It was day 2 Ambani’s wedding July, and Julia Hackman Chafe, a social media influencer who works in her family’s wholesale gem business in New York City, was on the verge of blacking out — or at least she thought she was.
Ms. Chaffey, 25, and her husband, Bruno Chaffey, were in Mumbai, India, as guests of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of India’s richest man, and his longtime girlfriend Radhika Merchant. And the celebrity that grabbed the world’s attention.
But it wasn’t the heat or the crowds that pushed Ms. Chafe over the edge. It was an unexpected meeting with Kim Kardashian, one of his idols, who was also at the wedding. According to joke Ms. Chafe shared the next morning on her social channels, where she covers the intersection of jewelry and pop culture, that the first thing Ms. Kardashian said after introducing her was, “’Oh my God, I absolutely watch all your stuff. .’”
Weeks later, Ms. Chaffey recounted the effects of the encounter on a video call from her office in midtown Manhattan, where she manages social media content for Intercolor USA: “I couldn’t look straight after what he said. My tongue was coming out of my mouth. My eyeballs were no longer in my face.
In her own mind, Mrs. Chafe was probably incompetent. However, it caught fire on social media.
During her six days in Mumbai, Ms Chafe – who was invited by an Ambani family friend she knew on Instagram – saw her Instagram followers nearly double to 639,000 from the pre-Ambani level of 337,000. She now has nearly a million followers across all her platforms, including TikTok and YouTube.
While Ms. Chafe said the spike was fueled by a number of new followers in India, her growing fan base can be attributed to her popularity.
Jewelery designer Lorraine Schwartzwho introduced Chafé-Kardashian, said that Ms. Chafé’s authenticity sets him apart from other social media personalities.
“The world of influencers who pay for all the play — I don’t think a lot of it is honest,” Ms. Schwartz said last month on a call from London, where she was traveling on a business trip from her home base in New York. “But I love Julia because she is. I want people to appreciate the fact that she is talking so passionately and authentically about jewelry.
Is Ms. Chafé talking to followers Preparing breakfast Fried eggs on toast, she shared her jewelry while walking down the street in Manhattantakes hot” (“Chokers are here to stay”) or A breakdown of Kris Jenner’s jewelry On the Met Gala red carpet, her online persona is a combination of self-deprecating best friend and celebrity fashion sleuth.
“Julia’s content is timely, fast and raw, so you feel like you’re chatting with your friend,” said Jane Cullen Williams, a luxury communications consultant who has worked with Ms. Chafe. “Who he is on social media is really who he is in real life.”
Ms. Chafé made his first TikTok video on Oct. Posted on 1, 2021 After trying and failing to find a jewelry influencer on the platform who could help promote his family business, which specializes in rubies, sapphires and emeralds. “My husband, Bruno, said, ‘You could be that girl.'”
She said one of her later videos, about Diana, Princess of Wales’ sapphire engagement ring, was the first to gain attention: “It got 10,000 views.”
The experience helped her refine her content strategy. “I started doing more Princess Diana stuff because I saw that’s what the audience wanted to see,” Ms Chaffey said. “And then from there, it turned into celebrity stuff.”
Now, Ms. Chafe, a self-described pop culture obsessive, knows exactly the types of posts that resonate with her followers. “If I mention Kim Kardashian, that’s it, the video is doing well,” she said. “I don’t even want to say anything. I could make a video of Kim Kardashian wearing a jewel, post it and it would be great.
During her time in India, Ms. Chaffey discovered that the same was true of the Ambani family. “If I just say two words, Ambani and Hira, and post it, it automatically gets a million views,” she said. “They perform so well.”
But to attribute Ms. Chafe’s following solely to the power of celebrity is to miss the point, said Sally Morrison, a business associate.
“Historically, people have looked to Instagram for inspiration and now they’re looking to be more educated,” said Ms. Morrison, director of public relations for natural diamonds at De Beers Group (Ms. Chaffey has contracted with De Beers for some future work. ). “And Julia is one of the world’s natural teachers. She’s fun and approachable, but she also knows her stuff. She shares details about jewelry and brings it to life in this popular, hip way.
Despite growing up in a Persian Jewish family that has been in the wholesale gem business for 43 years — Ms. Chafe’s father, Afshin (“Alan”) Heckman, is president of Intercolor USA, and owns the company with her three brothers, all vice presidents — Ms. Chafe was young. When there was resistance to the gem trade.
“I thought everything my dad did was obviously, like, cool and not too lame,” she said in “Get to Know Me.” Video Posted in July.
Ms. Chafe grew up on Long Island, east of Manhattan, and graduated from New York University in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in media studies and a few marketing internships under her belt. “I used to come to the office every time, and here it was very boring because as one can imagine, a father and his three brothers don’t chat all day,” she said. “I was like, ‘How does a man do business?'”
But that August, after graduation, Ms. Chafe had a change of heart. “I decided it was a responsible decision to go into my father’s business,” she said.
She and her father struck a deal: Instead of sticking to her original plan, attending classes at the Gemological Institute of America, Ms. Chafe would accompany him on a February 2023 shopping trip to Bangkok “as a kind of crash course in education. What our family business does,” she said.
“It was the best decision I ever made,” she continued. “The trip really changed the way I thought about jewelry. The picture my father always painted for me is that negotiating is really hard. And that was it. But then you see 40 years of deep friendship between all these people from all these different backgrounds. And that’s something I don’t think you’ll find in any other industry.”
From that trip, Ms. Chafé has worked with other jewelry brands, including Tiffany & Company, to create social media content. In March, she was a red carpet correspondent at the Gem Awards, an annual industry awards ceremony in New York City. And she’s been posting more personal videos about her background and interests.
“I’m trying to expand my horizons as a creator and go further into lifestyle things, and the regular lifestyle things that involve your life, which I wasn’t comfortable with before,” Ms. Chaffey said. “But I have noticed a change in the way my audience speaks to me. I think everyone responds well to authenticity.
“So even if it’s my life as a girl in New York City, it’s going to be more about me and less about what Kim Kardashian wore last night.”
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