Reality TV has a lot to answer for. We welcome it into our homes, often even our hearts, and sometimes all we are left with is a traipse of muddy footsteps on the carpet. Sometimes, however, we stumble upon something that just makes it all a little bit worth while.
by Becky Graham | 18th October 2013
In the 8 years since Dragons' Den first arrived on our screens we have watched hundreds of entrepreneurs take on the Dragons in an attempt to secure financial backing for their business. Some have left us shouting at the TV in the idiocy of it all, some have managed to make such sense to life that we wonder how we ever managed to live without it and some just gave us that warm fuzzy feeling inside like something lovely might be about to happen.
Hot Pink found there way into the Den earlier this year looking for a £100,000 investment for a share in their bespoke jewellery design business, much to the dismay of Kelly Hoppen. The jewellery design company aim to give the customer the opportunity to build, from scratch, the perfect, one of a kind engagement ring. Not managing to convince the dragons of the worth of their product they left, ring in hand, to a resounding no.
I met with Manu in Hot Pink's London offices, overlooking the Trend and Cool of Angel, to take a look at the business. I was immediately struck by the absolute calm of the office and the ease with which Manu welcomed me, talked me through the process and set about designing a ring with me. Considering the pressures of the occasion imagined, this was the least pressured environment I could ever wish to find myself in when endeavouring to reach perfection.
And the ethos of the company is just that, that you can reach perfection. Perfection is only a few clicks away, in fact; if you can imagine it and it is not entirely outside of the realms of physics; then it can and will Be and, furthermore, they will work tirelessly with you in order to reach that goal.
Now I have done a lot of shopping in my time, I have even found myself buying a special ring for a special someone, somewhere down the line and I find that generally, though with the best will in the world of course, the girl behind the counter in the shop doesn't actually care with very much heart about you and the end product but is more concerned with bagging it up and waving you out the door. But I can say, with some confidence I think, that the very nature of Hot Pink is in the investment of that relationship. And this is something which seems obvious when you look at the care and attention that goes into, not only the final product, but the presentation of it. They will not just stick it in one of those ugly generic ring boxes and pop it in a plastic bag for you to take home and do with as you will because the journey of the ring is as much a part of the story as the one the giving it hopes to begin, and that is just all rather lovely.
The idea is simple; we all fall in love and when we do meet that someone that proves to be the someone we can't live without, we want to shout about and what better way to do that then putting all of that love, care and passion into that moment when you ask for eternity? Because, realistically, a ring is not just a ring; it is your journey.
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