Q&a / Jewellery designer Marla Aaron on taking a unique approach to creating customisable pieces, finding her own way in the retail landscape, and why she designs jewellery for every woman
The New York-based jeweller launched her eponymous line in 2012, pioneering a fun, whimsical approach to customisable jewellery that still resonates with global audiences today
Always full of surprises, both the designer and her trash-to-treasure approach to jewellery-making have proven popular since the launch of her eponymous brand back in 2012. After all, Aaron’s modular pieces – designed to be mixed, matched and stacked to spectacular effect – make it easy to reinvent oneself time and time again. Colourful, individualistic and very on brand for New York, the designer’s creations make instant classics with vintage quality.
Aaron lets Style in on the haphazard, somewhat chaotic, but always amusing creative process behind her bestselling pieces, available to shop in Hong Kong via e-tailer Net-a-Porter.
This is your first-ever visit to Hong Kong. Does travelling to different places inspire your jewellery pieces?
There are designers that travel and [call] their collection “Tuscany” or something like that. That’s not the way it works for me. It’s messy, very focused on the mechanisms – little bits and pieces of hardware and things that ultimately end up as inspiration for something. Let me give you an example – our trundle lock ring. We make it many ways – as a US$500 version that’s sterling silver, all the way up to this diamond [version] that’s US$18,000. I wanted it to be a ring and a lock, so it opens with this push mechanism, and when I was explaining this to our workshop and how I wanted it to work, we were like, “How do I convey this?” So I would find household objects. I brought a toilet roll holder from my house and showed them, like, “This is it.”
Your earrings were inspired by a zip-lining experience with your sons. What about that?
