AAPI Heritage Month: Asian-owned brands tell the story behind their products
As Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month comes to an end, we wanted to take a moment to highlight a few Asian-owned brands and their founders while getting the inside scoop on how they came to be.
Below, you'll find engaging tales from the folks behind Eliette Jewelry, Judy Blue Jeans and ESW Beauty, all of whom gave us the inside scoop on their paths via personally recorded videos, as well as the extra scoop on more favorite and emerging brands like Elorea perfume, Olah hair accessories, Notte jewelry and more.
Read on to learn more and shop!
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Eliette Jewelry
"Daring design meets responsible sourcing" is the motto behind the dazzling jewelry brand Eliette, brought to life by founder Jenny Chung Seeger and her team of remarkable talents, including lead designer Bliss Lau, who "GMA" fans may recall from our profile about her eponymous line last year.
Eliette creates its jewelry from lab-grown diamonds sourced from labs that use renewable energy, which offers the added benefit of being more cost-efficient than traditionally mined diamonds.
"I started Eliette four years ago when I noticed that the lab-grown diamond jewelry out there was so boring," Seeger explained. "It lacked personality, it wasn't unique, there's nothing about it that stood out."
By working with Lau, whose own designs are remarkably unique while remaining timelessly cool, the brand has achieved exactly what it set out to do. You can go classic with a beautifully giftworthy pair of diamond huggies, or lean into something more singular like the Gemma Pear engagement ring that takes the traditional diamond cut and skews it to the side for an heirloom-quality piece that will be a conversation starter for decades to come.
Judy Blue Jeans
Judy Blue has been a popular name in boutique denim for decades, but the brand has only recently seen broader popularity thanks to its internet virality, which led to an expanded footprint and wider online availability.
The Los Angeles-based brand was founded in 1999 by Judy Choi, whose Fashion Institute of Technology education and experience in men's denim led her to want to create a high-quality product for women that would last and offered an extended size range to fit diverse body types -- something of an anomaly in that era.
Today, Choi's daughter Christina helps run the family business and carries on that legacy of on-trend, high-quality denim that gives women the confidence and comfort they deserve.
"Judy Blue was started by my mom Judy in 1999," Christina Choi told "GMA." "She really believed that quality will last and that it was needed."
Judy Blue can be found in thousands of boutiques across the country, and you can shop for them online by heading to JudyBlueJeans.com.
ESW Beauty
ESW Beauty founder Elina Sofia Wang's journey to creating the brand started out of health-driven necessity more than a decade ago while she was still in college.
"Once upon a time in 2014, at 16, I was packing orders, pitching K-beauty, and testing sheet masks in the back room of my mom's small New Jersey distribution company, where I fell in love with skin care, even though nothing felt like me," she recounted. "Around the same time, I was juggling college at Babson and multiple jobs, running on stress and little sleep until my body gave out, and I landed in the ER with severe stomach ulcers."
Wang's said her struggles turned to inspiration when she took a year off to rest and recover.
"The idea clicked: What if I combined wellness and skin care into one brand?" she said.
The result was ESW, which is now one of the top face mask brands in the U.S., backed by a team of 20 employees and sold in more than 19,000 stores.
Check out some of the brand's bestsellers below, including the famous masks and the instantly refreshing Lychee Breeze facial mist.
More AAPI-owned brands we love
- Elorea: "Born in New York, rooted in Seoul" is what Su min Park and Wonny Lee, the founders behind luxe perfume brand Elorea, have to say about their product. Each Elorea fragrance carries the nature, memory and craft of Korean culture, mixed to evoke old memories and create new ones through the singular power of scent. Try one of the brand's impressive discovery sets to explore all it has to offer, then invest in a full size bottle of your favorite for a new signature scent.
- Affection Blvd. is a newer slow fashion brand founded by designer Stella Huang that's dedicated to creating beautiful heart-shaped bags, airy apparel and more to bring a touch of romance to your daily wardrobe.
- Olah and Lost Pattern: Two fantastic makers of accessories brought to you by one founder, Yong Wang. Olah is the place to shop for cool, Gen Z-coded hair accessories that are sustainably crafted from hair-friendly silk, while Lost Pattern uses that same silk (and many other fabrics!) to craft fashionable scarves, jaunty hats, adorable totes and more.
- Notte Jewelry is a one-stop shop for all your whimsical jewelry needs, with everything from ocean-themed earrings for summer fun to a malachite heart necklace that adds a pop of gorgeous green to your look all year long.
