Meet The Designer: Anna Jewsbury, Completedworks
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I’ve always been driven by a desire to create something new. The idea of my pieces having some kind of social commentary is important and it’s been my experience that jewellery is the perfect medium for this. It has that element of longevity to it by virtue of the materials used, as well as the power to communicate a message through the wearer.
My journey into the world of jewellery design was unconventional. I studied maths and philosophy at university and people are often confused about how I made the transition into the fashion world. But I think there’s a mix of precision and creativity in both. The two disciplines are both ways to understand the world and I wanted to use jewellery as a platform to explore my thoughts and ideas.
I grew up in Yorkshire, but I didn’t appreciate the beauty of the landscape when I was younger. When I go back now, I get so much creative inspiration from walking in the hills and surrounding myself in nature – it’s such a calming environment. Nature is constantly changing and you can never appreciate it all at one fixed moment in time – all the landscapes are fluid. That’s why I think my designs will always relate to nature in some way.
My love of sculpture ignited my creativity, but it was never my plan to go into jewellery. I grew up around Barbara Hepworth sculptures – she was a former pupil at my school and her sculptures were dotted around the grounds. Jewellery has obvious similarities to sculpture, but working on a smaller scale has a certain intimacy to it. I was drawn to the notion that each wearer forms their own relationship with a piece, imbuing it with personal meaning and expression.
My earliest fashion memory is probably being a bridesmaid aged three. I loved my dress so much I refused to wear anything else for weeks. My mum passed her love of clothes to me – she’s always dressed exactly how she wanted, and has taught me to do the same.
Being a creative director is about bringing everyone together. I’m responsible for developing collections and defining the brand’s vision and image. In the beginning, it was a very small, tight-knit team, all working towards the same goal, and we all had to adapt to and create our own way of working. Today, while we have grown, we remain a close collective and that will always be the essence of the brand.
My goal is to create beautiful, enduring pieces that will change the cultural landscape in some small way. With each collection, I’m trying to create something classic and unfussy with subversive undertones. The materials are important, too – with each collection we’re-working to prioritise recycled, upcycled and renewable materials.
My inspiration with the current collection was historical and religious art. I explored the use of cloth and dust sheets traditionally associated with preserving historical pieces and incorporated this into the designs. I love how the original function of the material is taken out of context and then worked into metal.
No one is ever designing in a vacuum – the pieces reference how we spend our days, including the books we read, the art we see, the people we talk to. We go through different research and processes when developing a collection. Sometimes our subjects are from contemporary, everyday life and sometimes from broader historical or political ideas.
My favourite piece in the collection is the Scrunch earring – it looks like a fabric scrunchie with unexpected contours and texture. It's important that jewellery is beautiful in its own right. I think comfort is important too, because it can’t just be a beautiful, it has to feel natural on the body.
Jewellery can add interest and an extra dimension to any outfit. It’s all about layering and mismatching pieces in slightly unexpected ways. I really like the consistency of having a uniform when it comes to clothes, though, and brands like Tove, Jil Sander, Totême and Pleats Please by Issey Miyake tend to be my go-to.
I live in Marylebone, not far from my studio. I would describe my interiors taste as understated, with a focus on materials and textures, without anything too overpowering. Both my home and my work are expressions of me and how I’m feeling, just on a different scale. With my interiors I’ve ended up with something quite raw, eclectic and unfussy, with small deliberate details – I like it when you enter a room, and your eyes want to land wherever there is something interesting or beautiful to look at.
No fashion brand can be truly sustainable – but we’re trying to be as responsible as we can, whether it’s prioritising recycled, renewable and deadstock materials, offsetting our packaging consumption or trying to challenge consumerism in our design process. We’re also realistic that we’re not where we would want to be yet – it’s a journey and there is still a lot more we could do.
Right now, we’re in the process of launching our first bag collection made from deadstock and recycled leather. One of the things we’ve done from the beginning with the jewellery collection is explore the movement of fabrics – the way they fold, crumple and knot – so moving from jewellery into accessories has felt like a natural and inevitable transition for us.
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