Chapter 4: Jewelry Inspired by a Legacy

Chapter 4: Jewelry Inspired by a Legacy

I designed this collection in honor of my Armenian great grandmother, Almas. My great-great grandfather, one of Armenia’s foremost jewelers, was beheaded by the Turks in the Hamidian Massacres in 1895. Following his death, his wife braided what few pieces of jewels she had left into her daughter, Almas’s hair and sent her on a ship to America. Almas, my great-grandmother, sold that jewelry during the Great Depression to support her family, including my grandmother, Rose, who later gave birth to my mother Stella.

So while his life story is a sad one, my great-great-grandfather’s legacy is preserved by these bijoux. I worked painstaking hours with an Armenian jewelry maker in Athens to create something holistic, handcrafted, modern and worthy of my family’s story.

The collection also celebrates women, and women who love to wear jewelry all year long, especially beach jewelry.

The collection also celebrates women, and women who love to wear jewelry all year long, especially beach jewelry. My Armenian grandmother Rose always wore all of her jewelry at the same time. Perhaps because she couldn’t afford to own it until it was later in her life, she wanted to have it around her. “I own it, I’m going to wear it,” she would say. Hail, Rose and all of the women that carry her confidence!

I love every piece of this collection and what they represent—and I hope you do, too.

Shop the collection here.

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