Studying maths and philosophy at Oxford isn’t the most usual route into design, but Anna Jewsbury, creative director of jewellery brand Completedworks has brought her unique contemporary eye to fashionable adornment.
The brand, which launched in 2013, has become established as a go-to for women wanting to tap into her architectural forms of fashion jewellery, as well as homeware (think conversation starting vases and other home objet ephemera) and now handbags, too.
With outré hair clips starting around £95, the pieces are accessibly priced, making it as much a stop for women treating themselves (I bought myself a ring for Christmas) as being gifted (my husband bought an elaborate pair of earrings for my 40th).
The jewellery is ornate but not overly fussy, its cool, twisted pieces add a modern, conversation provoking edge to any look. It’s stocked in Dover Street Market, Net-a-Porter and Havey Nichols and counts Tracee Ellis Ross, Ashley Graham, Adele and Kylie Minogue as fans.
Jewsbury (39) is currently flying high after a nomination at The British Fashion Awards 2024 for Best Accessories Designer, a collaboration with cult makeup brand Merit and a firm place on the London Fashion Week schedule where she is carving out a must-see niche of compelling, thoughtful performances than echo the intellectual reach of her metier. She’s also created an oasis of a showroom in Marylebone, set over two floors of an old pub, where all the collections sit together and clients can come to discuss bespoke fine jewellery pieces. “They might come in for an engagement ring, but often leave with earrings for their bridesmaids, too” says Jewsbury.
Last February she gave her audiences (do watch on her YouTube channel) the gift of Joanna Lumley (wearing an extravagant pair of earrings in the shape of a large bow created from strings of pearls) tossing toast and magazines around a silver set, as she performed Confessions of Lilith, an original monologue written by Fatima Farheen Mirza.
In September, a highlight of London Fashion Week was Dianna Agron, Lily Cole and Riz Ahmed performing another Farheen Mirza composition, in a sunlit bathed Gordon Square in central London, this time a short play in three acts, A Stone is a Small Mountain.
Both offered something of an insight into the nuanced lives of characterful women, catching a particular zeitgeist moment and questioning the role and voice women have in the world. "When Anna approached me to write another piece for Completedworks, I'd just visited the Camille Claudel exhibit at the Getty and was haunted by her story” explains Farheen Mirza. “The play is about an art historian and biographer named Aliza, working on a book about Camille Claudel. I was interested in exploring the challenges women-- and in particular, female artists - face and the echoes of their story across time."
Rather like Jewsbury’s jewellery itself, which offers the kind of off-beat design which charms as well as invokes curiosity. Gold rings twist haphazardly around the finger, silver earrings have an almost concertina shape, hefty on the lobe (but light to wear), natural irregular pearls hang decorously, in uneven pairs. “We often work with very imperfect pearls, which I love,” says Jewsbury, explaining that this means that “every piece is different. There's something really special in that. What I've always been striving for in a signature style, is this idea that it's a classic piece, but there's something strange or subversive or different about it, which takes it from something familiar and classic to a point of newness.”
That ambition has served her well, maintaining a fashion brand in choppy financial waters. Last year, Completedworks was one of many independent British brands which took a financial hit when Matchesfashion went under.
“I think what I've learned from that is, spending time building out your brand and [its] universe, establishing a point of view and a visual language is super important” reflects Jewsbury. “You know, retailers change, things happen but if you've got your brand and your core, you'll be in a good position.”
Having grown up in the Pennines, Jewsbury credits her mother for her interest in design and fashion, “She’s from the Philippines, her family had a furniture brand. She did many different things, she was a TV presenter in the Philippines. I would make jewellery as a child, I grew up in a house with lots of fashion magazines, interior magazines, I would spend hours looking through them and cutting things out.”
Jewellery is a unique accessory in that it really is in the way of the wearer, how you layer items, what you wear them with, and offers myriad ways for your personality to shape the pieces. “It's this opportunity for self expression” says Jewsbury. I like the small, intimate scale of jewellery.”
Now based in London, near her studio, she lives with her husband, Hassan Damluji, an author, and two young children, inspiration comes from everywhere. “I'll be walking down the street and I might see a shape in some like, some food that's spilled on the floor or something” she laughs. “My son, who's six, will be playing, and he'll be making something from random bits and bobs and then he'll say, ‘Look, Mum. It's a ring. Can you show your friends at Completedworks’.”
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