The twin sisters Anne and Esther Vedder expanded their jewelry business into a multimillion-dollar company

‘Yay! It’s 11 a.m. and we have some really great news. We went to the drawing board with Chantal Janzen to design a very beautiful pinky ring. We are a big fan of this design ourselves, and Chantal is too of course. We are curious what you think of it. And if you want to order it: go quickly to our website!”

In a vlog on YouTube, from December 2020, the identical twin sisters Esther and Anne Vedder (33), from jewelry line Vedder & Vedder, talk about their – at that time – latest piece of jewelry. That’s one of the ways they do business: on social media and in collaboration with famous people.

That influencer marketing is now ubiquitous. In recent years it has become the way to advertise. But when the sisters started it in 2016 – also with Chantal Janzen – they had never heard of it. “We just sent Chantal a gold necklace with the first word of her son James, ‘mama’. She then posted it on Instagram with our name on it,” says Anne from their office and studio in Amsterdam-East. “Wow, that worked well. The followers and requests poured in.”

Six years later, Vedder & Vedder, which sells personalized jewelry by, among other things, engraving names, handwriting and fingerprints in jewelry, has grown into a company with a turnover of millions (9 million euros in 2020, in its own words “more than 10 million” in 2022). The women have 60 employees. Within a few days of Chantal Janzen’s Instagram post, Carice van Houten was on the doorstep: whether she could also pick up a piece of jewelry. “We thought we were being tricked,” says Esther. “But suddenly she was at our office, between the boxes.”

The two were only recently in their former office, also in Amsterdam-East, and “tiny”. They had just completed their studies in Communication Sciences at the Free University of Amsterdam (whether they do many things the same? Both, with a resounding: “Yes.”) and had decided to turn their informal jewelery business into a real business.

Jewelry making workshops

They had already started doing this during their studies: when they were still children, their mother gave jewelery making workshops, and they often accompanied them. From the age of 15 the sisters started giving the workshops themselves. Handy, when they moved from Nijkerk to Amsterdam for their studies: instead of sitting behind the cash register, they sold homemade jewelry to fellow students.

Upon graduation, both received a gold necklace from their mother. Esther: „Then we thought: how nice would it be if her handwriting was on it? She has such a beautiful handwriting, even a note on the table with ‘unload the dishwasher’ looks beautiful.” Engraving a handwriting was not that easy, so they decided to learn it themselves – also with a view to selling. This is how the idea for a jewelry line with only personalized products was born.

The sisters founded Vedder & Vedder with their own money – it wasn’t much: the last student grant they received. “We had to send our intern away because we couldn’t even afford her lunch.” Financial help came from a family friend who bought in for an amount of 10,000 euros for 10 percent of the shares. The sisters have had those shares in their own hands again since July. That was not without a struggle: they initially did not agree with the family friend about the buyout sum. A good lesson, says Esther now, which she likes to pass on to other young entrepreneurs. “You don’t expect it to be a multi-million dollar company. It is good to consider that possibility as well. Ask for expert advice when it comes to contracts.”

In the beginning there were no lawyers in team Vedder: there were just two of them. Anne built the website – „that took some time tutorials” – and Esther took care of the jewelry. She could already design, but she had to learn to engrave. “I hung over such a device for hours during courses.” They couldn’t pay staff. But the strategic collaborations with celebrities did their job. They now work together with greats such as singer Rita Ora, top model Romee Strijd and soon also top model Chrissy Teigen.

They met the latter in April this year in Los Angeles, where they launched a festival collection at the Coachella music festival. Anne: „Our manager was in contact with Chrissy. We didn’t expect much from it, but she was an instant fan. Suddenly an e-mail came: nice if we came by, if we had any dietary requirements? Then we suddenly arrive there as two girls from Nijkerk.”

Design team

The two are still designing themselves, with the support of a design team. No more engraving. Esther: „I recently tried to help with engraving, because it was very busy. I was almost fired by my own team.” Below the office in Amsterdam-East is the studio, where the goldsmiths, etchers and polishers (without exception young women – “that’s not a policy, but men don’t apply”) bend over gold, silver and gold-plated jewellery.

Esther and Anne believe in “visualizing dreams and goals”. „When we started the book The Secret one thing,” says Esther.

Anne, to Esther: “Yes, you started reading it then and took me along.”

Esther: “It has really become our religion: manifesting to achieve your biggest dreams.”

Anne: “You have to be willing to work eighty hours and give everything for it.”

Vedder & Vedder is for sale in several European countries, including Germany, Belgium and England. The United States is their next target, there are even plans to temporarily relocate. “It’s good to sit there for a while and talk to the right people.” There is no concrete date yet, but it is already on their vision board. “How specific do you want it to be?”