Copyright TODAY
Small business owners Jaclyn and Kevin Elbaum are always tickled pink when someone wears one of their beautiful pieces of jewelry. But they were enchanted to see one of the world's biggest stars sporting not one, but two special items from their collection last week. On Nov. 5, Taylor Swift was spotted wearing a stunning yellow gold diamond lock necklace and a diamond chain lariat during a date night with fiancé Travis Kelce in New York City. Word quickly spread that the items came from the Elbaums’ brand, Audry Rose, which the couple founded in 2015. “It felt like a top 10 life moment kind of thing,” Kevin Elbaum tells TODAY.com in a joint interview with his wife, calling the experience “surreal.” The married couple first learned that Swift was a fan of their jewelry while they were sitting down to dinner with their family. “One of my friends, she just saw it and she calls me and was like, ‘I think this is your necklace.’ And so I open up Instagram and I zoom in and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that is my necklace,’” Jaclyn Elbaum recalls. The mother of two's animated reaction initially concerned her husband. "I wasn’t sure if someone had died. I couldn’t figure it out because her reaction was so insane that my heart sank," Kevin Elbaum says. He decided to film his wife's reaction and post it on Instagram. In the video, Jaclyn Elbaum holds back tears as she looks at the photo of Swift wearing the two necklaces. The couple was especially touched by Swift's selections. The "Life of a Showgirl" singer wore two pieces from their collection that hold special meaning to their family. Jaclyn Elbaum designed the Pave Diamond Lock Necklace around five years ago and says the piece is “really close to my heart.” Every part of the necklace is handmade, including the chain, which is named after the couple’s daughter Sloan. “She couldn’t have picked a more important piece to us,” Kevin Elbaum adds. The lariat that Swift paired with the lock necklace also holds sentimental value: Jaclyn Elbaum designed it for her mother’s 70th birthday. A Life-Changing Moment for a Small Business The Elbaums are the latest small business owners to experience the "Taylor Swift effect," referring to the singer's cultural and economic influence. Other examples include the NFL's increase in female viewership after Swift started dating Kelce and jewelry designer Kindred Lubeck's explosion in social media followers after Kelce proposed with one of her rings. Even in their wildest dreams, the Elbaums had never imagined something like this could happen to their small business. "We don’t have a publicist or anything. We hadn’t tried to get it to her, so we really were completely blindsided that this could even happen. We assumed the only way it could happen was if you got it to her stylist or something,” Kevin Elbaum says. Ever since the photo of Swift wearing their jewelry went viral, the Elbaums have noticed an uptick in traffic to their brand’s website and more people purchasing the $7,800 lock necklace. They’ve since added a sterling silver version of the lock necklace that retails for $890. The Elbaums say they're incredibly grateful for Swift's support of small businesses. "We would have paid her to have the necklace. This is clearly a passion project for her to just sprinkle the Taylor aura around to businesses she likes, so it’s really special," Kevin Elbaum says. Jaclyn Elbaum adds that Swift "clearly cares about the craft and how things are made." After seeing the photo of Swift wearing items from their brand, the Elbaums emailed the singer's team to express their gratitude. "I appreciate what she does to all small businesses, not just ours. It's really a special thing to see," Jaclyn Elbaum says. A Launchpad for a 'New Phase' The Elbaums started Audry Rose in 2015 shortly after Jaclyn Elbaum's grandmother, the brand's namesake, passed away. "She started in the clothing industry and was entrepreneurial before that was really a thing for women. She was really ahead of her time and I always looked up to her. She was always a role model for me. Quality of things was always very important to her, so we wanted that to be infused into the brand," Jaclyn Elbaum says. Before the launch of their brand, Kevin Elbaum specialized in customer acquisition while Jaclyn Elbaum worked in the fashion industry. “I always really wanted to do something with her, and it was just getting her over her fear to jump with me,” Kevin Elbaum says. The Elbaums say it'll be a long time before they're able to shake off the feeling of seeing Swift wearing one of their designs. Looking ahead, the couple hopes this is simply the beginning of a new phase for their brand. "I want everyone to know quality for us is really important and I hope other people trust our brand like she did," Jaclyn Elbaum says. "We’re just really excited to keep going, keep designing, keep growing." This moment will certainly be hard to beat, but the Elbaums are excited to see what's next. "We're just kind of trying to keep moving forward and hoping for some other special moment in the next 10 years," Kevin Elbaum says.
