Get to Know Me... And the story of TCB Jewelry
Hello, My name is Tenelle Bailey: I am a true lover of the color blue, tropical destinations, my family and West Indian heritage, laughing, good food, beach days, everything fashion, 90s RnB, and polar bears. But seriously, I’m a mid-west raised, Caribbean-blooded, creative entrepreneur with a professional background in fashion design and fashion marketing. I lived on the East Coast for most of my adult life and now reside in Long Beach, California.
I have previously worked in the fashion industry as a women’s apparel designer and in higher education as a Program Director/Professor of fashion studies. From a child fashion and art have always played a supporting role in my life. From wanting to be a cartoonist at age 7, to a traditional artist in middle school, to a fashion stylist, and finally interested in being a fashion designer during high school. I think I’m a blend of three important people who raised me and the work that they did: My father’s CPA Business made me want to work for myself, my mom’s extensive teaching career made me want to share my knowledge with others, and my aunt’s interest in fashion and accessories made me love all things fashion.
TCB Jewelry is my 2nd jewelry business. From 2011 - 2015, I owned my company Dose of Vitamin F (Fashion). I had an online store and sold jewelry - earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings, accessories - handbags, and wallets, shoes - heels and sandals, scarves, and gloves from various wholesale vendors. I started teaching during this time and eventually Dose of Vitamin F was not fulfilling me creatively and I decided I wanted to go in a new direction. In 2015 I went back to school to get another masters degree in Fashion Marketing. Once I completed that degree I shortly after started a social media consultancy business and managed and created content for various small businesses, until the beginning of 2018. Then in October of 2018, I launched TCB Jewelry. At first, it was similar to Dose of Vitamin F in the sense that I was selling jewelry from wholesale vendors, but I had added another layer with also housing “shops” by jewelry designers from all over the world. I had collections from independent jewelry designers in California, Texas, New York, Canada, Croatia, and Turkey. I would only take orders for these designers and then send them the money from the sales and they would complete and ship the orders to the customers. It worked well for the most part, but after a while, it was hard to keep up with adding new products and orders, so I closed all the designer shops. Once again I felt like my business wasn’t sustaining me creatively. So, I sold most of my inventory with a huge clearance sale. I invested in a Glowforge machine and started to sketch various earring designs. I made my first collections and was doing pre-orders at first, but eventually made inventory so that I could start vending at pop-up market events.
Fast forward to 2024, so much change has happened since I launched the original version of TCB Jewelry. Now I feel so creative and have more design ideas than I ever imagined! As a creative entrepreneur, I don’t want to ever keep myself in a box and so that is why I am working on turning what was just TCB Jewelry into a TCB Creative Marketplace. I love jewelry and accessories, but I want to only sell what I make myself. I have ideas for craft art pieces, paper goods, and handmade gift items. I’m a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and want to be able to create items for my sorority and other Greek letter organizations. So, with that said, I appreciate you whether you have been with me since my Dose of Vitamin F days, original TCB Jewelry days, or just found me during this current evolution! I’m so excited and grateful to have you along for the ride and stay tuned for what’s still to come!