Shinola’s Jewelry and Watches for Women
The Detroit-based company joins forces with Pamela Love for thoughtfully designed delights
Although women have been buying and wearing Shinola‘s watches for years, not long ago, head designer Daniel Caudill and the Shinola team decided it was time to create thoughtfully designed, high-quality accessories especially for women. “We noticed a consumer demand for female-specific products within our two main categories, watches and leather,” says Caudill. Now, next to the manly Runwell, Canfield and Guardian timepieces, glass cases display a full jewelry collection inspired by watch elements and classic styling.
The brand’s signature lightning bolts are available in earring form now. “We knew we wanted the jewelry collection to reflect the classic American spirit of the Shinola brand,” says Whitney Degaldo, Shinola’s VP of Design, who worked with Pamela Love on the project. “In our early discussions with Pam we identified the touch-points between her personal brand and ours. We carried the watch details over from Shinola’s design ethos, like the coin edge, lugs, crown, moon dial and incorporated those into Pam’s signature ‘modern urban mysticism.’” The necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings are made in sterling silver and 14K yellow or rose gold with diamonds, Australian opals, and tiger’s eye.
Delgado and Love looked to vintage jewelry for inspiration. “We established a language of shapes that felt classic and timeless. After that it was easy to dissect the watch into its key elements and interpret them into the classic pieces we identified,” says Delgado. During the design process, Delgado felt it was important to offer customizable signet rings, lockets, and ID bracelets that could be personalized with engraving. “Like watches, jewelry is a long-lasting and generational item. There’s an emotional connection to the piece because it was often handed down by a loved one or a gift for a special occasion.” They aimed to create a line with key items that can be mixed and matched to complement everyday style and be worn with all kinds of accessories their customers already own.
In the watch department, though the smallest Runwell can be purchased in the 36mm size with some gem tone leather straps, and the new Gomelsky collection is versatile enough that they will work with all kinds of personal style. Creative director for the Gomelsky collection, Cassie Coane says, “We wanted a classic product with no design rules, starting from a blank slate and looking back in history to see which styles resonated and remained wearable,” says Coane. “As far as the name, we were on our way to the Basel watch fair our first year and had a women’s style that was nameless. No one was coming up with anything fitting, so we decided we would name the watch after the first journalist we met there. The first woman to walk through our door was Victoria Gomelsky, who has since become the perfect ambassador for the brand.”
We like to refer to the collection as Shinola’s crazy aunt—the Edie Beale to Jackie Kennedy
As for the Agnes Varis series, Coane says, “We like to refer to the collection as Shinola’s crazy aunt. The Edie Beale to Jackie Kennedy. For the Gomelsky collection, we were able to pull from a different material palette that perhaps didn’t fit within the Shinola brand. Much of the Gomelsky collection highlights the materials we fell in love with when designing. The malachite, especially quickly became a staple for the brand.”
These new products are available online and in Shinola’s ever-expanding retail locations.
Images courtesy of Shinola
