Beth Hutchens: Foundrae Founder and Creative Director

Second Life

Who What Wear

Business, Careers, Society & Culture, Arts, Fashion & Beauty, Personal Journals

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Beth Hutchens is the founder and creative director of the luxury jewelry company Foundrae. Beth started her career working in fashion, first as a trim buyer, and then assistant designer at the womenswear brand Cynthia Rowley. There, she met Rebecca Taylor, and the two bonded quickly over their shared tastes and dream of working in fashion. At age 23, Beth took the leap with Rebecca and co-founded the womenswear line Rebecca Taylor. Beth took on the CEO role, and over the next 18 years guided the company through massive growth, e-commerce, retail expansion, and eventually, acquisition. By 2014, she knew she wanted to do something new, so she stepped down from Rebecca Taylor and quickly launched her jewelry brand, Foundrae (”Rae” being in reference to her beloved grandmother). The new project allowed her to return to her designer roots, creating whimsical, sturdy, gorgeous pieces that draw the eye and the heart. The brand has become a favorite of celebrities like Emily Ratajkowski, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Dua Lipa. Foundrae now has multiple stores across the U.S., with three more to come later this year in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone I'm Hillary Kerr the co-founder and chief content officer of
0:10.2	who what where and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly
0:16.8	inspiring careers. We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process
0:22.0	of setting aside their doubts or fears and
0:25.1	what happens when they embark on their second life. Today on the show I'm speaking
0:30.0	with the founder of Foundry Jewelry, Beth Hutchins.
0:34.4	Although Beth studied economics at the University of Illinois,
0:37.5	she was also able to spend a year at FIT in New York,
0:41.6	where she got her first exposure to the world of fashion.
0:45.3	She landed an internship at Cynthia Rowley, which she then parlaid into a full-time job as a trim
0:50.6	buyer and then assistant designer at the brand. While there she sat next to a
0:56.2	certain New Zealander named Rebecca Taylor. They became fast friends and eager collaborators and in 1996 they launched their women's
1:05.2	wear brand Rebecca Taylor. Beth stepped into the CEO role and over the next two
1:10.3	decades they built the brand into a women's wear
1:12.6	mainstay beloved by customers for their simple feminine designs.
1:18.3	But by 2014 Beth knew she wanted something different
1:21.6	and she'd already started thinking about future projects.
1:25.0	So she stepped down from her role after guiding Rebecca Taylor through a private equity acquisition and in
1:30.8	2015 she launched her own jewelry company, Found Ray.
1:37.0	From the jump, this project was different.
1:39.2	Beth created jewelry focused on the idea of seven core tenets like resilience and karma.
1:46.0	Not to mention Foundry's sumptuous personalized and vintage designs went against the minimalist
	...

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