The Chicest Jewelry Boxes To Add To Your Wish List
The perfect gift for any jewelry lover, jewelry boxes hold a certain mystique and magnetism, says CHARLIE BOYD. Whether you need to house a whole collection or just a tightly edited capsule, discover the chicest additions to your dressing table this festive season
Show me a woman’s jewelry box and I can give you a detailed hypothesis of her personal style, who she is, and what she does. Much like a wardrobe or makeup bag, the pieces we gravitate towards, and even how we store them, can be telling. We all know that a well-organized walk-in closet or a stylish cosmetics case can enhance our experience of getting dressed each morning – and the same is true of a beautiful jewelry box. “I get dressed by opening my wardrobe and imagining how my clothes might work together,” explains Carolina Bucci, founder of her eponymous Florentine fine-jewelry brand. “I think exactly the same way with jewelry – and seeing it displayed in one place allows me to imagine new combinations.”
Bucci’s recent jewelry-box collaboration with stationery brand Pineider epitomizes this ethos. Known as the stationer to go to in Florence since 1774, its client list includes Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, and even the Pope. Bucci’s and Pineider’s boutiques sit next to each other along the Arno River, so when the stationer made its first foray into leather accessories, a collaboration felt serendipitous. The result? A soft, brown calfskin design with blue velvet lining and three removable trays. Chic and effortlessly elegant, it feels precious even before it’s filled with shining pieces. Many of us are inextricably drawn to the compelling presence that jewelry boxes seem to hold; a feeling we’ve known since childhood. “For a child, a jewelry box has a magical power – it is full of treasure (even adults can react with a sense of childlike wonder) – and children respond to that instinctively,” says Bucci. “I clearly remember my mother getting ready to go out and pulling her jewelry box out to choose pieces. It felt so special and intimate to watch, and it still does.”
Trove, an Australian jewelry-box brand, delivers this hypnotic energy in spades. “I often hear from our customers that Trove fills them with a sense of magic. In fact, some say opening their Trove ‘Trunk’ has the power to affect their mood,” says founder Hannah Ward. “Women love to experience a self-nurturing moment at their dressing table, when they admire their precious pieces against a beautiful backdrop. And while Trove is also about practicality, I am always drawn to the ‘glow’ that Trove generates.”
For many, an organized and elegant box also enables reconnection with forgotten pieces. In the same way that shoes stuck at the back of a closet are never worn, tangles of chains and elusive single earrings hinder imaginative styling. When selecting which pieces of jewelry to wear, touch is also a compelling force: if fingers can easily find sleek gold and glossy gemstones, the crave-factor of fine jewelry can really kick in. With a luxurious lacquer finish, Trove’s boxes must be felt to be believed – cool, tactile, the perfect weight and polish, each box feels indulgent and imbued with a sense of romance. “Jewelry boxes allow us to recall a narrative for objects and jewels that can help us reflect and reminisce,” says Ward. “It is about every individual’s unique story… a memory, an emotion, it’s how stories all come together,” says the Melbourne-based designer.
While the abstract charm of jewelry boxes depends on sentiment and feeling, it’s important to consider your needs on a practical level when choosing your box. For a concise, cleanly edited capsule collection, miniature boxes or even travel styles will conveniently store all your pieces. Sophie Bille Brahe’s rich velvet and chintzy floral designs come in large, ‘Tresor’ sizes to house your collection at home, or petite hard cases that can be slipped into carry-on luggage for a quick getaway – much like L’Atelier Nawbar’s petite yet punchy embroidered cases. “We travel a lot, as do our clients, and so our jewelry boxes need to be practical and functional as well as beautiful,” explains Tania Nawbar, co-owner of the Beirut-founded brand. “We designed our cases to fit whatever-size jewelry collection you have, and they are embroidered with talismans to protect you along the way, as well as the precious jewelry inside.”
Jewelry boxes do, of course, also cross into homeware territory – designers must consider the exterior of their boxes just as much as their cushioning interior. “I wanted to create almost a chocolate box for jewels,” says Roxanne First, whose heart-shape velvet boxes are impossible to resist and are the perfect size for a vanity-table countertop. The London-based designer, famed for her fun and colorful collections, recalled precious childhood memories when devising the design. “When I was little, it almost felt like a ceremony going to see what my grandma kept in her jewelry box; we were told that these things were very precious and needed to be treasured,” says First. “It was a big deal that I was allowed to see and touch what was inside.”
If you’re looking for the ‘big deal’ feeling, it doesn’t come much bigger or better than Marla Aaron’s ‘The Everything Box’. The name says it all: this is an option for serious jewelry addicts. Before designing ‘The Everything Box’, Aaron stored her jewelry in myriad ways: antique brass candy boxes, old snuff boxes – boxes of any kind – and a bowl or two. When the New York-based designer came across an antique sewing box many years ago, Aaron took it as the inspiration for her showroom displays, with lots of compartments and surprise details, allowing customers to interact with the jewels without displaying them in the “coffin-like glass cases” of standard vitrines. So many customers asked to buy the display that Aaron embarked on designing a version they could take home.
Thus, ‘The Everything Box’ was born. “It’s for the precious and the worthless little tidbits of our life that we feel the need to store: jewelry, love letters, anything,” says Aaron. “‘The Everything Box’ is ample because one of the things I often heard when I spoke to our customers is, ‘My jewelry box isn’t big enough…’. This one, we think, is big enough,” she quips. “Getting to see everything all at once, but beautifully organized, is a recipe for creativity,” says Aaron. “And being creative with how you combine and wear your jewelry can make you happy.” We can’t argue with that.