As we open the last of our gifts and put away the holiday decorations in preparation for the new year, we at Third Wave Fashion began to reflect on all the things that made our business prosper this year — you know, the kind of golden nuggets entrepreneurs the world over want to share with one another.

With that, we dreamed up the Experts’ Wisdom Series: An end of the year, three-day tell-all surrounding business, social media, companies’ bottom lines and where business owners —  like you — see themselves in 2013.  We searched long and hard for just the right group of innovators to feature and we decided to kick things off with the ladies of Of a Kind.

In 2010, Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur set out to reimagine the world of fashion tech, a world centered around new ideas and fresh talent.  Their vision goes something like this: fashion is most exciting when it comes from on-the-rise designers because their personalities are most vibrant and best seen in the early stages of their careers.  Of a Kind promotes fledgling designers so that you can have the opportunity to own super unique pieces and enjoy the fact that it’s not only beautiful, but it’s got a story behind it.  That, to us, is worth a million bucks.

We asked the ladies of Of a Kind to discuss their company in 2012, trends in 2013 and what’s next.

OaK: For us, it hasn’t been so much about a single milestone. We got lots of emails from people proclaiming themselves “Of a Kind fan girls”—how cool is that?—and were told by designers that being featured on Of a Kind was a goal before they even launched their businesses. Having an impact on our designers and our customers is what it’s all about.

OaK: Bah, ignore trends. You need to build a business you’re passionate about, and you can’t do that by chasing what’s hot at any given moment.

OaK: 2012: Building a brand. 2013: Building a business. In our minds, one necessarily precedes the other.

OaK: You never know what will be next: Pinterest has become a really significant traffic-driver for us this year, but that kind of came out of nowhere, starting in November 2011. You’ve got to be nimble!

We love what these ladies are doing and where they’re going with Of a Kind.  It’s a mission we can get behind, personalities that keep things fresh, and we can’t wait to see what they have in store for all the Of a Kind fan girls in 2013.

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Leticia Domenech is the Writing and Copyediting Intern at TWF. You can hire us! We work with brands, investors, and fashion tech startups. Drop us a line.