A unique women-owned business is helping charities while promoting Hanukkah this year.
Amanda Foley was busy working as a casting director in Los Angeles, while her lifelong friend and former college roommate Lindsay Flack was creating the first paint-your-own-pottery business in Cleveland. However, although they were both successful, neither was following their dreams.
“We got married, had families and found ourselves not fulfilling that creative need we had,” Foley told the Journal. “So we joined forces and tried to create something mindful.”
Working out of their respective studios on the West Coast and in the Midwest, they decided to open Halo-Heart Designs, an accessories company that sells cuffs, bracelets, necklaces, key chains and clutches with pre-made inspirational messages or custom words. That was in January 2018, and since then, Halo-Heart Designs products have been worn by celebrities including Idina Menzel, Gwen Stefani and Adam Levine.
The duo uses their jewelry to give back, which is how they’ve had the opportunity to work with celebrities. They made word cuffs, a word bar necklace, a keychain and a mantra in a bottle for Menzel and her nonprofit A BroaderWay, which provides arts programs to girls in underserved communities. The mantra in a bottle features a custom charm stamped with Menzel’s signature, as well as a handwritten mantra that says, “She believed she could. So she did.”
Foley met Menzel when she was working as a casting director and the two went to the same Mommy and Me play group. “Idina called me and said, ‘I need something for my foundation. I want to use something to fundraise. I love your concept.’ ”
From there, Halo-Heart Designs also teamed up with YourMomCares, started by Sharon Feldstein — mother of Beanie Feldstein and Jonah Hill — and Adam Levine’s mother, Patsy Noah. Twenty-five percent of the proceeds from Halo-Heart Designs cuffs goes to their organization, and raises money for mental health programs for children. Levine gave one of the bracelets to Stefani to wear when they were on “The Voice” together.
In addition, Foley and Flack work with OWN IT, an organization that inspires women through events and opportunities, and F— Cancer, which funds cancer education and prevention.
“We do a lot of giving back,” Foley said. “It’s the core of who we are. It’s a great way to fundraise and spread our message and what we want to achieve.”
Foley and Flack are using Halo-Heart Designs this holiday season to promote Hanukkah. Foley takes great pride in her religion. She grew up in a Reform Jewish family and had a bat mitzvah. When she gave birth to her son, she wanted to make sure he knew his ancestry and where he came from.
This year, she and Flack wanted to give people something to wear to express their Judaism during Hanukkah so they created eight cuffs, one for each night, with inspirational sayings. They include: “Shine your light on the world,” “Move forward, give back,” “Choose joy” and “All you need is within.”
“When we decided to jump into the holiday season, it was very important for Lindsay and [me] to make these cuffs because at the store there’s only one little corner part of the aisle for Hanukkah.”
— Amanda Foley
“When we decided to jump into the holiday season, it was very important for Lindsay and [me] to make these cuffs because at the store there’s only one little corner part of the aisle for Hanukkah,” Foley said. “We wanted to make sure that we could wear our words in our faith.”
Halo-Heart Designs also offers a Charm Bar for bar and bat mitzvah parties, where attendees can create their own keychains or charm bracelets. Right now, Foley said, they’re working with a bat mitzvah girl who is designing handwritten cuffs and selling them. The proceeds will go to a dog rescue.
Most of the designs are custom. When Foley’s father died a few years ago, she made a piece of jewelry she wears every day with the words he wrote to her on a note. She said a child could write their name and the date, or grandparents could wear their grandkids’ signatures on a cuff.
No matter how much the company expands or how many celebrities they work with, Foley said she hopes Halo-Heart Designs has a philanthropic reputation.
“We want to get it as big as possible, where people feel they are really empowered to wear their words, and they know that Halo-Heart Designs is a company that gives back,” she said. “We want to be looked at as a women-owned business that empowers everybody.”
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