Summer jewellery in 2020 was its own particular thing. Most of us were not going to weddings, were not going out for dinner, and were spending hours staring at our own collarbones and ears on video calls. The result was that the small jewellery brands we love — the independents, the studios, the women-run ateliers — had a real moment, because the kind of pieces they make are exactly the kind of pieces that work as a single, considered object on a Zoom screen. We did not buy fewer pieces this summer. We bought differently. The conversation moved away from the trend cycle and toward the question of what we actually wanted to keep, wear daily, and pass down. Here are six independents that quietly defined our summer 2020 wish list.
Foundrae and the symbol revival
If one independent house captured the mood of summer 2020 it was Foundrae. Beth Bugdaycay’s New York-based brand had been building toward this moment since its 2015 launch, and the year of meaning-driven everything finally caught up with the work. Each medallion is built around a symbol — the strength medallion, the resilience medallion, the karma wheel — and the heavy enamel-and-gold pieces had a wearable gravity that people seemed to want this year. The Strength Medallion on a heavy clip extender chain was on every wish list we put together this summer. We are aware that Foundrae is not entry-priced jewellery; it is the kind of piece you save for, choose carefully, and never sell. That seemed to be the point.
Sophie Buhai keeps it minimal
On the absolute opposite end of the visual register sat Sophie Buhai. The former Vena Cava designer’s eponymous fine jewellery line, mostly silver, mostly architectural, finally crossed the line from “the cool girls’ secret” to “in every editorial we read this summer.” The Everyday Hoops in sterling silver were the answer to “what do I wear to look like an actual person on a video call,” and her elongated chunky chains looked elegant against a t-shirt in a way that no fast-fashion necklace ever quite managed. The whole line read as deeply considered, very quiet, and very expensive in the right places — sterling silver, solid weight, no plating shortcuts. It is the kind of work that ages.
Anita Ko’s diamond hoops, but smaller
Los Angeles fine jeweller Anita Ko has been a celebrity-favourite for years, but summer 2020 saw the daintier end of her line — the small Luna Hoops in particular — get the kind of attention that the bigger statement pieces used to get. There is something about the year that pushed everyone toward the dainty, the layerable, the kind of earring you put on at 6am and forget you are wearing. Ko’s small hoops, double-row diamond bands, and mini paperclip chains hit that note exactly. The line is unapologetically luxe — these are real diamonds, set in real gold, made in small runs — but the visual register is restrained.
Jacquie Aiche and the talisman summer
If Foundrae owned the symbol-based medallion conversation in the East Coast register, Jacquie Aiche owned it on the West. Her Los Angeles studio has been doing the bohemian-fine-jewellery thing — body chains, single earrings, layered turquoise and pavé pieces — since 2007, and the year of “we want our jewellery to mean something” suited the work. The talisman necklaces in particular felt right for the summer. Pieces on Aiche’s site routinely run into four figures, but she has a clear value proposition for anyone who gravitates toward chunky, sun-warmed, slightly mystical pieces.
Sophie Bille Brahe’s Copenhagen pearls
Pearls had been having a moment for two years and finally fully arrived in 2020, and the version we were paying attention to was Danish: Sophie Bille Brahe‘s Copenhagen line of architectural pearl earrings. Her single-pearl-on-a-stem styles are the ones that show up everywhere on Instagram, and the asymmetric “Petite Boucle d’Oreille” — a curved bar of pearls that hugs one ear — was the piece on every editor’s list. Bille Brahe’s line is fine jewellery (real pearls, gold posts) at price points that feel earned. We expect her work to keep rising in the coming year.
Beck Jewels for the entry tier
Not every piece on a summer wish list needs to be a four-figure investment, and Beck Jewels — the Brooklyn-based studio from Joanna Gomes — was the one we kept sending to friends starting their fine-jewellery collection. Gomes’s brightly coloured beaded bracelets, hand-knotted with fourteen-karat gold beads, sat at a price point that you could actually buy a few of and stack. The beaded stack bracelets in cobalt and coral were the ones we ended up buying ourselves. This was the entry point we recommended for anyone moving from fast jewellery to forever pieces.
Six brands, six entirely different visual languages, and a single shared thread: small, considered, made in studio quantities, designed by women, and priced to be kept. The fine-jewellery conversation in 2020 turned out to be a quieter and a more grown-up one than we had expected. None of these houses ran a flashy summer ad campaign. None of them needed to. They had built genuine practices over years of patient work, and the year that finally rewarded patience suited them. Brent Neale deserves a mention in the same breath for her enamel-and-stone work coming out of her downtown New York studio — a line we expect to grow loudly over the next few seasons. We will be back at the end of the year for the Winter jewellery edition with the December gift-list version of this. Until then.