EMILI: JEWELRY IS THE PORTABLE WEALTH
Warm, quick, super professional, sometimes it feels like she sees you through, Emili Vesilind is a passionate advocate for industry people, a true expert as well as a vintage jewelry collector. Currently a senior editor and a social media director for JCK (they call it “insider’s magazine”) where she brings in her non-conformist hipstery vibes. She used to contribute to other outlets across the states. A mutual friend introduced me to her by saying - “she is your Baltic sister, you two have to meet.” Her grandparents are Estonian and once in a while she goes for a visit.
Drawing Emili’s daughter Ruby did of her being attacked by a goat, which really happened at a country fair!
“Alfonse Mucha is probably my favorite artist. His work checks so many boxes for me: illustration, fantasy, bohemianism, gloriously festooned women, and tons of jewelry. And actually he was making jewelry, too, with Georges Fouquet.” You can read more about him on super interesting and punchy Emili’s jewelry microblog . // Here: Georges Fouquet necklace designed by Alphonse Mucha, exhibited at 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.
“The yard is my backyard in Fairfax, VA. The kids had to do a virtual campout, and we kept it up for a couple of days.”
More of Helene Schmitz images - “Papaver orientalis,” part of the Blow Up series.
Her old girl Bianca who came from a shelter in East Los Angeles.
“My daughter (right) and her friend dressed up for International Day at school in Estonian dress!”
How do you evaluate that the jewelry piece you are looking at is good? What’s a good / very good / amazing piece of jewelry for you? >
“Well, we all know that evaluating the aesthetic value of any art piece involves a large degree of subjectivity! But I think as you write about jewelry and fashion in general, your eye gets educated in what works, and what's truly innovative (as opposed to just being novel). Also, there's a design zeitgeist that's traceable, if you're watching the market, and great jewelry designers are often out in front of it, showing you new things you didn't even know you needed - but suddenly desperately want.”
PECAN PIE FROM RED TRUCK BAKERY COOKBOOK. Photo by Brian Noyes. Penguin Random House
Little love letters from her kids.
Friendly, knowledgeable and witty. She is mixing her cool straightforward style with vintage jewelry and usually wears bold quirky glasses.
Lily Langham’s incredible country garden on Planthunter, photo by Amelia Stanwix.
“I've been quarantined in the D.C. suburbs with my husband, two young kids, two guinea pigs, and our sweet old cat for more than 60 days. I feel like one of the lucky ones because I'm still working and I have room to move around and a yard to enjoy and dig around in. I think about people in their 300 square feet apartments just down the road in D.C. (and in other cities) and I don't know how they're managing their mental health. That said, with my husband and I both working full time and the kids needing concentrated help and support with school and other things all day long...it can all be a little exhausting.
> So I've been dealing with stress by sleeping! I know they say you're not supposed to do that - that sleeping too much can make you depressed. But for me, being able taking an afternoon nap feels like a freaking luxury right now.
> I've also been taking these scalding hot baths. I create a lava pit and sink in - sometimes I go Margot Tenenbaum - style and watch TV or a movie in the bath (but on my iPad). At the end, I toss ice cold water over my head, which reminds me of being in Estonia in the sauna. Fresh!
> I also like to read, and I'm currently reading a great book, A Year in Provence, which is happy and light and beautifully written. I have to be on social media so much for work, I looooove real books.
> We've become obsessed with ordering special food treats from amazing places: Red Truck Bakery in Marshall, VA: a little speck on the map of the greater Washington D.C. area - makes the most delicious pecan chocolate chip pie, which we go pick up in a contactless, backdoor situation. It's 30 minutes West down these beautiful country roads in Virginia, which is beautifully green and lush right now. The journey really is the destination (though the pie at the end of the journey is a crazy good bonus). And we ordered handmade tamales from the Texas Tamale Company and a cheesecake sampler from Junior's in Brooklyn for my husband's birthday!
> I also like to just drive around at night aimlessly and sing in the car. Recently I drove the 15 miles to downtown D.C. and cruised the lit-up monuments. I've given some pretty decent car concerts recently.”
