The winter jewellery roundup is the most rewarding seasonal post we write, because winter is the season jewellery actually does its work — wrist visible against a heavy sweater sleeve, ear visible against a pulled-back hair, the small piece next to a wool collar. We have spent the back half of 2017 slowly tracking the independent fine-jewellery makers we did not have room to cover in the Summer 2017 roundup, and the six lines below are the ones whose work has earned a place on our holiday wish lists. The category is genuinely strong right now — the prestige fine-jewellery houses are competing with a generation of small American makers whose work is, dollar for dollar, often better than the equivalent Tiffany or Cartier piece. The lines below are all American, all founder-led, and all available either at Net-a-Porter or directly through small e-commerce sites that ship promptly.
Wwake — the Brooklyn opal that defined a decade
Brooklyn-based Wwake (founded by Wing Yau in 2012) has built one of the most recognizable visual languages in independent fine jewellery — small opals and asymmetric diamonds set into thin gold wire, pieces that read as drawings rather than as jewellery. The signature opal-and-diamond ear-climbers became one of the most-photographed independent jewellery pieces of the mid-2010s. By winter 2017 the brand’s distribution had deepened — Net-a-Porter had committed shelf space, and a small SoHo flagship had opened in late summer. We are watching the small one-of-a-kind diamond rings that Yau quietly drops on the e-commerce site every few weeks. Prices range from $300 for a small earring to four-figures for the rare ring, and the value is the design intelligence rather than the carat count.
Loren Stewart — the LA gold the rest of the city copies
Los Angeles-based Loren Stewart has been quietly making the everyday gold pieces that most other LA brands have effectively imitated. The thin solid-gold hoops, the small chain bracelets, the bezel-set diamond solitaires — the line has the consistency of an old-school New York fine-jewellery house but the wearability of a contemporary LA brand. The earring stack we have been building all year is half Loren Stewart, half from other lines we have featured. Pieces are stocked at Barneys (where the New York jewellery floor remains the country’s best), Net-a-Porter, and through a strong direct e-commerce site. The category-defining piece for winter 2017 is the brand’s small diamond signet ring, which we are saving for.
Mociun — irregular stones, set with intention
Brooklyn jeweller Mociun (founded by Caitlin Mociun, a former textile designer) has built a fine-jewellery practice around irregular and unusual cut stones — salt-and-pepper diamonds, opals, sapphires in non-traditional cuts, set into pieces that read more like sculpture than like commercial jewellery. The Mociun aesthetic has been increasingly imitated through 2017, and the brand’s own pieces remain a step ahead of the imitations. The Williamsburg flagship is one of the best-curated jewellery experiences in New York; the e-commerce site updates with one-of-a-kind rings that sell quickly. We have been quietly tracking the next salt-and-pepper diamond ring drop and have permission to spend if it lands in time for our anniversary in February.
Jennie Kwon — Art Deco, refined
Los Angeles-based Jennie Kwon has built one of the most thoughtful Art Deco-inspired fine-jewellery lines we know of. Her geometric diamond pieces — the deco-cut sapphire and diamond bands, the small Old European cut stones in vintage-inspired settings, the asymmetric ear lines — read as both contemporary and heirloom. The line is gentler in price than the comparable houses (Foundrae, Anita Ko), which makes it the right entry point for a friend who is just starting to invest in fine jewellery. Pieces are stocked at Net-a-Porter and through a strong direct site. We bought a thin diamond band in the fall and have not taken it off.
Anna Sheffield — the ethical fine jeweller who set the bar
NYC-based Anna Sheffield has spent the last decade building one of the most respected ethical fine-jewellery practices in America. Her pieces — engagement rings in particular, but also the wider line of bridal-adjacent and everyday fine jewellery — are made with traceable diamonds, recycled gold, and a transparency about sourcing that the prestige houses have only recently begun to imitate. The aesthetic is romantic but not soft — Old Mine and Old European cut diamonds set in vintage-style milgrain settings, hexagonal solitaires, sapphire bands. The brand has been the quiet trend-setter for the entire ethical-fine-jewellery wave that the rest of the industry is now scrambling to claim. We are watching this brand carefully as the conversation about diamond sourcing intensifies in 2018.
Kataoka — Japanese restraint at New York scale
The most quietly remarkable fine-jewellery line in our radar right now is Kataoka, the Tokyo-based jeweller whose pieces have been quietly stocked at Barneys and through Twist (in Portland) for several years. The aesthetic is Japanese pavé restraint at a level we have rarely seen — diamond settings so light they read like dust, geometric Art Deco-inspired silhouettes, small earrings that look more like ink drawings than like jewellery. The pricing is high but the workmanship is unmatched, and the pieces have a long-term wearability that the more aggressive contemporary American brands sometimes lack. We have been saving for one piece — a small diamond ear climber — for over a year. The piece will be the centerpiece of our jewellery box.
Closing
The winter jewellery list, 2017 edition: a Wwake ear climber, a Loren Stewart signet ring, a Mociun salt-and-pepper diamond, a Jennie Kwon thin diamond band, an Anna Sheffield engagement-ready solitaire, a Kataoka pavé piece. Six lines we will continue to track through 2018 and beyond. The independent fine-jewellery category in America has matured into one of the most competitive small-creator markets we know of, and the value for the buyer is real. We will see you on the first Tuesday of January, and we will be back to the seasonal jewellery format in summer.