Next up in our Out of Office series are Christie and Rosanna Wollenberg, sisters, business partners, and founders of the London-based jewellery house Otiumberg.
We sat down with the pair as they mark ten years since founding the brand, whose name marries the Latin otium, leisure time devoted to intellectual contemplation, with berg, a nod to their surname. Before jewellery, both sisters were building careers in Central London: Christie in luxury fashion, Rosanna in art branding and strategy. But they kept noticing a gap. Nothing on the market truly spoke to them, pieces were either prohibitively expensive or fashionably fleeting rather than timeless. So, after two years of deliberation, they took matters into their own hands, and Otiumberg was born.
A decade on, their no-piercing-required ear cuffs have become a favourite among women in search of the perfect elegant stack, and the sisters now run the business from their flagship store in Holland Park — with the office conveniently on site, a perk they’re quick to celebrate.
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From there, we talk about the particular alchemy of being sisters and business partners, above all, their shorthand way of communicating. “I think it drives the team slightly mad, as most of the time we say, ‘Hey, have you done…’ and she responds, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,'” Christie says, laughing. Growing up in the same house, shaped by the same influences, has made it easy for them to work both together and independently.
We also get a glimpse of their little black book of London. Proud South Londoners, they never tire of the city’s greenery and vibrancy, a wander through Richmond Park, or a stroll along the Southbank to the Tate Modern. Despite stints living in New York and the Middle East, London is unmistakably home.
Naturally, we cover their definitions of leisure, it’s in the name, after all. For Christie, leisure is a chance to slow down, a counterweight to the hustle of life as a co-founder and mother. For Rosanna, it’s more social: time surrounded by friends and loved ones.
Then there’s travel, the thread that runs through it all, and above all, Menorca, where the family has holidayed since childhood and where both sisters were married. “We have been going there since we were tiny, so I’ve got the earliest memories of holidays, you know, eating ice cream; it’s all there,” Rosanna explains.
The Wollenbergs tell us that there is a particular beauty in returning somewhere familiar, only there can they truly decompress, and it remains an annual pilgrimage. A must-see on their list: the Hauser & Wirth gallery and restaurant on Illa del Rei, transformed over the past five years from an old naval hospital, on the very island where Christie got married.
Off duty, the sisters are creatures of quiet ritual: coffee always in hand in the morning, horizons broadened through Arabic and Japanese lessons, downtime spent swimming or on long strolls with a new pup.
Watch for their ten-year celebration and a portrait of two entrepreneurs, and sisters, committed to creativity, sustainability, and quality manufacturing. Sisters and founders: how would you cope?
Watch the full episode now.
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