By Kristen Egan

Most college freshman come into school with hopes and dreams of learning the fundamentals of starting a business; Natalie Commesso, FCRH ’21, entered college as a seasoned entrepreneur.

What started off as a simple necklace Natalie made for herself during her sophomore year of high school quickly transformed into Placid Beads, her own jewelry line.
Commesso’s journey from selling her necklaces within her all- girls high school to her success now was not easy.

As she sold more and more pieces, she was able to extend her market and began to visit the New York City beading district, which increased her business to statement necklaces.

After expanding to the digital market, Commesso achieved her first big break after a manager at Calypso. St. Barth took notice of the compliments Natalie received while wearing one of her necklaces in the store.

Still in high school, Natalie had already profited extremely well totaling from two trunk shows and an offer to sell at their Palm Beach store.

Natalie kept clawing for more opportunities to gain exposure and soon landed herself a stand in Mondo Summit, a store whose “whole philosophy is to help young entrepreneurs start their businesses, and this made things so much easier for me as I juggled high school.”

By this time, Natalie had been accepted to Fordham. Natalie knew that she wanted to study fashion and design along with aspects of business so that she could “get into the economical side of my business and design for the fashion side.”

Natalie always knew that New York City was the place for her, but it was her mom that reminded her, “There’s nothing like New York City, so go to New York City.”
College hasn’t slowed down Commesso’s hustle at all. Since getting to college she’s started a college ambassador program, where she sends her necklaces to trusted people who sell her products at colleges stretching all across the country and get to keep 10% of the profit.

The New Jersey native has made it her purpose to help young entrepreneurs in the same way she received help from the woman at Mondo when she was first getting started.

She currently is working with the owner of a beauty line to promote young entrepreneurs by giving them the opportunity to sell some of her necklaces in a similar approach to her college ambassador program.

She hopes to guide them through the process and teach them: “As cheesy as it sounds, don’t give up – if you want to do it – do it.”

The line is called Placid Jewelery because placid means peace, and during some of Commesso’s craziest times of balancing school and work she was still able to find her escape and calm herself down every time she returned to jewelry making.

Commesso finds no harm in trying new things and has learned a lot along the way towards creating her own start-up.

She looks back at the times her ideas have been ripped off by other creators in the jewelry industry and advises people who are looking to join the community to “be careful who you tell what. Always keep a team you can trust to help you and not start a competitive atmosphere.”

Natalie Commesso is just getting started and hopes to one day have her own boutique, but until then you’ll just have to check out @placid_beads on Instagram for more of her updates!