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Danielle Kline’s flair for the dramatic has blossomed into a thriving business.
“I was always the dress-up queen with big hats and jewelry and the big purses,” she said, describing herself as a little girl growing up in the LaGrange-Shipshewana area.
These days, the Fort Wayne woman owns DK Jewelry Design, a downtown shop that sells jewelry, purses and other accessories. She designs about half the jewelry her store sells. And she created a fundraising model that allows her to support local non-profits while giving customers a price break.
Supporting charities is important to Kline, who was diagnosed with a rare form of cervical cancer in November 2006 at age 29. Treatment included five major surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
“It was quite an ordeal,” she said.
But Kline didn’t give up. Instead, she listened to her clamoring clients and opened her own shop in November 2007. Her journey from dress-up queen to shop owner wasn’t direct, however.
Kline earned a degree in secondary education, communication and theater from the University of California Santa Barbara.
While teaching English at Westview High School in the Shipshewana area, she started dating a Fort Wayne man who sells jewelry. Inspired, Kline played around with designing some pieces.
“I showed it to all my girlfriends, and they thought it was great,” she said.
Those girlfriends told their friends, and soon they were throwing parties and inviting Kline to show her designs and make sales.
After four years of teaching, she decided to quit and focus on her fledging jewelry business.
Early on, Kline started doing charity fundraiser shows. All the invited guests get a discount on jewelry they buy, and she then donates half the remaining profit to the non-profit organization. Previous recipients have included Big Brothers Big Sisters, Tri Kappa, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Vera Bradley Foundation for Cancer Research.
Kline did private shows and appointments, growing a solid customer base, for about five years before opening her store.
“They started to pound me: You gotta get a store. You gotta get a store,” she said.
So she decided to rent space at Pearl and Harrison streets downtown. She’d known the landlords for a while and got along well with them. Kline likes their idea of making downtown a destination and that the building is in a central location.
Kline remade the interior to look like a big-city boutique. She didn’t want it to look like a mall jewelry store, where rows of lighted glass cases can seem generic.
“We want to be a little more upscale,” she said.
Some shoppers come in and spend an hour or two.
“It’s a fun, more intimate experience,” Kline said. “They just want to see and feel and touch and play.”
DK Jewelry Design sells necklaces, earrings, bracelets, beaded purses, scarves and other items. Kline attends three or four shows each year with other designers. They buy and sell pieces to one another. Kline considers whether items would fit into her inventory based on style, price and quality.
Among her guidelines: She sells all genuine stones or Swarovski crystals, 14-carat gold, sterling silver and titanium. Her items sell for $25 to $250, with a few items up to $500. Custom-designed pieces can run more if customers request it.
Kline’s design ideas come from magazines, photographs and customers. One woman commissioned a “hip grandma” necklace design to showcase the birthstones of her grandchildren.
Customers often tell Kline the items she makes seem too chic for Fort Wayne. A friend told her: “This is big-city style.” So now her tagline is: “Big-city style with Fort Wayne prices.”
Kline always thought she’d be involved with fashion and design in some way, but thought it would be just for her own use. She thinks it’s great when she’s out in public and people come up wearing jewelry she designed. She enjoys working with other business owners and local non-profits. She thinks it’s easier to work together in a city the size of Fort Wayne.
Kline also likes living close to family. Her mom, dad and brother live about an hour north of Fort Wayne. Her family was a big help when she was going through cancer treatments. And her mom still comes in to cover the shop when Kline knows it’s going to be busy or she’s out of town on a buying trip or participating in a weekend arts fair, where she sometimes wins design awards.
The designer makes sketches and sends them to a jewelry manufacturer. They use a computer-aided design program to create a three-dimensional image. Kline tweaks it, decides on the size of the stones, depth of the grooves and other details. A plastic mold is created. Again, she can tweak it. Finished pieces are made from that mold.
Kline changes her inventory every other week. She needs to keep things new to lure shoppers back. She credits the “reasonable” prices and boutique atmosphere for keeping customers buying – even during the recession.
“Actually, we’re doing pretty well,” she said.
The store’s sales for the first three months of this year are about even with the same period of 2007, Kline said. But more shoppers are spending less. Previously, she had fewer customers who each bought more. Kline thinks she’s well positioned for the business to take off when the economy improves and each of her loyal customers can spend more.
Looking ahead, Kline wants to carry clothes that are casual/dressy, such as tops, jackets and jeans. She’d like to design some items but doesn’t want to take that step prematurely and spread herself too thin.
That doesn’t mean she isn’t up for a challenge.
Kline was going through cancer treatments when she was asked to accept a nomination for Man & Woman of the Year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – a designation ultimately awarded to the person who raises the most money for research during a designated (two-month) period. She accepted the challenge without revealing her medical condition.
Now she serves on the board of the local Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Amy Kwas, executive director of the society’s Indianapolis-based Indiana chapter, appreciates Kline’s help.
“She has been a really great advocate for us in the Fort Wayne community. She’s really well-connected and really well-respected,” Kwas said. “She can make a few calls and something is donated.”
Kwas described Kline as kind, sweet and compassionate, adding, “I just feel grateful that she’s involved.”
Kline believes in being grateful in her own life.
“I definitely think I’m lucky,” she said. “Not everyone does for a living what they really enjoy doing every day.”
