A unique Christmas gift suggestion has shown up on the New York Times holiday gift list, and the creator has Brownwood roots.

The Chef’s Knife Hair Clip is made by Vinca Jewelry out of Austin, and Amanda Dimova, the daughter of Mary Stanley, designed the item.

“I’m not really sure,” Dimova said when asked how the hair clip got on the radar of the New York Times. “I got an email out of the blue saying, ‘Hi I’m one of the editors for the gift guide for the New York Times and I featured your hair clip in our gift guide and was just giving me a heads up.’ I wrote her back and told her the story of the design behind the hair clip and asked where she saw it, and she said she just saw it online. She was browsing around for interesting gifts.”

One possible answer for the discovery dates back all the way to 2019, when actress Aubrey Plaza was photographed on the red carpet of “Child’s Play” wearing the Chef’s Knife Hair Clip.

“Once I got that press for Aubrey Plaza, the hair clips started selling a lot and I ended up being able to develop the packaging and now it’s one of my best sellers,” Dimova said.

Dimova further explained the Chef’s Knife Hair Clip were about to be discontinued until the brush with fame.

“When we first wanted to make the hair clip I wanted to make a special package for it because it’s hard to tell what it is if it’s just sitting on the table, but it costs quite a bit to develop a package for a new product and I really didn’t want to do that if it wasn’t going to sell,” Dimova said. “I launched a Kickstarter around 2017 to see if people wanted to buy the hair clip so I could buy the packaging, but the Kickstarter failed. I kept it around because I liked it and when I would wear it around people really loved it, but I couldn’t sell it for some reason. People couldn’t tell what it was if it was just laying on the table.”

Regarding the origin of the hair clip itself, Dimova said, “I asked the owners of the stores that carry my stuff if they were looking for anything or noticing any of their customers asking for or requesting anything. I visited one of my clients in New York and she has a story called Random Accessories, her name is Lynn Freidus, and she said she had a lot of people looking for gifts for chefs and asked if I could make some gifts of some sort for chefs. I bought a spoon ring in her store and thought I’d make a whole cutlery set with cooking supplies and whisks and knifes, things like that. When I posted them online, people went crazy about the knifes so I started making them into hair clips and necklaces and that’s how the whole trend started.”

Dimova started her business, Vinca, back in 2006, but never imagined it would have enjoyed the success and notoriety that’s followed.

“I was in college and wanted to do something on the side,” she said. “I knew I wanted to do something in fashion and it was just a hobby of mine. I was talking with my mom and she helped me file all the paperwork and set up an official business. I went door to door with a little tray asking if people wanted to buy my handmade leather goods at the time. I even had some at Hamilton’s for a minute. I started selling online, went to trade shows and it took about five years – after I had kids and graduated – but I figured out how to pick it up and make a living off it.”

According to the VincaUSA.com official website, “While toying with the idea of starting a company, Amanda decided to make something out of the thousands of pounds of small scraps from her family’s leather goods factory. There happened to be a large amount of flower shapes left over from a custom job so she used those as the main accent on the first collection. The flowers quickly faded from the catalog to make way for weirder creatures like hammerhead sharks and squirrels, but the flower name ‘Vinca’ stuck. Since the humble beginning, the brand is now sold worldwide, loved by customers who appreciate quirkiness from Austin to Korea. From making every single piece herself, the workshop now has several employees who work together as a team to produce thousands of pieces a month.”

Reflecting on her childhood growing up in Brownwood, Dimova said, “I was born in Brownwood and grew up there until I was 12. I used to ride my bike all over town, out in the country, and I’d go down to Dairy Queen and get the free kiddie cone back when they did that. I remember being a wild, free kid with no shoes and playing at Coggin Park a lot.”