Michelle Obama's 'vote' necklace at DNC goes viral; witnesses increase in sale

In her speech at the first day of the Democratic National Convention on Monday, Michelle Obama discussed the importance of voting in the upcoming United States presidential elections and urged people to "vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris like our lives depend on it."

To make herself clear, Michelle Obama also wore a gold statement necklace with charms spelling out the word VOTE. Chari Cuthbert, the designer of the necklace, has revealed that she had received a request for the customised jewellery by the former first lady but had no idea she was going to debut it at the Democratic National Convention 2020.

In a conversation with The Daily Beast, Cuthbert shared that Obama's stylist had called her a few weeks ago to order the custom necklace, and she was overjoyed with the idea. "But we had no idea where she was going to wear it. We just knew that she wanted it," said Cuthbert, who owns a small Los Angeles-based jewellery brand 'ByChari.'

"There was a snippet from her DNC speech on CNN and my mom sent it to me. I couldn't believe it. Out of respect, I didn't post it or anything, because I didn't want to take advantage," she added.

The self-taught artist also revealed that just hours after the DNC appearance by Michelle, her social media was flooded with questions whether the $430 statement piece was her creation, and soon she started receiving several orders for it. "It was surreal. I sat at my desk and cried. Michelle Obama! If you talk about your ideal dinner guest, she is it for me. And to see her wearing my necklace, it's insane," the designer said.

Cuthbert spoke about "a significant uptick in sales" of her company which consists of five female employees and said: "My finance guy just texted me a bunch of exclamation points, so I assume that's a good thing. He said, I'm so happy for you, this is everything you've worked for."

The 36-year-old had designed the VOTE necklace a few weeks ago and posted it on the ByChari Instagram pose. She wanted to use it to promote political activism and was planning to make a bunch of them and send them to celebrities to wear ahead of the election. "I'm wearing mine right now," she said.

However, Cuthbert is not sure if the "Becoming" author or her stylist saw the design on Instagram or came up with the idea themselves.

Cuthbert was born in Miami to Jamaican parents. She quit her office job in 2012 and moved to Hawaii with $100 to start her business. She relocated to Los Angeles four years later.