Innovative people don’t sit around waiting for solutions to come to them, they create their own. That is what Sherryl Mascarinas did when she launched her hairclip business. However, that is not how it started.
Sherryl began making her hairclips in 2005. She wanted something special that her daughters could wear. After a while, she began making the clips as gifts for friends and family. According to ctpost.com, she eventually made the natural progression into her own business, Lizzie, Izzie + James.
Demand grew when, in 2008, she started to sell products on Etsy, an online retailer catering to people who make crafts. She also knocked on doors and convinced operators of children’s boutiques like Krik-It in Fairfield and Wilton, Candy Nichols and Let’s Dress Up in New Canaan and Amy Coe in Westport, that she offered a product that would do more than just take up space.
“They liked what they saw. A lot of retailers want to touch and feel it,” said Mascarinas, 35, whose experience runs from a makeup artist to account manager for a unit of Cosmopolitan Cosmetics to store manager for Oilily Lily, a children’s clothing store.
Realizing that she could not keep up with orders, she enlisted talented area crafts people to produce items, including a line of hair clips, headbands and felt party crowns for children, ranging from $7 to $30.
Image from Lizzie, Izzie + James