Jewelry

I can’t remember the last time I got a friendship bracelet. Neither can Isadora Tang or Lucy Knops, the duo behind new jewelry brand OTEM. But sitting in a cafe on Broome street we all remember our first ones: the clumsily tied neon yarn, our names written out in beads, forever spelt with a 4. “Isadora wanted [OTEM] to be based in female friendships. I remember early conversations talking about how we’re best friends and we’ve known each other for so long but it might feel kind of weird for us to buy fine jewelry for each other,” Knops tells me while touching the cuff around her wrist. “But it’s a no brainer for someone in your family to do that. So we started to question what does that mean? What is the new modern family and are your friends an extension of that?”

Although Tang grew up with friendship bracelets, she also touched her fair share of diamonds since her parents worked in the jewelry business. But she couldn’t help but feel a disconnect between the jewelry her parents sold to the kind she and her friends wanted. “I don’t really feel like their industry has kept up with changes in what people want,” Tang says. “My parents’ generation was all about flashiness, and showing off your wealth. I don’t feel like that’s really relevant anymore.”

“We really see [OTEM] as a vehicle for redefining the rules around society and relationships, and using jewelry as a symbol for that,” Tang states before bringing up the fact that most iconic jewelry is out of reach for many millennials, and that traditional engagement rings can feel like an assertion of ownership—man can assert his ownership over you to anyone who looks at your hands but he can go around unmarked. “I mean it’s beautiful but,” Knops chimes in and I finish her sentence “it feels antiquated.”

Knops was never one who thought that much about a wedding or a proposal until she met her current boyfriend and decided she didn’t want him to ask her to marry him—she wanted to ask him to marry her. Which led to her and Tang working on a line of engagement rings for other couples who don’t want to follow the status quo when it comes to tying the knot.

Although the non-conventional engagement rings haven’t been released yet (it’s something they’re working towards in the new year) OTEM is already challenging the symbolism of traditional jewelry not just with its signature collection of structural and affordable fine jewelry but also with its resist collection which was conceived after the election.

Tang and Knops decided to design overstated statement making nameplate necklaces with the words “nasty,” “resist” and “persist” spelled out in diamonds. Knops believes the necklaces don’t just speak for themselves, “They say, ‘I am not happy with the status quo and I’m participating to do something about it.’” 15% of proceeds from the collection also go to Planned Parenthood.

Weeks after I left the coffee shop and our conversation that went on for over an hour about politics, jewelry and marriage, I got a package at my desk containing a OTEM nameplate “resist” necklace. As I wrapped it around my neck I thought about how it’s everything we discussed: a necklace, a diamond, a political statement. A friendship bracelet I’ll keep forever.

Shop OTEM x The Outrage’s holiday pop-up in Nolita until December 10th from 6-9PM. A Percentage of the proceeds will benefit Planned Parenthood.