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Allison creates wearable art that makes women feel empowered, beautiful and strong.
Looped in by Sammi Smith
I’m Allison Asis, the Founder and Designer of Cadette Jewelery.
I was always a creative dabbler as a kid. I was always the creative child in our family who loved art class and all of that. I tried sewing classes in the evenings, I tried painting, I had a fashion blog, when blogs were in, so that was a pretty prominent part of the journey.
I dreamt about working in the fashion space so I thought if I worked at a magazine somehow I’ll wiggle my way into the fashion scene. So I got an internship at Chatelaine Magazine as the marketing intern. After that I had a few different marketing gigs, and my most recent one was for Aveda Canada. I was the digital marketing manager there, which included managing social media, digital advertising, and managing PR. All of those things helped equip me to be an entrepreneur.
While I had my 9 to 5 job, I started getting really obsessed with DIY blogs and learning how to make these funky bracelets. There’s something about jewelry making that has always intrigued me. I took a metal-smithing class at a place called The Devil’s Workshop, and that’s where I learned to solder and saw metal, basically make real mini sculptures, and when I saw that, that’s when I really fell in love with jewelry making. Since 2018 I’ve been doing this completely full time, and basically I haven’t looked back since.
Now that it’s been a few years growing this business by myself, I’m thinking, what has this business taught me instead of me trying to guide everything. I’m trying to make it like a collaborative experience between myself and the clientele.
There’s women who have gone through breast cancer, whose mothers are going through something, or they themselves have just got the promotion they wanted, and this piece celebrates that. It stuns me to see that something that is tangible can transcend into something that is much more meaningful for someone.
I think that’s what makes it sustainable, just seeing the response from people and how it makes them feel empowered, it makes them feel beautiful, it makes them feel strong. And I think without them teaching me about that, it could have just been another dabbling exploration.
I create wearable art. I create empowerment. I create collaboration. I create joy.
Drawing. I loved drawing and doodling. I loved singing. I loved cooking. There was a moment when I thought I was gonna be a chef.
I think right now it’s my home. My dad is a huge part of my life, and such a loving figure that gave everything he had. He helped me find and invest in this home back in 2016, and when I live in here I feel so safe and so happy and so supported by literally the physical walls but knowing that it came from the love of my father.
My mom and dad for sure. They’re the reason I exist physically in this moment, and I’m so lucky because I know childhood informs so much of who we become eventually. They created such a loving, supportive, uplifting, childhood experience for my siblings and I that have allowed me to believe in myself today.
My mom passed from cancer when I was 18. I look back on it now and I think about the pain that it brings me sometimes, but more importantly than that, it informed so much why I am the way I am now. Because of what I went through with losing her. Understanding the journey of womanhood through her experience, and how important it is to seize the day because life is short. That gave me the confidence to take the leap to leave my 9 to 5 gig. So many things I learned from that experience that I’m so grateful for, in a challenging way, because it’s also the greatest loss of my life. I’m just thinking about all these things and how it’s really so connected in such an intentional way. I feel so guided and I’m trying not to take things too seriously, which is a struggle, because we all overthink. I think that’s the human condition. But when I look back at the flow of events, everything is so beautifully crafted and I’m really grateful for that.
My greatest achievement was betting on myself in 2018, taking the leap, that’s literally the best choice I ever made in my entire life.
I’m trying to understand why there’s so much focus on what makes us different when I truly believe inherently we are all the same and we are made equal. Through human conditioning and evolution we’ve been made to see differences more than equality. That’s what I don’t understand.
A talent that I yearn to cultivate more of is leadership. I know that that’s a huge part of my dharma and my calling and I feel like I’m living parts of it now. But I yearn to step more into that role and use my voice, even more strongly in the coming years.
Communing with nature. I take daily walks or runs. That brings me the highest joy.
Becca is my best friend and the owner and cook of @spice.girl.eats, an Indian home cooking brand and business in Toronto. Her signature product is her magical and delicious chai concentrate that is now sold in the coveted cafes and restaurants around the city. Having just launched her business less than a year ago, Spice Girl Eats gained much-deserved community admiration straight away - and that can be credited to Becca’s tremendous passion, hard work and pure love for the art of cooking and paying homage to her cultural roots which I respect and admire so much!
Becca is my best friend and the owner and cook of @spice.girl.eats, an Indian home cooking brand and business in Toronto. Her signature product is her magical and delicious chai concentrate that is now sold in the coveted cafes and restaurants around the city. Having just launched her business less than a year ago, Spice Girl Eats gained much-deserved community admiration straight away - and that can be credited to Becca’s tremendous passion, hard work and pure love for the art of cooking and paying homage to her cultural roots which I respect and admire so much!
Emefa is the Toronto-based founder and designer of ISRAELLA KOBLA women’s apparel line. I feel incredibly fortunate to know Emefa - she radiates a true kindness, passion and drive for her work and business, and it has been a true pleasure watching her brand grow. I’m a huge fan of her vision; she has an impeccable eye for design which shows in every piece within her line.
Emefa is the Toronto-based founder and designer of ISRAELLA KOBLA women’s apparel line. I feel incredibly fortunate to know Emefa - she radiates a true kindness, passion and drive for her work and business, and it has been a true pleasure watching her brand grow. I’m a huge fan of her vision; she has an impeccable eye for design which shows in every piece within her line.
Esme is a Toronto-based artist and co-founder of Common Goods Studio, a multidisciplinary studio that focuses on creating functional and decorative pieces in small batches using clay, leather, or other found and up-cycled materials. Esme is an artist through and through, and I love how much she shares her process for creating her pieces on her IG channel, which absolutely captivates and inspires her community (myself included)!
Esme is a Toronto-based artist and co-founder of Common Goods Studio, a multidisciplinary studio that focuses on creating functional and decorative pieces in small batches using clay, leather, or other found and up-cycled materials. Esme is an artist through and through, and I love how much she shares her process for creating her pieces on her IG channel, which absolutely captivates and inspires her community (myself included)!
Madelyn is the founder and editor-in-chief of The RepresentASIAN Project which celebrates, advocates and elevates Asian representation and voices in media and beyond. Not only am I an avid follower and reader of the stories and features that Madelyn shares, I deeply respect how honest, open and REAL she is as a person. She uses her voice with true authenticity in a way that inspires so many of us fellow Asian women.
Madelyn is the founder and editor-in-chief of The RepresentASIAN Project which celebrates, advocates and elevates Asian representation and voices in media and beyond. Not only am I an avid follower and reader of the stories and features that Madelyn shares, I deeply respect how honest, open and REAL she is as a person. She uses her voice with true authenticity in a way that inspires so many of us fellow Asian women.