This Promising Entrepreneur Doesn’t Believe in Perfection
It’s the classic spell of every creative: hold onto ideas with tight fists. Wait until the output is ripe enough for the public eye. Artistic strokes are reflections of our psyches, after all — personal and precious. We treat them as such. But chisel away and you might slow down, or quit moving altogether.
Not for Clara España. The entrepreneur and freelance talent manager carries a unique laid-back approach that is at the heart of transforming Dos the Brand into more than just a line of statement jewelry. “I think when you want to wait until you’re perfect, dreams go die,” she says. “If you wait until you get the right thing, you’re never going to be ready. It’s more of: you have this idea? Just do it.”
And it works. In just two years, España’s built a growing, bi-coastal community out of her brand. When she’s not busy choosing items for her next collection, she hosts an events series, Girl Hangs; hosts her own podcast and Youtube channel; and, just recently, started her own unisex, made-to-order clothing line, The Solo.
I sat down with the all-around creative one spring afternoon to talk about living in multiple cities, why perfection and small businesses don’t mix, and what she has in store for Dos the Brand.
What came before Dos?
I’ve always worked freelance, more or less — different projects, photography, social media — and I remember saying, “If I had my brand, I would do it like this”. I’ve always had an idea to put up one of my own. I called my sister one morning in 2018 and said, “listen, I wanna do something. Do you wanna be a part of it?”
Did that help you as you built your brand?
Absolutely. I’ve worked with other brands, I’ve seen how they do it... and I’ve seen their mistakes. I would think to myself, “I’m not doing that…” Now, the good thing is that I can kind of do everything that a brand needs, from the shipping to the packaging. The only thing I don’t do is file for taxes. I’m so dyslexic! Numbers? No. I just have my mom do it.
Just curious: where did the name Dos come from?
We first thought of selling purses or hats. We wanted to travel to different countries and find what their local artists do, bring them back to Spain, and sell it from there. We created a business plan and all, but we just couldn’t agree on a name. I kept saying, “we just have to find dos cosas (two things) to sell, one for you and one for me. I kept saying the word “dos dos dos” and I was like, “MARIA! Dos — Dos the Brand.” It’s cute. It’s easy. It works with everything.
PHOTOS BY: DOS THE BRAND
Sometimes the thought of putting up a brand can be daunting.
I wasn’t scared. I think when you wanna wait til you’re perfect, dreams go die. When you wanna wait til you get the right thing, you’re never gonna be ready. It’s more of: you have this idea, just do it.
A lot of people can learn from that.
Yeah, I hope more people could be like that. But then there wouldn’t be space for me! (laughs)
How has that philosophy helped you build Dos?
It’s the only reason why I have it. I don’t think about what I’m going to write on my posts, for example. It just comes naturally to me. You know how there are a lot of brands that have these teams that decide their colors, or the way that they talk to their customers? I think you can tell when there’s a lot of planning that goes behind it. I don’t think things have to be that complicated.
“THERE’S PEOPLE THAT DON’T SEE THE HUMAN BEHIND THE BRAND. BUY FROM A MASSIVE COMPANY - THAT WILL GIVE YOU PERFECTION. BUT YOU’RE BUYING FROM A LITTLE ONE!”
You did a lot of moving around when you were younger. How did that help shape your brand?
I was born here, I went to school in California, Madrid, San Diego, and Los Angeles, so there was a lot of moving around. My parents moved to Mexico when I was fifteen, so my friends have always been my family. Whenever I felt something, sure, I could have called my mom, but it was easier to just go to my friend’s house and go through it with them. Even in boarding school, I was always surrounded by girls, so I treated them like family.
And this is probably where the idea of your events series, Girl Hangs, came from.
My friends always call me “the one that brings women together”. I’ll bring people to my friend group even if they don’t know each other. I’ve been doing that my whole life, so why not do it for my brand? So I thought of doing these beach cleanups, yoga, hikes… anything that I would want to do with my friends.
You recently launched a pop-up at Los Angeles. What was that like?
It’s funny, my first time ever in America was when I was 16. My roommate at the time, Emily, would always tell me “I love Abbot Kinney!” but I wouldn’t know what she was talking about.
When I came back when I was 22, [Emily] showed me the different shops. I said, “Emily, I’m going to do something here!” And every time I came to America I would keep going back to Abbot Kinney. Now that I have a brand, I just walked into all the stores saying “hi, my name is Clara, I’m from Barcelona, and I have a jewelry store.” I told them I didn’t have money, but I could do photography, so we exchanged a photoshoot for me doing a popup. It went full circle.
What’s it like running a small business?
Well, I have so much empathy now. Once, there was this customer who got so angry but, she just doesn’t know that I write a note for every package I send out. Know that there’s someone out there, with their Vespa, driving to the post office saying ‘I have another one to send.’ There are people that don’t see the human behind the brand. Buy from a massive company— that will give you perfection. But you’re buying from a little one!
And what’s next for Dos the Brand?
I keep investing in things that I think are gonna take it further. I probably might just get a few sales this month, but I just wanna get it out there. Make things. More photoshoots. More events. I want it to be a community. Everything’s unpaid, but it makes me happy. But I think it differentiates you from a brand that just sells bracelets, for example, but never does anything else. It’s not just a brand, it branches out to other things. My focus has never been ‘sale, sale, sale.’ It’s been ‘okay, let’s make something.’ ✦