William & Son
Dress – Paul & Yakov. Diamond bracelet – William & Son MYA
“I’M HERE… TO SEE… MYA!”, I announce mid-wheeze as I crash into the Bruton Street boutique, fifteen minutes late to my meeting. Clemence, Head of Jewellery at William & Son, is actually who I’m meant to seek – the two names I’d confused in frenzy – but I am nevertheless led towards a cabinet displaying some of the most brilliant emerald pieces I’d ever seen. A discreet plaque discloses the collection name: MYA.
And what do you know, Clemence also happens to be sitting right behind the cabinet.
“MYA is short for Millions Years Ago, and is a unit of measurement in geological terms to measure the age of a rock”, she explains. The collection pays homage to the origin and extraordinary journey of rare stones, the yellow brick road journey, so to speak, of a rock formation into the richest of emeralds and diamonds.
Diamond necklace & bracelet – William & Son MYA. Cashmere tube – Mandkhai. Jeans – Isabel Marant. Boots – Yuule Yie.
You really don’t see emeralds done like this. It’s never not set in some classic or ironically vintage mount, or worn in the most traditional manner. “The green appears more blue-ish in ethically sourced Zambian emeralds, especially in London’s grey lighting” she adds, and brings out a vintage piece from another cabinet (Columbian-sourced) for me to compare — I can’t even tell, and I’m even wearing new set of contacts for the month. I notice that the organic diamond ‘crusting’ is also actually an intricate pattern of oval and teardrop shaped diamonds. The emeralds may have been a happy relics of coincidental geologic events, but once in the hands of William & Son, evidently nothing is accidental.
Khaite
William & Son
William & Son
Yuul Yie
William & Son
Isabel Marant
Boden
William & Son
Alexa Lixfield
Diamond necklace & bracelet – William & Son MYA.
The more I get to know about MYA, is that it hasn’t taken Million Years to ripen, to be worn with a cardigan-skirt combo or a classic evening gown. It’s aching to be in an unconventional story: to meet new characters at a pyjama party in East London, glow under lampshades of an ornate sitting room, and be paired over a cashmere tube top and 90’s denim.
And you know what they say, what happens at a Mile End pyjama party, stays in the East…
