What do you do when you have outgrown being a junior super sportsgirl and the Bank of Mum&Dad pulls up the drawbridge? Coco Calypso Taylor’s budding entrepreneurial instincts did not take long to kick in.
Coco won the Individual Gold Medal two years running at the British Schoolgirls Ski Race Championships in France and since November 2017 is qualified in Switzerland as a ski instructor;previously she was also A-listed for the under-16 British Eventing Pony Team on her bay pony “Fusselier”. Having dialled down from horsey life her pony is up for sale and in October she is about to get serious at Bristol University studying philosophy and theology, but not before setting up her own online retail business that she can manage from campus.
Coco, 19 years, has always been a bit of a fashionista and her fondness for twinkly things and specifically hoop earrings directed her towards creating her own jewellery line. The line has two exclusive necklaces in sterling silver, an upside-down heart and an upside-down rose, complemented with a delicate sparkly collection of hoop earrings and necklaces with some bespoke features sourced in Thailand. It is a modest line with modest prices that Coco has called “JolieEtoile” meaning “pretty star”, reflecting her love of the French language.
What struck this reporter is that this is all her own initiative and effort, the idea, the sourcing, the shocking pink website that was designed off a template from Big Cartel, the models in the photographs are her friends and the photographs are taken by Coco’s mum. So-far a soft-launch has begun on Instagram, the designs are targeted at her own age group and she has found that some of her customers to date have been parents shopping for gifts. One hopes that such resourcefulness will be rewarded.