jewelry by @shopdalisay | Published by @theissuemagazine | Modelled by Denise @acordingtodenise, Echo @evttherich and Donnalee @_donnaalee | Photography by Alicia Johnson Photography | Set by Sarsota Homes

Gold jewelry for your golden hours

Michelle Dela Cruz, owner of Dalisay Jewelry in Edmonton, has always had a passion for fashion and running a small business. Starting when she was around sixteen/seventeen years old, Michelle created a customized t-shirt business when she was still living in the Philippines. This first business expanded into a boutique clothing store, and eventually, she owned three different businesses focused on clothing, jewelry, and bags. However, after moving to Canada, Michelle found that her experience as a small business owner was very different from the small business landscape in Canada, and temporarily retired from being a small business owner. Fortunately, after a two-year hiatus, she decided to start up her first brand in Canada this year.

Dalisay Jewelry, whose name comes from the Tagalog word meaning ‘pure’, is a brand born out of frustration with the low quality jewelry brands available from fast fashion brands. As Michelle noted, “Many of these fast fashion brands have trendy jewelry at the same price points as my brand, but they were made with poor materials that tarnish and degrade easily”. Although it had been her intent to start with a clothing brand first, she saw an opportunity to offer a solution to this issue. It’s a point of pride for her that all of her brand’s jewelry are non-tarnishable, affordable, and made with high quality materials such as 18k gold plating. Additionally, for those who are sensitive to certain jewelry materials, many of her brand’s offerings are nickel and lead free, and all are hypoallergenic. 

Her inspirations for her designs come from three different areas: a friend in South Korea who is also a business owner and happy to talk design and business, Pinterest/Instagram, and her own job as an influencer (@michiewanders). As a fashion influencer, Michelle is constantly exposed to new fashion trends. This job is the source of some of her biggest inspirations with the exposure to new clothing and jewelry. She also uses Pinterest and Instagram to understand what else is trending. As her customer base are young teenagers and women looking to purchase trendy but affordable and high quality products, it's important to her that her brand meets the mark. Currently, her favourite designs are the best selling Penny necklace, and the Eloise earrings. While the majority of Dalisay’s Jewelry are rarely re-stocked in order to allow for the brand to keep its pulse on trending pieces, the demand for these two pieces were so high that they are now a permanent fixture in the store. 

Working as both a small business owner and an influencer can be tough. While both positions require quite a bit of work, they often rely on each other for exposure and collaborations, which can lead to misunderstandings about the other job. As someone who has been on both ends, working with influencers and other small businesses, Michelle has a unique perspective. It can be frustrating as an influencer when working with small businesses who don’t make their expectations clear and expect different content than communicated. When she reaches out to influencers to work with Dalisay, she makes it clear what kind of content she would like - whether its a story post or a dedicated Instagram feed post - and recommends that other small business owners do the same. After all, as she states, it’s not easy to create content as an influencer, and unclear expectations make it unfair for both parties. Communicating your needs and wants so that everything is upfront and understood is the best way to foster good relationships between small businesses and influencers.

While Michelle started up Dalisay Jewelry in January 2021, just four months ago, she was actually planning on starting this brand the year before. With the effect of Covid-19 on the Canadian economy, she put her plans on pause to see how this would play out but eventually decided if not now, then when? “It is frustrating,” she acknowledges, “knowing that it could have been smoother without the pandemic. But actually, I have seen a lot of people here really give support to small businesses, especially when they know you’re Canadian and based in Edmonton.” In the future, she hopes to expand Dalisay Jewelry, by combining it with a fashion brand or creating a larger business. As someone who has been running small businesses since she was eighteen, it is something Michelle is passionate about, and being able to offer high quality jewelry to others is just the beginning of her story. 

Dalisay Jewelry’s new collection, coming out April 25, 2021, is a limited-edition fruit themed line just in time for summer. “I wanted something fun for spring and summer,” Michelle noted, and added that this line would be the first pieces with colour from her brand for those looking to branch out from more classic colors. Her favourites from the upcoming collection? The watermelon and peach necklaces, available to purchase here once the collection is released. Be sure to be quick to snap up a piece, because once this collection is sold out, it's sold out for good!

You can also check out the gallery pictures from our recent photo shoot with Dalisay Jewelry here - be sure to keep up with Dalisay on their instagram @shop_dalisay.