About Us
In a nutshell
We are two friends and creative women who are part of a new wave of social entrepreneurship whereby we have combined our fashion backgrounds and love of pretty accessories with our desire to bring about social change.
Our ethos
We may be utterly head-over-heels about accessories, but most of all we want to create a socially- and environmentally-conscious shopping experience that’s more than just a transaction. Sweet Notions believes in doing business in a way that generates social capital; respects the environment; goes beyond the material; and makes people feel empowered.
Why?
We want to encourage people to recycle, reuse, and reconsider social interaction as well as to inspire communities and movements, and connect with women of all ages, means and background all over the world, in a stimulating and rewarding environment, hearing and sharing their stories, in the hope that we can change the world…while having fun along the way.
The long version: the background story to Sweet Notions
We are Shannon Hopkins and Jess Stricker. We have been friends and creative co-conspirators since meeting in Prague in 2002. Both from a fashion background, Shannon is a visionary while Jess masters the practical.
Sitting over coffee in London one afternoon, we were discussing one of our favorite topics – accessories. Since, like many women we know, we have far too many, we decided to clean out our closets, and asked our friends to do the same, with the aim of selling them and investing the returns in social projects close to our hearts.
We set ourselves a goal of collecting 10,000 pieces from across the UK and US (we gathered almost 8000). What emerged along the way was beyond our expectations. We heard fascinating, funny, touching and charming stories about the accessories, their origins and their sentimental value from the women who donated them.
And so, armed with precious jewels, fabulous shoes and bags full of stories, we started Sweet Notions boutique events in the US in spring 2008.
We challenged those attending to name their own price when purchasing, based on the stories they’d heard about the items rather than on assumed values or prices linked to market rates.
We realized fairly quickly that although we didn’t completely know what we were doing, we knew we were on to something.
The women who came inspired colorful, intelligent, varied and challenging discussion: about the environment; consumer choices and purchasing power; and how we, as individuals, only need to accomplish simple things in order to be part of great change.
By revisiting the past, Sweet Notions is creating new initiatives and visions for the future based on our belief in creating social and environmental capital through a profitable business.
We are excited about what lies ahead as we bring more and more women together!
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Sweet Notions is one of several projects connected to Matryoshka Haus. If you are interested in learning more about our other projects and social initiatives, please visit: matryoshkahaus.com