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FASHION INFLUENCER: Arden Cho, Co-Founder of Leonard & Church

April 15th, 2015 at 2:00am

As we announced last week, Arden Cho is CollegeFashionista’s “Fashion Influencer” for April.

While many people may recognize Arden as the star of the popular MTV series, Teen Wolf, this month’s Fashion Influencer has passions and talents off-screen as well. One of those happens to be as a founding partner of the NYC-based watch brand, Leonard & Church.

Arden and a group of her friends were on the hunt for quality, handcrafted watches that were both stylish but didn’t break the bank. Disappointed with what the marketplace had to offer in terms of either quality or design, Arden and her friends took matters into their own hands and created Leonard & Church.

We caught up with Arden as she discussed being a watch connoisseur, the importance of hard work and her favorite styles from Leonard & Church!

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CollegeFashionista: Tell us how you got involved with Leonard & Church? 

Arden Cho: This started as a small idea among a few friends. While we all have very different backgrounds, we share some common passions. We’re excited about fashion and design, and we’re not afraid to do things a little differently. We think extremely high quality, handmade, fashion forward products don’t need the inflated prices we’ve come to expect with luxury items. With Leonard & Church, we’re partnering directly with quality manufacturers to skip the middlemen and all the markups along the way. We launched with a line of watches and are excited to soon branch out into a few other product categories as well. Stay tuned!

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CF: What inspired you to go into the watch/fashion business?

AC: I’ve loved fashion ever since I was a little girl, and I have a bit of a soft spot for watches especially! For the past few years, I’ve collected high-end luxury watches… but like a luxury car, it’s not an everyday thing. I’ve always wanted some fashionable, casual watches that I could interchange with my higher-end timepieces, but it’s not an easy find. Lots of watches under $1000 look or feel a bit “cheap.” And the ones with designs I like seem to be unnecessarily overpriced. In a way, I got involved with Leonard & Church to create the exact watch I’ve been looking for—very high quality and stylish, but still super affordable. 

I’m proud of our first line of designs and color combinations, and am so excited for you guys to see some new styles we’re launching this month. 

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CF: What sets Leonard & Church apart from other watches and/or companies?

AC: Everyone deserves to look great and feel confident, whether you have a lot of money to spend or not. Our mission is to bring fashionable, high quality, handmade products without the markups. We do this by partnering directly with the best manufacturers in the world. All of our watches are crafted with sapphire crystal gemstone, and we’ll keep investing in the quality of our products. Actually, one of our manufacturers produces a watch that President Obama wears in office!

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CF: Who or what inspires the designs of Leonard & Church?

AC: Inspiration is everywhere around us: people, art, fashion, furniture, colors, even beautiful food! I’m always inspired by good design and good people. We have a few designers we work with and it’s a very iterative process. For our bands as an example, we went through literally hundreds of different options – different types of leather, different colors, different materials like tweed and chain metal. 

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CF: What is your favorite piece from the collection?

AC: Hmm, that’s a tough one. It really depends on what I’m wearing. Depending on the outfit, every single watch can be the perfect one in its own way. These days I’ve been wearing the Broadway and the Varick. 

CF: What is your favorite part of the design process?

AC: I love sketching my ideas and going through color swatches. There are parts of the design process that can get difficult and sometime even tedious! I can be looking at three different leather samples and trying to figure out what’s actually different between them! There’s so much detail that goes into designing the casing and dials and bezel and all the different components of a watch. Even deciding the design of the minute and hour hands is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun and every little detail matters.

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CF: Any advice for people looking to start their own company?

AC: Make sure you do your research and know what you’re getting into. Don’t idealize the process. Launching a brand is a lot of hard work. Getting Leonard & Church off the ground took more than a year of preparation. It’s also so important to partner with the right people. Even though our team is small, we’re fortunate because our skill sets are very different and we balance each other out. It’s a good foundation for us to grow. Of course, communication and trust is key. Know what the goal is, make sure everyone is on the same page, put in the hard work and enjoy the process!

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Photo credit: Melly Lee

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