SITUATION WITHIN THE INDUSTRY >
“This is obviously a terrible time for jewelry retailers with brick-and-mortar stores. The pandemic is accelerating retail trends that were already in place, and widening the cracks that have existed in traditional brick-and-mortar retailing for years. Traditional jewelry stores had a marketing problem, and struggle with reaching younger consumers. Now, with all storefronts closed, those issues have become crippling deficiencies for some.”
Consumers were shopping more online before the virus, and now they're shopping only online.
“Stores will open again, but even after COVID-19, I feel like people will shop more online than they did before.
That said, a report recently came out that showed sales for many D2C digital luxury brands are actually up.
Jewelry designer Ariana Reifel-Boussard emailed me last week that her vintage jewelry website, Marteau, is doing brisk business. People are still shopping for jewelry! More than clothes for sure, if you look at the new Census stats for March.
But as a brand or retailer, you have to carve out a niche and build an audience where most of the eyeballs are, and right now that's Instagram. And, of course, you have to have designs that stand out, feel original, inspire cool 30-year-olds to save for, etc. Easy peasy, right? SO HARD.
I wish I had a crystal ball, so I could see how this is all going to turn out for the industry, but obviously, we're in crazy uncharted waters here. I will say that jewelry attracts passionate and entrepreneurial people, which makes it a particularly resilient industry.
And in crises, people really like buying jewelry, gold, diamonds and gems because they're portable wealth. The confluence of these two things could mean that we see jewelry come back stronger than ever after the pandemic. I love and admire this industry, and am pulling for everyone in it!
At the same time, I think reopening after the pandemic will be very tricky - jewelry retailing for many is a contact sports, and now retailers are going to have to step back and institute some safety measures including face masks and hand sanitizer on the counter. Macy's is making everyone who tries on jewelry and watches sanitize their hands first, and I hope every indie jewelry store follows suit. I really hope everyone does their best to follow social distancing and the rest. I know, being closed has been catastrophic for retailers, but maintaining social distance...I mean, we just have to.”
Christine’s Buckley herbs pantry, photo by Joe Lingeman.
One more of Emili’s inspirations: “Eduard Wiiralt - Estonian graphic and fine artist who worked mainly in the 1920s and 1930s - my parents and grandparents had his prints in their houses, and I always loved them.”
Self-isolation team members at Emili’s: Honey (tricolored) and Peanut Butter.
“My kids love Elize Gravel’s books and I do, too - they're weird and funny and feminist. I have a print of a pair of Chanterelle mushrooms with eyes she did for an entire book on mushroom types. How great is that?”
“A print of this photo is hanging on my wall now. I saw it last year at the new Fotografiska Museum in NYC. It's “The Highway View" from Helene Schmitz and it's part of her series on the invasive kudzu vine that's smothering plant life all over the South. Horrifying and beautiful.”
Her son made that colorful collage - “we've been doing a lot of collaging.” Good idea as a creative outlet for staying at home kids and grown-ups.
“The dock is at my parents' house in Manassas, VA. We go canoeing off it.”
Alphonse Mucha also contributed to Czechoslovakia’s identity after WWI: he designed his country’s of origin money and stamps.
“Liam, my son, and I doing a virtual wax carving class with designer Emilie Shapiro - we're loving it!”
What’s your most valuable jewelry piece at the moment? >
“Hard to say - so much of my jewelry is vintage because I make a journalist's salary and, unfortunately, there were no family jewels passed down! Probably a couple of vintage diamond and gemstone rings I have and love.”
What’s your dream piece? >
“Well, I'm currently having my wedding ring reworked - the diamonds from my 90s engagement ring are going to be gypsy-set into a platinum band. The company I'm working with has been closed due to COVID-19, but I'm looking forward to resuming that. And I'd be very excited to wear anything David Webb, or a major big-gem piece from Daniela Villegas or Lydia Courteille.”
ORIGINAL ARCHIVE SKETCH FOR THE ZEBRA BRACELET that jeweler made in 1957. “His pieces embodied the American spirit of the 1960s, bold, eclectic, uninhibited in form, scale, volume, color, material, enlivened with quirky wit, audacity and an idiosyncratic mix of multi-cultural references, from flowers and animals to jewels of antiquity and the exoticism of ancient, distant cultures, from Mayan to Chines” (Sotheby’s). Sketch from David Webb archives.
