Jewellery Brand Annalay Highlights the Positive Power of Fashion
The brand’s founder talks connection, creativity and why you should dress up for yourself.
With the winter doldrums creeping in to layer on top of the continuing COVID-19 crisis, you might find yourself in a slump when it comes to feeling inspired, upbeat and optimistic right now. But Toronto-based jewellery entrepreneur Annalay Ajooway-Tingling offers a sunnier outlook for our current mood – not just through her brand’s travel-influenced designs, but also by way of the reflections on her own journey previous to and throughout the pandemic.
Ajooway-Tingling’s first experience in the fashion industry came in her early twenties: while in university, she was involved in the modelling and acting sphere. “I found out quickly that I was considered ‘too curvy’ at the time to be taken seriously as a print model,” she recalls. “So I found myself in television, and that went really well. I had a nice run of high-profile commercials and I really enjoyed it.”
But eventually Ajooway-Tingling – who describes herself as “someone always seeking knowledge and experiences” while searching for answers to life’s big questions (“What’s my purpose? Why