Summer is the season we wear less, and what we wear shows more — which means the jewellery does the talking. The third Tuesday of June is our annual edit of small and independent brands, the houses with one or two designers, the studios that work in their own atelier, and the rare bigger names whose pieces still feel like one woman’s vision rather than a luxury-conglomerate’s marketing exercise. Summer 2016’s edit landed warmer than last year’s: more gold, more pearl, more colour, less geometry. The pieces we kept reaching for were the ones that travelled — that left the apartment on a Sunday morning and only came off in the shower the next Friday. Below: the seven names worth knowing for summer 2016.
Sophie Buhai, the new minimalism
Los Angeles-based Sophie Buhai kept showing up in the editor’s-pick columns through 2016, and the second-tier coverage finally caught up by the summer. The brand’s heavy oversized sterling silver hoops and the ear cuffs in the Trinity collection were the pieces our group chat reordered most often, and the chunky oyster ring in vermeil hit a wedding-guest sweet spot for everyone we knew. Buhai had been working out of LA for three years, and 2016 was the season the East Coast wholesale floor finally agreed: the spare, oversized minimalism was a complete proposition. The takeaway: heavyweight silver is the most underestimated trend of the summer.
Sophie Bille Brahe, the pearl modernist
Copenhagen’s Sophie Bille Brahe had been the Scandinavian word-of-mouth pearl brand for a half-decade, and the US wholesale presence widened through the first half of 2016. The Croissant de Lune ear-piece — a single freshwater pearl on a thread arc — became the post-graduate-school answer to the pearl-stud question, and the Petite Boucle ring in fourteen-karat gold sold out at Net-a-Porter twice through the summer. The lesson, after a few weddings: a single pearl reads more contemporary than a whole strand.
Catbird, Brooklyn’s quiet operator
Brooklyn’s Catbird had been operating out of Bedford Avenue since 2004 and had quietly become the engagement-and-anniversary destination for downtown Brooklyn, but summer 2016 was when their everyday stacking-ring program reached the rest of the country. The hammered fourteen-karat gold thread bands stacked beautifully across two hands, the pinky-ring program graduated half our office, and the brand’s own house-collected vintage pieces gave the shop a feel no chain could replicate. The takeaway: the local is the new luxury when the local is run by people who actually care.
Jacquie Aiche, the body-jewel revival
Jacquie Aiche‘s body-chain pieces — the long necklace that crosses the back, the body-bracelet that wraps the upper arm — had a moment three years ago and then quietly grew into a real assortment. Summer 2016, when the slip-dress dominated weddings and the simple white tee was the most-worn piece in our closet, was the season the body-chain came back into editorial consideration. Aiche’s turquoise-and-gold pieces showed up on every Coachella beach-club photo and every editor’s wrist by mid-July. The takeaway: body chains work when the rest of the outfit is plain.
Anita Ko, the fine-jewellery insider’s favourite
Los Angeles-based Anita Ko was the brand the actual jewellery editors at the prestige magazines wore themselves. Her diamond ear-cuffs were the most-photographed earring on the working-actress red carpet, and her sleek chain-link bracelets made it onto every wrist of every dinner-party guest we hosted. The pricing was firmly luxury — a fine-jewellery investment, not an impulse — but the staying power justified the consideration. The lesson: fine jewellery still earns its place when the design is unimpeachable.
Beck Jewels and Jennifer Meyer, the Los Angeles softness
Beck Jewels, the Brooklyn-based hand-painted enamel-bead studio, had a year of deserved attention through 2016 — the gemstone-and-bead necklaces in their primary-colour palettes were the wedding-guest-arrival statement piece our group chat went around buying through June. Jennifer Meyer‘s solid-gold leaf pendants and small initial necklaces were on every Hollywood best-friend’s neck, and the demi-fine pricing made them the realistic gift answer for a thirty-fifth birthday. The takeaway: 2016’s jewellery moment leaned into colour, lightness, and warmth.
Maya Brenner, the discreet name necklace
Maya Brenner‘s tiny gold initials and state-shaped pendants had been a Hollywood-best-friend gift since 2009 and continued to be the first answer when we wanted a sub-three-hundred-dollar fine piece for a friend or for our own wrist. Brenner’s monogram pieces in fourteen-karat gold travelled well, never tarnished, and the brand’s letter-pendant pricing meant a thoughtful gift fell well under the four-hundred-dollar comfort line for most of our group. The takeaway: a single discreet initial reads more confident than a double, and far more confident than a name in a sweep of cursive.
How we are styling
Three rules that emerged from a summer of stacking. One: pick a temperature — silver or warm gold, not both — and commit for a full season. Two: stack rings on adjacent fingers, but pendant-stack only on the same chain length or in increments of two inches; mid-chain collisions look unfinished. Three: ear stacks need a single statement piece, then quieter helix studs on the rest of the lobe; nine charms reading at once is a wall, not an outfit. The fourth, unwritten rule: the right earring pair is the one you forgot you had on by lunchtime. The fifth: a piece that is too precious to wear is a piece that is not yours yet.
What we are buying
Our actual summer 2016 jewellery edit, narrowed to seven pieces: a Sophie Buhai chunky silver hoop, a Sophie Bille Brahe single-pearl Croissant de Lune, three Catbird threadbands stacked on the right pinky, a Jacquie Aiche turquoise pendant on a long chain, an Anita Ko diamond ear-cuff for the wedding circuit, a Beck Jewels enamel-bead necklace for the dinner parties, and a Jennifer Meyer initial pendant we have been wearing every single day since June 14. Across the seven, the unifying thread was warmth — gold-toned metals, organic shapes, pieces designed to stack. We will see you on the third Tuesday of December for the winter jewellery edit.