A few months ago, I launched TENUITAS as part of an eponymous exhibition created with Galerie Estrada in Miami.
Zabrina Estrada and I share a deep love for early 20th-century decorative arts, culturally layered objects, and the poetry of things made with care. The collaboration felt natural.
The theme of the boudoir emerged from our conversations. We wanted to explore the private rituals of dressing and the construction of identity, bringing textiles and jewelry into relation—one expanding into volume, the other condensing into form.
TENUITAS Earrings N.1, Green Onyx, Citrine cabochons and 18K yellow gold.
I knew from the outset that I wanted to use the vintage carved stones I had sourced earlier this year, and began refining sketches that had quietly been returning to me, creating a conversation between the jewels and the garments curated by Zabrina.
The pieces would carry a vintage materiality, while the designs—shaped by the Art Deco era and my own multicultural influences—would offer a personal interpretation of the intimacy, strength, and complexity held within a woman’s boudoir.
The result is a capsule collection of six one-of-a-kind pieces.
Rather than variations on a single design, I imagined them as objects from the jewelry box of one woman—different expressions of her personality and testaments to her journey.
Imagining her in all her complexity gave me the freedom to create six distinct pieces. It also helped me reconcile my own instinct for plurality with the idea of consistency.
TENUITAS Pendant, White coral, Green Tourmaline and 18K yellow gold. Now in a private collection.
As someone shaped by diverse influences—as excited by an André Sornay piece as by an Issey Miyake garment or a Haitian naïve painting—I have sometimes wondered how my different sensibilities can coexist within my work.
TENUITAS reminded me that coherence does not have to mean uniformity. What connects the pieces is not a repeated design, but a point of view.
Perhaps this, too, comes from who I am and where I come from: a family and a region shaped by different cultures, curiosity, and an innate practice of merging and mixing.
TENUITAS Ring N.1, Angel skin coral, Diamonds and 18K white gold.
