This year, the International Women’s Day campaign’s theme is #BreakTheBias, which issues a challenge to us to imagine a world where women are empowered, and where difference is not only allowed but is celebrated. We want to accept this challenge of imagining a better world by highlighting Armenta: a woman-owned company just as dedicated to empowering other women as it is to jewelry design. With brand values that enshrine that which is different as beautiful and important above all else, Armenta deserves to be supported and uplifted in the very same way it supports and uplifts women.
Launched in Houston in 2001 by Emily Armenta, Armenta is a jewelry company with a social mission at its heart. From struggle, Armenta believes, comes beauty; this philosophy completely shapes the jeweler’s approach to its employees. Each artisan who handcrafts the beautiful jewelry at Armenta came from disadvantaged circumstances and struggle. Each individual was educated at a school for struggling women operated by Armenta so that the cycle of poverty might finally end. At the Armenta Atelier for women, women empower and educate other women, establishing generation after generation of artisans who can then go on to use those skills to work and even educate other future artisans. Overseen by Emily Armenta herself, all Armenta designs are handcrafted by the Armenta Atelier-trained artisans in a 10,000 square foot Houston warehouse using ethically sourced gemstones and metals. Pain, beauty, hope, passion, redemption—these experiences shared by the artisans and designers alike give Armenta jewelry a degree of humanity, a piece of heart and soul, that other brands simply cannot recreate.
Alongside this extraordinary, community-driven production process, the design process at Armenta is one that idolizes the beauty of being different. Inspired by what Emily Armenta terms Duende—”the struggle between dark and light to life”, she says—Armenta designs draw on centuries of human creativity to create their distinctive appearance. Frequently featuring historic motifs like scrolls, shields, circles, and Crivellis, the Armenta aesthetic is one that turns towards the past to mold the future. Thanks to Emily Armenta’s scholar-like knowledge of historical art and architecture, every Armenta piece has the one-of-a-kind quality of appearing ancient—like a treasure unearthed at an archeological dig— and brand new. “Wearable art” is the approach to jewelry at Armenta and you are the canvas. Ready to create?
Bring out your very own Mona Lisa smile with wearable art from Armenta
Old World Collection
The Old World collection is heavily inspired by architecture in historically Muslim areas like Marrakesh, Granada, and Sicily. In particular, elements of historic Moorish architecture like horseshoe arches, high domes, geometric patterns, arabesque motifs, and zellij mosaic tilework define the grand, highly decorative Old World designs at Armenta. To replicate these ornate characteristics, Armenta utilizes contrastive materials like blackened sterling silver alongside lustrous yellow gold, accented by gemstones like blue lapis, turquoise, champagne diamonds, and black sapphires. Out of all of these palatial designs, our current favorite has got to be Armenta’s Old World Blue Turquoise, White Quartz Doublet Stones, and Champagne Diamonds Crivelli Drop Earrings. Channeling the soul of another time, these drop earrings feature a 13x9 mm emerald cut white quartz and turquoise doublet stone and quintessential Old World setting of blackened sterling silver and 18k yellow gold combination. Doublet stones, which combine two different gemstones for a unique and more vibrant color, have the added bonus of being more durable than traditional gemstones. The 18k yellow gold posts of the blue gemstone earrings receive a touch of darkness with deep brown champagne diamonds, making the transition into the blackened sterling silver and diamond halo around the doublet stone smooth and elegant. Dainty 18k yellow gold Crivelli accents at the top and bottom of the white quartz and turquoise doublet stone finish off the stately design of the earrings. More like Art-menta, right?
New World Collection
Whereas the Old World collection focuses on the contrast between blackened sterling silver and yellow gold, the New World collection exclusively features bright, cool-toned metals alongside mixed materials and vivid gemstones. Influenced by traditional Southwestern jewelry, which typically pairs turquoise with sterling silver and leather, jewelry from the New World collection modernizes this tradition by incorporating new gemstones, like tourmaline, opal, and hematite. Additionally, the entire New World collection is designed with stacking in mind, meaning that jewelry pieces in the collection pair beautifully for a stunning “more is more” look. Among the staple pieces of the New World collection are a number of classic huggie bracelets and bangles, like the New World Huggie Hinged Bracelet With Granulation And Champagne Diamonds. Simple, but effective, this engraved sterling silver bracelet features sophisticated touches like linear granulation and diamond-shaped quads of champagne diamonds which make it visually interesting enough to wear solo, but not too busy to wear in a bracelet stack.
To further maximize your stacking game, pair your bracelet stack with a fun ring stack, featuring blackened sterling silver rings as a base with gemstone-studded rings like the New World Hematite Tourmaline Stack Ring for a pop of color. An homage to the classic blue gemstone and silver coupling that is so prevalent in Southwest jewelry, this sterling silver stacking ring switches turquoise out for blue/green tourmaline and moody hematite. Alternating round tourmaline with blocky squares of hematite for a funky geometric effect, this New World ring is designed to rock your new world…and your new ring stack.