Roxanne Assoulin in her NYC showroom. Source: Roxanne Assoulin

She hasn't spent a dime on advertising. Even so, Roxanne Assoulin's eponymous jewelry line has grown 300 percent year-over-year thanks to one thing: The power of social media. Admittedly, that's a shock to the 61-year-old designer who didn't have a carefully crafted business plan — or even a website — when she stumbled onto her first enamel bracelet prototype in 2016 and posted it on Instagram. But it is a sign of the times. "I had these [enamel] tiles sitting on my desk for literally 30 years. We drew up a bracelet and I knew it was something," said Assoulin, who has been in the jewelry business for nearly four decades, previously as a private label designer for big names such as Urban Outfitters, J.Crew and Banana Republic.

We drew up a bracelet and I knew it was something. Roxanne Assoulin jewelry designer

Clearly Assoulin is well established and well connected. Still, she showed samples to her children as a gut check — including daughter-in-law Rosie Assoulin, a successful fashion designer in her own right. They shared them with their friends, one of which is Leandra Medine — a blogger best known as the Man Repeller — who piled the bracelets on and shared a picture with her nearly 2 million followers on Instagram. The response was instantaneous. "I was sitting in a meeting, it was about 6 o'clock at night, and my phone kept buzzing," she said. "I called a friend and said we need a website right now. Within three hours we had a website up. That's how we started. We sold out in one day." Since then, Assoulin has continued to offer her bracelets to other social media "influencers" at no cost. In return, they've all shared their own pictures in her creations, Assoulin said. This alone helps drives sales. "My marketing is more gifting than paying for ads," she said. (According to one estimate, Instagram's influencer market is worth $1 billion, and shows no signs of slowing down.)