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Hair accessories and It girls go hand-in-hand (just think of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s iconic tortoiseshell headband from C.O. Bigelow from all of her paparazzi shots in the nineties), and today’s generation is no different. But these days, girls aren’t buying their hair clips from a brick-and-mortar store, but rather from an online brand known as Emi Jay. If you're a frequent scroller of the internet, you've likely seen the bedazzled “big effing clip” in Sofia Richie’s updo—or IRL dangling from the straps of handbags anywhere in SoHo or the West Village.
Founded by Julianne Goldmark in 2009, the brand was fifteen years in the making. As a middle schooler, Goldmark wore a school uniform and found that the only way to showcase her individual style was through her hair. “There were very few ways to feel expressive, so I chose hair as one of them,” she explained. “What started as a love of hair and accessories turned into me making hair ties and headbands on my bedroom floor for my friends and family, then eventually selling them worldwide.” Now more than a decade later, the Emi Jay brand has expanded far beyond the floor of Goldmark’s bedroom and is now sold in hundreds of retailers around the world, from mom-and-pop shops to Selfridges and Revolve.
Eagle-eyed fans of the brand have also spotted it on Sofia Richie, Hailey Bieber, and Kendall Jenner. In the lead-up to Richie’s highly anticipated wedding, Richie styled not one but many of her looks with various Emi Jay clips, mixing and matching the colors to her outfit. “The brand has so many cute designs and clips that you can wear for any type of event, or match with any outfit,” says Richie's hairstylist Kathleen Riley. During out talk, she even showed me her own custom Emi Jay claw clip, which was bedazzled with her daughter’s name. According to Riley, “everyone in LA is a part of the Emi Jay community.” And for those worried about not being able to perfect the classic Richie and Riley “French twist updo” at home, Riley assures that you don’t need to be a hair professional to use one of the clips, just throw your hair up and let your Emi Jay do all the work.
Amanda Lee, stylist for Bieber and the Kardashian-Jenner clan also agrees with the sentiment. “I use the clips every day. My clients are even obsessed with them and steal them from me all the time,” said Lee. “The claw clip had a comeback in recent years and then a cult following for Emi Jay began. These days people don’t even call them claw clips, they call them the Emi Jay clip.”
It's been a big year for Goldmark and Emi Jay. This year, the brand expanded into haircare with the launch of custom brushes and Angelstick, a glide-y blam that helps tame fly aways when you’re pulling up hair.
Emi Jay’s biggest fan, Alessandra Sanchez (@EmiJayFanClub) an eighteen-year-old high schooler, also agrees that at her school the clips are the biggest rage—so much so that the word Emi Jay has become a noun. Instead of referring to claw clips as “clips,” these days the girls at her school are saying “Where is my Emi Jay?” When Sanchez even hosted a breast cancer fundraiser at her school after Goldmark and her team donated 100 pink clips, Sanchez’s classmates lined up around the building to purchase. “Eventually once we got down to the final two clips, the sale turned into an auction, and one student paid $50 to get the last pink papillon clip, which was only worth $20 on the site,” said Sanchez. The next day the hallways were flooded with pink butterfly clips.
For Goldmark, it's all about brand authenticity—as well as honest feedback from her team and close friends who help her stay ahead of, and creating, trends. As for what fans of the brand can look forward to next according to Goldmark? “Even more good hair.” Here’s to Emi Jay becoming your next hair one-stop shop in the future.
