All Ze Details: Olympic Fashion

Dominique Moceanu became a household name after the 1996 Olympics, but her new jewelry venture of simplistic and elegant designs take the gold. Creations by C&C Dominique Moceanu Signature Collection houses collections designed by the Olympic Gold medalist. I had the opportunity to speak with Dominique on a conference call for a quick interview. Oddly enough, I was sitting in a mall parking lot of the exact mall that I shopped at as a child. During the 1996 Olympics 5-7-9, one of my favorite stores growing up, had a Dominique Moceanu posters plastered all over their store at the time - it was a poster of Dominique Moceanu on a balance beam that read "All Around 5-7-9 Girl" and almost 20 years later I'm sitting at the exact mall interviewing Dominique. Funny how life works!

Dominique talks jewelry; becoming a designer, how she incorporates her designs into her own personal wardrobe, and discusses the story behind her exclusive signature pendant. If you don't already know the Olympian Dominique Moceanu, meet the candid and warm face behind the up and coming C&C Dominique Moceanu Signature Collection.

What is your personal style? What do you wear on a day-to-day basis as a Mom, jewelry designer & gymnast - you lead a busy life, what is your everyday style like?
"My favorite go-to outfit is a great pair of fitted jeans. Anytime I am on the go, that's kind of my go-to that's easy and simple, and anytime I have events I'm always dressed to the nines. I love classy dresses and accessorizing. I really love a nice dress! When I'm at home, sometimes I like to get in a quick workout so I enjoy a nice relaxing, comfortable outfit. I also love pieces that are simple and versatile. My Tory Burch sandals are one of my staples in my wardrobe, I just pair it with a fun top, jeans & great accessories and I'm ready to go! That's usually my go-to look because it's simple and who doesn't love a great pair of jeans? I think that every girl needs to have several pairs of great jeans in their closet. It always feels good to put on those favorite pair of form-fitting jeans that fit so perfectly, and to accessorize to achieve a casual yet elegant look. Especially now that I am doing jewelry, I have all of this fun jewelry to wear and to accessorize with. I love to wear different & unique jewelry!
I love my knee-high boots, black tights & layers - you'll always catch me in those in the fall & winter!"

Has it always been a dream of yours to design jewelry? How did you get into designing jewelry?
"It always was a dream! I admired, first of all, my mother's jewelry. I loved all of her beautiful, ornate pieces of jewelry. She had such a collection that I just really admired it in general, and from that I developed my own sense of style and tastes; what I liked, and what I didn't like. From that, I developed my own sense of fashion. I really just always wanted to create jewelry. I always loved crafting, making t-shirts, sweatshirts and little fun projects with my family. At Christmas we would create sweatshirts with little blinking lights on them, and I really enjoyed that! Another creative outlet was when I started doing choreography. Jewelry was just always something that lied dormant in my heart. After I met Wendy Campbell - she was actually another Mom at the gym where our children both take gymnastics; we just connected and talked about it, discussing her jewelry experience, and I just thought we would be a great combination to make each other's dreams come true! We started working together on creating and designing jewelry. I always wanted someone who would have a wonderful work ethic - and she was it! She's the best business partner I could have ever of asked for; To get everything up and to help each other accomplish each other's dreams. Little-by-little it started coming together so quickly, and before you knew it 4 months later we were launching a business!

We're both entrepreneurs, and family always comes first for us. Excellent customer service also comes first; we also share the same goals. We connected like yin and yang. We love creating jewelry and just sitting together to bounce ideas off of one another. It's an avenue to decompress and to really do something that we truly enjoy, and love. We love interacting with our clients, and we love getting to custom make pieces for our clients. We find a very intimate relationship with our customers because you are really creating something that is so personal and unique for them, and that's been very popular for us lately - we've done quite a few creative one-on-one pieces for customers. There's really a lot going on right now and we're really excited about the future of our business."

C&C Creations will be launching a bridal line? What does the bridal line entail?
"I'm sitting at the table with all of our bridal pieces as we speak, because I am doing a showcase at my house - and I'm just looking at floral bridal headpieces, and headbands that we are launching now. It's very unique headbands for the brides because after you take your veil off sometimes a girl just wants a fun accessory in her hair for the party - so you have a feathered comb, or you have a nice sparkling appliqué, a headband with crystals, and it just makes it really fun to just change outfits and just have different kinds of pictures with a beautiful headband in your hair. Not only is it just for the reception but I'm wearing mine going out-and-about. I love wearing mine with a skirt and black shirt, with a solid color it popped so nicely! These headbands are worth it not only is it great for your bridals, reception, and for a great party, but it can be worn after the fact. It doesn't have to be tucked away after the wedding, you can wear it with a great pair of jeans and a fun top!"

What is the story behind your gymnast signature pendant?
"The pose is the ending of my 1998 floor routine. The reason I chose my Goodwill Games floor ending pose to be my signature gymnast piece is because this competition had such significance to me because so many people counted me out of being a winner again after my height and weight gain after the 1996 Olympics. There were so many that doubted I could be a champion again the in the gymnastics community. I was determined to be better than I could be better than ever gymnastically and show a more mature and elegant style of my gymnastics that was never seen before. I equate the win to a World Championship All-Around title for me, because I competed against so many world and Olympic medalists and champions that were the biggest names in my sport at the time. It was arguably one of my greatest competitions of all time, and for all of these reasons above I chose this ending floor pose from the Goodwill Games to be my signature pendant."

After hearing about Dominique Moceanu's jewelry line I of course had to take my Serenity Set along with me to Whitehaven Beach in Whitsundays, Australia. I loved the set and the nautical feel to it. I have incredibly sensitive skin, and this set was perfect for the beach - and did not bother my skin. I love this set and love the turquoise color and unique cut-out. This was my favorite set from Dominique Moceanu's Signature Collection. I am still a fan of Dominique Moceanu, even after all of this time of being a fan of the Magnificent Seven.

Check out Dominique Moceanu and Wendy Campbell's jewelry line Creations by C&C on Facebook & Instagram.