Jemima Hargreaves. Photo: Johan Nyström
Fine hand-crafted jewellery that doesn’t cost the earth Since its launch at Stockholm Fashion Week 2017, Hargreaves Stockholm has established itself with a unique offering of the highest-quality fine jewellery, crafted using ethical methods and materials. By Liz Longden | Photos: Hargreaves Stockholm
Jemima Hargreaves draws upon over 20 years’ expertise as a master goldsmith. She has worked at and managed some of the UK’s finest traditional jewellery workshops, created pieces and managed projects for royal clients and celebrities, and worked on jewellery for the film industry, with director Tim Burton among the commissioning directors. Yet, despite the prestige of much of the work she has done, she says her fascination with jewellery stems from something much more essential. “I think it’s about the connection that people have to it. From the time that someone first saw that nugget of gold washed 58 | Issue 130 | November 2019
up in a river bed somewhere, people have felt that it’s meant something — a gift from the gods, a piece of the sun, and so many other things. And it still feels like that, even all of these thousands of years later,” she says. “Whether it’s a wedding ring, or a pendant that your child has made you out of pasta, jewellery means something to us and we connect to it on a base level.”
A collaborative process Hargreaves relocated to Stockholm in 2017. It was a return of sorts – although born and raised in the UK, her family originally hails from Denmark – and Hargreaves Stockholm’s early work was
heavily inspired by her Scandinavian heritage and by traditional Nordic motifs. More recently, much of her work has evolved towards strong, clean shapes, contrasted by the use of stones in a scattered effect, reminiscent of sunlight reflecting off the waters of the Swedish coast and through dappled forest leaves. In addition to the brand’s established collections, however, Hargreaves also