Two of New Zealand’s most beloved international designers, Emilia Wickstead and Jessica McCormack, have collaborated on a highly covetable capsule collection of decadent jewels inspired by the South Pacific and we’re here for it!
So much so the duo hit the studio together in London for our exclusive cover shoot and an hilarious Kiwi-girl catch-up via Zoom with STYLE’s managing editor Phoebe Watt.
Launched to align with London Fashion Week SS21 and available in New Zealand at Simon James for a limited time, the sensational, sparkling collection gives a nod to the designers’ shared New Zealand heritage.
Beautifully incorporating McCormack’s signature hallmarks — Georgian cut-down settings, layered white and blackened gold and diamond gypset hoops — the array of earrings, rings and necklaces are designed to sit seamlessly with Wickstead’s Spring Summer collection.
“We’d been talking about doing this for so long, too,” says Wickstead, explaining that while they’d worked together since their brands were in their infancies – McCormack supplying jewels for Wickstead’s runway shows and the pair regularly sending their celebrity and bridal clients to one another – it was her spring 2021 collection, inspired by the South Seas, that was the final catalyst for the jewellery collaboration they launched in October.
“It was that collection that got us thinking about pearls,” says McCormack, who confesses she’d avoided them in all her years as a jeweller because of what she saw as their inherent stuffiness.
“Whereas for me,” says Wickstead, whose late father was Samoan, “there’s definitely something very nostalgic about them; their connection to the South Pacific, and the sense of whimsy and adventure they evoke. On top of that, I hate the word glamorous but there is something so incredibly glamorous about them.”
The challenge, both Wickstead and McCormack agree, was in modernising the pearl. “And I think Jessica’s way of taking something precious and luxurious like a diamond and turning it into this edgy, super versatile piece that you can wear every day with just a white T-shirt or a cardigan, that was absolutely key.”
Find the Summer issue of STYLE in your local magazine store, supermarket or online.
