de creative and financial authority and what nobody warned them about building a brand from scratch. Inside Retail: If you ran into your 2019 self at a party and told her she’d be designing jewellery for a living, what would she say? Kelly Rolim: She’d be surprised, assuming I meant it as a side project, because in 2019, I thought a career meant stability with a clear path forward. Things would make sense once I’d had a moment to process it. Because even back then, I was always designing in some form, systems, experiences, outcomes, just not with metal and stones. She’d be surprised by the question, but not by the instinct behind it: making something considered, functional, and beautiful that people choose to enhance their individuality. Inside Retail: You spent years building a successful corporate career before leaving to pursue design. What was the moment that convinced you it was time to make such a significant career change? Kelly Rolim: I didn’t move to China expecting it to change my career. I thought it would be an experience. But it became the tipping point. Being close to suppliers, materials, and the speed of production turned an idea into something physical, pushing me to pursue a new venture with real intent.  Inside Retail: Looking back, how has your corporate experience shaped the way you lead a creative business today? Kelly Rolim: Corporate experience helps approach creativity as a way of working, not just as a source of ideas. In practice, that means disciplined product development, quality control, and merchandising logic that supports branding and sales. It also shaped how I think about channel strategy. Because our primary channel is physical retail, design decisions can’t be separated from operational realities: the customer journey itself, how pieces feel when tried on, how quickly staff can explain the product story, how the display looks from a distance, and what customers repeatedly reach for. As a Brazilian coming from London and Hong Kong, I’m comfortable working across cultures and consumer expectations. What resonates in Hong Kong, for example, where customers often value versatility, polish, and practical wearability, may not translate well elsewhere, so we keep listening to what customers and stores are telling us, so we don’t grow by repeating the same formula everywhere. Inside Retail: How do you split decision-making authority when a call has both creative and financial stakes? Kelly Rolim: We make these calls with a simple rule: brand and business both have to say yes. No one wins if it hurts the other. The creative makes sure it looks and feels like Luah, product wearability, story, our community, brand image and language. The business makes sure it all works, margin, inventory levels, logistics and what it means for the next 6-24 months. When there’s tension, we don’t vote, we reframe the problem. We ask: What is the customer paying for, and will they feel it? If cost is driven by details that don’t translate into perceived value or durability, it’s not justified. If the cost improves longevity, comfort, or craftsmanship in a way the customer experiences, we protect it. And if it’s genuinely a good reason to try it on, we make it a controlled one: smaller initial production, clear success metrics (sell-through, return reasons, repeat purchase signals), and fast feedback data, so creativity stays relevant without turning into operational instability. Inside Retail: You’ve said building from the ground up was the appeal. Be honest, what’s the part of the job nobody warned you about that now eats your week? Henry Simanson: In my corporate career, I completely underestimated how much support sat behind my role: accounting, legal, finance, HR, IT, all quietly making things work. When you start something on your own, it feels manageable at first, but as you scale you suddenly realise you are all of those departments. You’re finalising the accounting, you’re reading every contract, you’re managing the hiring, etc.  As Luah has grown, the challenge of balancing the time I want to spend on product and brand building with the operational reality of running a company is what no one could prepare you for.  Inside Retail: When money’s tight, and everything feels urgent, what’s the question you ask yourself to decide what gets funded and what waits? Henry Simanson: You can never consider all things at once, but when making big decisions I always try to connect the decisions back to: Is this going to make our product better? Is this going to improve our customers’ experience? Is this building towards our long-term goals as a brand? Further reading: The House of Ara founder on shaping a career through craft and ready-to-wear.