It’s a mad rush to find Christmas gifts. Many local artists and businesses have set up shop at the D.C. Holiday Market hoping to provide the perfect unique gift for a loved one.
In the D.C. region, conversations often start with, “What do you do?” WTOP’s “Working Capital” series profiles the people whose jobs make the D.C. region run.
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Local business owner creates perfect gifts for loved ones
During this time of year, it’s a mad rush to find Christmas gifts. Many local artists and businesses have set up shop at the D.C. Holiday Market hoping to provide the perfect unique gift for a loved one.
“The Downtown D.C. Holiday Market is absolutely my favorite event of the year. It has transformed my ability to scale my business, bring my products in front of more faces,” said Hailey Rohn, owner of Wildry, which focuses on floral and nature inspired art with particular attention to pressed flowers.
Their most popular products “are our pressed flower artwork pieces, with beautiful gold hanging glass frames with pressed flowers inside,” she said.
They also specialize in pressed flower Christmas ornaments and earrings — and even sell a DIY flower press kit.
“I love talking to customers as they come in. As they’re starting to look, one of my favorite things is helping them find a special flower for a special someone,” Rohn said.
Not too far away from the Wildry booth, Angelica O’Reilly, a co-founder of Eliana Curated, helps customers at a busy booth with gifts of upcycled jewelry.
They upcycle vintage designer buttons into earrings.
“The vintage buttons are from cardigans, blouses, blazers and tweed skirts. And then we make these iconic buttons into jewelry,” she told WTOP.
The earrings let fashionistas don classic brands, from Chanel and Dior to Louis Vuitton. They also sell a variety of rings, necklaces and bracelets.
“We just loved the concept that the button can live on as iconic jewelry pieces,” O’Reilly said.
She told WTOP the business began four years ago, when her parents moved to the D.C. area from needing a post retirement project.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s start finding these amazing buttons at antique shows, at estate sales, at high end consignment stores, and buy the garments or get the buttons from collectors and see if there’s a market for it,’” she said.
Four years later, she has a storefront on King’s Street in Old Town Alexandria and has been featured in many pop-up markets in D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston.
But being at the monthlong market has been a dream come true for O’Reilly’s business; this single spot is expected to bring in about 30% of her revenue.
“I’ve always come here as a customer, and we’ve applied to the Downtown D.C. Holiday Market for three years before we got in, and it has been a dream come true to be here,” she said.
Rohn agreed: “The difference between just popping up one weekend day, or even two weekend days, having to set everything up for the day, tear everything down at the end of the day. It’s a very fleeting type of feeling. Whereas, this more semi-permanent space has been wonderful just for the ability to bring more products, get those products in front of people.”
Both business owners especially enjoy the aspect of helping someone find the unique gift for a loved one.
“Someone was just in the other day looking for cosmos flowers because their grandmother grew a lot of cosmos in their garden,” Rohn said. “And it feels so rewarding and so lovely to be able to point out and say, ‘Here’s a piece with cosmos that you can bring to gift to her to thank her for bringing that beauty into the world.’”
“We have a lot of great ‘husbaes,’ as we call them, who are searching for iconic or like wow, gifts for their significant others,” O’Reilly joked.
The Downtown D.C. Holiday Market located on F Street NW between 7th and 9th Street NW will be open every day of the week until Dec. 23.
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