shapes and forms found in nature, art, sculpture and travelling. The series contains one-of-a-kind hair adornments that are hand-formed. You can find Rose & Rain’s collection on their website roseandrain.ca
If you’re looking for your own eCommerce website, you can sign up for Digital Main Street’s ShopHERE Powered by Google program here for your own beautiful online storefront.
Digital Main Street was created by the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) with direct support from the City of Toronto. DMS is also supported by a group of strategic business partners, including Google, Mastercard, Shopify, Meta, Intuit QuickBooks, Square, Lightspeed, Ebay and Canada Post.
Continued investment from the Province of Ontario, through the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade (MEDJCT) has allowed the ongoing expansion the Digital Main Street Platform in order to support more businesses going digital across Ontario.
