These Wearable Works of Art Pay Homage to Fashionistas from Old-World Civilizations

Kisiwa Designs’ ancient-worlds-inspired metallic jewelry.

Photo: Courtesy of Gadea Pérez-Andújar

Metal heads rejoice, because your jewelry repertoire is about to get louder and prouder. We know you think you’ve reached your current gold standard of accessorizing, but we have a feeling these new finds are going to change your mind.

Gadea Pérez-Andújar has been having an ongoing love affair with jewelry making since she was a little girl in Spain stringing seed beads into baubles for family and friends. Since moving to the Islands to study marine biology, she’s turned her lifelong hobby into a part-time business under the moniker of Kisiwa Designs. Inspired by Hawai‘i’s beachy aesthetic and the ocean-centric environment, Pérez-Andújar crafted a line of earrings and necklaces using shells and natural-looking beads. Lately, though, she’s decided to turn things up a notch, thanks to a classic source of inspiration with a really rocking sense of style.

No, get your head out of the ’80s. Pérez-Andújar’s beyond-retro style goes back much further, to the age of sky-sweeping pyramids and monolithic obelisks. Her new bronze and gold pieces are an homage to ancient fashionistas from old-world civilizations, metallic plates with elegant bars in geometric and organic silhouettes. To top off her blast-from-the-past look, she accents her creations with minerals that hearken back to chic hieroglyphics and frescoes, such as lapis lazuli and turquoise. The result? Wearable works of art that are just as stylish on today’s streets as they were a couple millennia ago.