Nick von K celebrates 15 years of his jewellery brand in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Nick Klarwill works in the future, and sitting inside his workshop, up a spiral staircase at the end of a little arcade on Karangahape Rd, he\u2019s struggling to think about the past. <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThese are the kinds of
\n questions you are constantly trying to understand. They are the things that keep you searching for answers, deeper and deeper – and maybe if you found them, you would stop.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Better known as Nick von K – the K coming from his last name, von an inspiration from his aristocratic grandfather – the Auckland jeweller is celebrating 15 years of his eponymous brand that has famously been worn by stars like Lady Gaga and Taika Waititi (\u201che was like a kid in a candy store\u201d), but also strangers he passes in the street here in Aotearoa. <\/p>\n
Taika Waititi (wearing the Nick Von K Octopus Ring) with Rita Ora. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Though perhaps the customer he\u2019s most excited about, is the one wearing his next collection, the one he hasn\u2019t even thought of yet. <\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of love not knowing [what\u2019s coming next]. I used to get really scared doing a collection, because I\u2019d think, \u2018oh I have to do another one [after this]. Am I going to have any ideas?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes, he was convinced he was running out of inspiration, but over the years, he\u2019s become comfortable \u201cbeing on the edge of evolution\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201c[The designs] are not here yet, so you are trying to pluck things from the future and bring them into the present and see if people like them or not,\u201d Nick says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard and I think most of the time, I probably fail. But every now and then, I like to think, \u2018yes, I can do [that]\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
A piece from Von K’s range. <\/p>\n
Nick has been designing and creating jewellery since he paid $20 for a soldering iron when he was 19. <\/p>\n
Year later, he was designing for fashion brand Ricochet when it was sold in 2010. That was the push to plough $40,000 in savings into his own designs, ones that started as big, bold \u201ckooky and weird\u201d pieces, which now sit alongside delicate gold rings, precious gems and a range that incorporates pounamu in ways customers might not have seen before. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel different, and want to express yourself in that way? Well that\u2019s what I\u2019m providing. I don\u2019t want to do anything I already see out there, I want to do something different to that,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt might be a really stupid business model – but obviously it\u2019s worked.\u201d <\/p>\n
Nick likes to push buttons and surprise people. It was a lesson he learnt early, as an 11-year-old in the 90s, leaving his \u201cnormal, middle-class\u201d family on the North Shore, to shop for rock & roll rings on Queen St, inspired by his idols in Guns N\u2019 Roses. <\/p>\n
‘It might be a really stupid business model – but obviously it\u2019s worked,’ says Nick. <\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely [I got stick from people for wearing jewellery]. But I probably kind of liked it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI like being different. It\u2019s like a core desire, a basic, fundamental truth\u2026 It\u2019s not easy, but it\u2019s a way of feeling authentically comfortable. If you are standing out, people are always going to be looking at you sideways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, his nails are painted in reflective chrome to match the studs on his Dr. Marten boots and it\u2019s impossible to see a patch of bare skin on his fingers and ears, which are crammed with his own distinctive pieces. His current favourite? An unreleased ring, with a cubic zirconia held in place by five tiny hands pulling the finger. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about letting your own sparkly personality shine and f*** the haters,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
So how does a self-described rebel sustain a successful business for 15 years in a world where the prevailing narrative suggests that should be nearly impossible?<\/p>\n
Despite claiming he\u2019s not very good at playing nice with others, Nick credits business mentor Toss Grumley with helping not only sustain his work, but also grow it in the shadow of Covid and the cost of living crisis. The pair have been working together for almost 10 years. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe understood my business immediately\u2026 It\u2019s been these tactical steps with a real business mind, which I\u2019m not. I\u2019m a creative,\u201d Nick says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how people do it by themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick Von K’s Green With Envy Cobra Ring.<\/p>\n
Perhaps surprisingly, Nick pinpoints Covid as a time of growth for the brand. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the lockdown happened, I thought this is all over and we\u2019re going to have to shut, maybe. But Toss said it was the opposite: this is when things are going to get really, really good because the world is going to start online shopping. And he was so right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The business transformed from selling to wholesalers to focusing directly on their customers. Nick says that decision changed everything. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe made so much more money, I could employ more people and we could start to become more of a sustainable business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Nick has two fulltime staff, and three part-timers, which he says allows them to do so much more than he imagined – \u201cand actually be a real brand\u201d. <\/p>\n
That has meant expanding into fine jewellery, including one-off pieces, precious metals and engagement rings. It\u2019s a different proposition – and customer – in 2025 than in 2010, but Nick continues to approach every piece with a unique point of view. <\/p>\n
\u201cI should feel stressed trying to come up with this perfect ring for the person, but I really don\u2019t – I know I\u2019m going to find something amazing and I\u2019m going to make you really happy because it\u2019s not that hard to be better than a 1 carat diamond ring, which is so boring. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, jewellery doesn\u2019t feel that important to the world – but that [moment] feels important.\u201d<\/p>\n
“The more success I\u2019ve had, the more I\u2019ve been aware of all the other amazing people in the world and how I should be really humble.” <\/p>\n
They say success breeds success, but it can also breed ego and entitlement. But Nick is different. If anything, he says, the pig-headedness of youth that helped him start the company has waned the more entrenched he\u2019s become in the local scene. <\/p>\n
\u201cBefore I had much success, I was weirdly in love with my own idea of myself, my talent and potential. And the more success I\u2019ve had, the more I\u2019ve been aware of all the other amazing people in the world and how I should be really humble. <\/p>\n
\u201cWould I have started the company if I didn\u2019t have that? I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s interesting, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n
More on fashion<\/p>\n
From New Zealand designers to sustainable clothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick von K celebrates 15 years of his jewellery brand in Auckland. Nick Klarwill works in the future,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16286,51,4463,9632,156,4508,16285,16284,3259,111,139,6933,69,16283,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-13915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-15year","9":"tag-auckland","10":"tag-brand","11":"tag-celebrates","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hits","14":"tag-jewellery","15":"tag-ks","16":"tag-milestone","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nick","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-von","22":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}