Welcome to our Behind the Best series, where we explain our thinking and the inspiration behind some of our most iconic and best jewellery pieces. We’re kicking off with the Dylan earring, one of the initial pieces we designed, because it explains a whole lot about our design ethos and how we think about our goal to become one of the best jewellers in South Africa.
Inspiration
As an object, this earring really encompasses our design aesthetic. It’s a bold statement and the epitome of what Best jewellery is all about - in earring form.
Here’s Rebecca, the founder of Best jewellery, talking about her initial inspiration for the Dylan earring.
“I wanted to create something that was bold and unusual. The kind of earring that is instantly recognisable from across the room. I knew that I wanted to create big, chunky earrings, but the last thing I wanted to do was make them heavy and something you can’t wait to take off as soon as you put them on.
As one of the earring and jewellery designs we launched with, I also wanted this to put a stake in the ground and show people what we're all about. I’ve found that even though many of the customers I’ve spoken to have found the Dylan earring a little daunting to wear at first, they find that once they put on a pair - they love them! That risk really pays off.”
Design
It’s one thing to create a beautiful, chunky, shining disc of an earring, but jewellery also needs to be wearable and functional. We all have ears and we all know how heavier earrings can seem to multiply in weight over a full day of wear. That meant we had to go hollow if we wanted to save earlobes across the country. It’s what the best jewellers in South Africa would do!
More from Rebecca below. You’ll probably pick up her dislike of earrings with butterflies pretty quickly.
“I hate butterflies. I often wear my hair up and I find the backs of many earrings to be really ugly. Why should something be beautiful only from one angle? Surely the front and the back should be beautiful to look at? To solve this problem, I made the clasp and the earring one closed form. And if you look across our entire Best jewellery range, you’ll notice that all of our earrings and jewellery are actually one continuous form too.
On top of that, I knew they needed to be hollow in order for them to be wearable. You can create volume, talkability and wow factor without sacrificing wearability… Plus, I had this personal goal that I really wanted to make something that looked solid but was hollow.
As someone who loves jewellery but needs to be practical, I wanted to make sure that Best jewellery was functional and beautiful - and this was one of the first designs that really brought that to life for the team and I.”
Wear
Yes, they’re bold (they’re meant to be) but you can wear our Dylan earrings day or night and with pretty much any outfit too. We’ve seen some amazing looks from people where they’ve dressed them up, dressed them down - worn them to fancy nights out or to the market on a Saturday morning to get their veggies. What we’ve found interesting, after spending the time chatting to our customers, is that many people seem a little afraid of these at first because of their chunkiness. We’re here to tell you to embrace the chunk! So many of those people found that once they wore them they loved them immediately and realised they could wear them. We love the idea that our earrings and jewellery could help you see yourself in a new light!
Rebecca, once more.
“I had a feeling that people would think, ‘I can’t rock that…’ or, ‘that’s too out there for me’ but honestly, once you wear them, they make you feel so good. I’ve felt so confident wearing them myself, because I know I’m making a real statement the second I put them on. I wouldn’t want people to miss out on that!”
If you’ve got any pics of how you’ve worn the Dylan earrings, we’d love to see them! Tag us on Instagram so we can see how you decided to rock them.
Yours,
Best.