When Anna Jewsbury began designing Completedworks’s sculpture-like Scrunch, Glitch and Crumple jewellery back in 2013, she never thought about women wearing her delightfully distinctive pieces on their wedding days. Over a decade later, despite Completedworks’s Pulp and Infinity’s Reversal earrings becoming unofficial emblems of alternative brides’ big days, Jewsbury, whose aesthetic vocabulary is inspired by her studies in maths and philosophy at Oxford, still does not consider herself a bridal designer. Rather, the creative, who counts Emma Watson and Jodie Comer as clients, does what she has always done and considers the power of connections, over frothy white confections, when dreaming up her industrial yet achingly pretty pieces from her studio in a converted boozer off London’s Edgware Road. “We think about intention and strength and symbols of possibility, and we always draw on a utilitarianism of form, all of which probably resonate with those getting married,” she muses when probed on the stratospheric success of Completedworks in the wedding fashion sphere.
You only need to look at the number of British Vogue brides complementing their dresses with Anna’s pearl and recycled gold vermeil trinkets (Completedworks has a “Department of Fieldwork” dedicated to sustainability) to see the waves her weaving, looping and twisting designs have made in the market this year alone. Take fellow designer Clio Peppiatt, she of party dress fame, who accented her “sexy and fun” reception look at London’s ICA with a pair of diamond and pearl drop earrings by Completedworks which, Peppiatt says, “captured the blend of classic elegance with a contemporary twist” she wished to convey. A bunch of glass peonies, featuring delicate dew drops on the petals, by Home in Heven brought the uniquely Clio look together.
London fashion editor Olivia Buxton-Smith also wanted to spotlight the capital’s talent during her Moroccan celebrations, and flew two Completedworks ear cuffs, along with some Molly Goddard flats, to North Africa with her. “I couldn’t get my head around having something beautiful that I could only wear once,” notes Buxton-Smith of her hybrid wedding look, featuring a tutu-like skirt by Wed Studio. “The same went for my accessories, I wanted to find pieces that I would rewear lots.”
The Witcher actor Sophia Brown, meanwhile, spotted someone on the underground wearing Completedworks’s hooped teardrop earrings and knew she had to have them for her festivities in Portugal. The “loop-the-loop” treasures were the perfect accompaniments to her punk but prim Vivienne Westwood Nova Cocotte dress, selected for the history woven into its seams. “It embodied so many different sides of me I wanted as armour walking down the aisle,” Brown explains of embracing the Father of the Bride-esque tropes she had dreamed of since her childhood, but on her terms, thanks to brands she felt represented her.
“A lot of brides who come to us are interested in how jewellery can tell a story,” shares Jewsbury of the light-heartedness she injects in an often traditional retail sector. “We often start from a place that feels quite classical and reassuring, but then reimagine it in an unexpected and often subversive way. That kind of approach presents quite a modern vision of romance that is timeless yet also avoids neat distinctions.”
As is evident, earrings are the most popular – and affordable – product category, but brides are often tempted by hair slides as sweet gifts for bridesmaids and pins or brooches – a growing trend – for grooms. On why the former has become Completedworks’s bridal success story, as opposed to rings, Jewsbury believes that “earrings can be an effective way of adding an interesting element to a bride’s outfit that isn’t overwhelming”.
“There is something beautiful in the imperfection of the pearls and a charm to knowing that each pearl is slightly different and unique to the wearer,” she continues. Surely there is a metaphor for marriage tucked neatly in there from this thoughtful gem brightening up Britain’s jewellery scene.
