Lu Loves Indie Labels: Interview with Koo

Hello, dear readers! Hope your weekend has been a nice one! :)
Today I want to introduce an idependent label which I personally like a lot! I got to know Maggie and her jewellery label Koo by chance this spring and since then, we’ve been in contact with each other. I had already shown two of her great necklaces in a blog post some months ago and since then, they have belonged to some of my favorite accessories.

A while ago, Maggie has released another collection with new shapes, pastels and bright summer colors and I was again given the chance to choose two pieces for a cooperation, yay! I chose those two yellow necklaces and I simply love them! Because I didn’t only want to show you her handmade items, but also wanted to let you know more about Maggie and her label Koo, I asked her some interview questions for your. :) Here we go!

“Hello dear readers! I am Maggie and the head of Koo. I like to be creative and to make people happy with my jewelry. I just finished my studies in product-design and I am 24 years old. I love to read and to eat great food. Normally I am a little bit shy. :)

How did the idea develop to sell handmade things and to establish an own indpendent label?
I am a creative person. When I need something new, first I try to create it myself. I love to knit, to sew and to paint. When my sister wished for handmade jewelry for Christmas, I invented some shapes for pendants. My sister liked them and I thought: “That was fun, do some more” and had many other pendant-shapes in mind. And as a student, there is always the need for some more money, so I decided to open a shop, at first on DaWanda and some weeks later also at Etsy. I am lucky that so many people like my jewelry, because I have tried other student-jobs like working as a waitress – and I was lousy. ;)

Could you tell something about your process of creating a new item? How does an idea become a finished product?
It’s always different. As a design-student, I had to work very hard to create a new product. It took about four months to finish a semester-project. I had to research other products and also society, had to make a lot of sketches and to consult a professor every week. There were alway ups and downs when ideas were rejected or my concept just didn’t work. But with my label I feel very free to make everything I want. Just today in the morning I had some new ideas for a new material I want to use (copper) and some new shapes. It always gives me thrills to imagine the finished product. So I immediately made some sketches and I am looking forward to make some models. Unfortunately, the workshop of my university is closed during summer, but I am lucky that my father has an own workshop, too, and is always happy to help me. So I am going to build some models and try to make a variety of the first idea. That is always important to me because so I can choose which model is the best and I also ask friends and wear my designs myself before I sell them.

Any future plans regarding your creative work? :)
Right now, I am very satisfied how my shop is developing. It is so much fun to know that there are people who wear my designs and also like them. In my university studies I specialized on designing industrial products like furniture. I am currently thinking about another shop with furniture I made, but I also want to make an internship in a design-agency and then gain a master degree. But whatever I am doing, I am sure that my label “Koo” is going to play an important role.

Thank you again for answering those questions, Maggie! :)

So dear readers, here are again the necklaces I have chosen. I love their shapes, their colors and their material and they match my style quite good! :) The yellow is perfect for summer outfits and I’m sure I will still use the necklaces in fall quite often. Moreover, I really like Maggie’s shop concept (link below), because her product photos are so bright and colorful.

Which of those two shapes I’ve chosen is your favorite?

What I most love about working and cooperation with other small labels (apart from testing their great handmade items :)) is to get to know the designer better and to get insights into other people’s working process! :) This interview also helped me to get to know more about the design process and the designer and for me, this makes the main difference from buying mass produced products! Horray for handmade!

So if you are interested in Maggie’s other designs and are in love with her jewellery as much as I am, simply visit her shop! :)


Those necklaces were sponsored for a cooperation, but this didn’t touch my personal opinion!
Lu