This week’s HC Campus Celebrity is senior Alyssa Bove and she is most definitely trending above the rest. In the last year and a half, Alyssa has built her personal brand from the ground up through social media and word of mouth. The name of her company, Trending Above, was a play on words of her own name. She is known as Bove by her friends and hopes to one day be known for her amazing creations.
The fearless fashionista lives by the motto, “Why buy it when I can just make it myself?” She mostly makes jewelry, but has designed and decorated everything from pillow covers to bathing suits. Her DIY designs have been sold on Etsy and even worn by notable fashion bloggers. Just a few weeks ago, she celebrated her 100th sale. Her Campus thinks she is worthy of celeb status and maybe someday we can say we knew her first.
Before we can dive into some Q&A, let’s take it back to how she got her start as an entrepreneur. She started posting pictures on Instagram roughly two years ago of some of her arts and crafts that she made for fun, and then she decided to start making jewelry for herself. When she began wearing her creations, people started asking if she could make a necklace or two for them. From there she says word about her jewelry spread quickly and before she knew it she had quite a few requests for her designs. She spent last summer getting her business license and now her innovative designs can be purchased at trendingabove.com.
Her Campus: Where does your inspiration come from?Alyssa Bove: Certain seasons inspire me to make certain pieces. This is kind of funny, but one of the first pieces I ever posted on my Instagram was inspired by the fish emoji. My friends and I sometimes communicate only using emoji’s and somehow the fish emoji was thrown in there, so I used that as my inspiration.
HC: What is your favorite part about building your own brand?AB: Since I’m in the beginning it’s fun to throw out a thousand ideas and some of them hit and some of them miss. It’s a learning process for sure.
HC: Talk about the latest business move you just made this summer.AB: I had to get my business license to be able to sell my stuff through my own website. So when people were interested in my stuff and when I realized it could really be something, I knew I wanted to have the site launched before we got back to school.
HC: Who is your biggest supporter of Trending Above?AB: My parents are definitely my biggest supporters. My dad is always pitching ideas and new business initiatives for Trending Above and my mom is funny because she loves to wear my stuff and tell everyone her daughter made it, but she is definitely more realistic about things.
HC: Ultimately where do you want Trending Above to go from here?AB: I would love for it to expand a lot more. One day I would hope that it could be a brand that competes with Anthropology, so something like an all-purpose home store that has something to offer everyone.HC: How do you do it all?AB: Actually, I just started working with a company overseas. I found this woman on LinkedIn who works in jewelry manufacturing, so I send her my designs and she creates all of the backings for my jewelry and then sends them to me and I do the rest. This summer I also started doing jewelry parties and showings where people can purchase things on the spot or they can fill out an order form for a customized piece.
HC: What are your plans for Trending Above post the dreaded G-Day?AB: I would love to work on the business on the side while working for a fashion company doing graphic design, but you run into the non-compete issue because I’m selling my own stuff. I want to be able to travel the world for inspiration and make pit stops at fashion shows here and there. Eventually I hope to be able to open my own store at the age of 25.
You can follow the brilliant Alyssa Bove on Instagram @trendingabove and check out her creations on trendingabove.com.