A Fortuitous Sequence of Events — Refinery29 Launches Sequence Jewelry Shop
As a Latina fashion fashion blogger, I’m always eager to support other Latinos and Latinas whose creativity, talent, verve, and drive is transforming the fields of fashion and jewelry design, journalism, makeup artistry, hair styling, photography, styling, blogging, broadcast television, advertising, marketing, events planning, and social media. Needless to say, I was floored when I discovered that the jewelry brand Sequence Collection was envisioned by none other than El Salvador-born Ariela Suster, a New York-based style consultant and fashion stylist whose resumé includes fashion editor stints at glossies like Harper’s Bazaar, Lucky, and In Style. Inspired by the jewelry designs crafted by artisans in her native El Salvador, Suster decided to launch a line that would build upon this aesthetic while also infusing a dose of New York attitude via bold color combinations and street chic materials. She named the brand “sequence” as an ode to the hand fate played in its development and growth, the sequence of events that facilitated her career’s upward trajectory.Most importantly, she made sure that her brand wasn’t simply a symbolic homage to El Salvador but, rather, that it gave back to her homeland in a tangible manner. In order to do so, she hired a team of artisans in El Salvador — many of them former gang members — to manufacture the pieces she sketched, allowing them the opportunity to use their skills at the Sequence workshop instead of resorting to a life of drugs and violence in order to earn enough money to survive. Featuring mainly necklaces and bracelets that seem to nod to the friendship bracelets many of us crafted as schoolgirls, the Sequence brand relies on materials like hand-dyed, cotton and nylon threads, many of them woven using looms or carefully braided, along with metal ball chains, tagua nut beads,metal nuts, and leather cords.
Ever the arbiter of cool, Refinery29 just unveiled a new Sequence Collection shop within its Refinery29 Shops section, in which an assortment of hand-picked pieces are available for purchase — nearly all of them featuring the bright color combinations Suster favors. According to Suster, most Salvadoran jewelry features muted tones that reflect the harshness of life in impoverished and gang-ridden areas, but she wanted to stray from this practice by using bold colors that would convey a sense of optimism and hope.
Pieces available at the Refinery29 Sequence Collection Shop include the Sequence X Knots Necklace in Classic Multi ($138 at Refinery29.com), pictured above at top, a 24″-long necklace made of multi-colored nylon threads hand-wrapped to resemble rope-like cords, then knotted at key points for a total of five knot details. Tagua nut beads, meanwhile, mark the ends of the necklace and adorn the braided strands that can be tied to secure the necklace along the back. The classic necklace features orange, kiwi green, blood red, cobalt blue, mustard yellow, carnation pink, mint green, black, silver, fuchsia, brown, amethyst purple, navy blue, and chartreuse threads, whereas the Sequence X Knots Necklace in Bright Multi ($138 at Refinery29.c0m), shown third below, eschews the darker purple, blue, black and brown shades, instead delivering a citrus-packed punch with hues like tangerine, flamingo pink, vermilion, neon green, fluorescent orange, hot pink, classic red, lime and kiwi green, gold, safflower yellow, mulberry, and both lemon and mustard yellows.
One of my favorite pieces — and perhaps this is the Amanda Clarke in me speaking —is the Sequence Infinito Bracelet ($52 at Refinery29.com), which features 1 7″ circumference, and features three cords made of hand-wrapped, cotton-threaded nylon threads — two of them wrapped with black, silver, and orange threads to create a striped motif, and one an indigo blue string with silver-domed ball beads nestled into round nooks — all twisted and turned to complete an infinity symbol. Pictured third from top, the Infinito Bracelet fuses together the charming DIY quality we associate with old-school friendship bracelets with the tough-as-nails attitude we associate with metal studs and beads.
Similarly, the Sequence Teopan Metal Bracelet in Blue/Multi ($48 at Refinery29.com), featuring four wrapped and braided cords in neon green, gray, royal blue, and black tones, with some strands threaded through hexagon metal nuts looped for an industrial chic feel that creates a duality between tradition and modernity, rural and urban, playful and tough. This same contrast is visible in the Teopan Metal Bracelet in Pink/Multi ($48 at Refinery29.com), shown last below, which features equally punchy shades of pink, orange, and moss green.
Another personal favorite is the Sequence Knot & Leather Bracelet (at Refinery29.com), shown second above in Blue and second below in White, a hefty piece that combines tubular leather cords with cotton-threaded and hand-wrapped nylon threads, again all ingeniously twisted to create an intricate knotted detail along the front.
If the metal details aren’t your cup of tea, opt for a simple knotted design like the multi-strand Sequence Love Knot Bracelet ($48 at Refinery29.c0m) shown fifth from top in Orange/Multi, or a dainty single-cord piece with a knotted detail like the Sequence Friendship Bracelet ($36 at Refinery29.c0m), shown last above in a pink-and-silver color scheme and directly below in a lime green, turquoise and silver combination.
These Sequence Collection pieces are available at the Refinery29 pop-up shop for only 10 more days so make sure to tie the knot with some of these Salvadoran pieces! Visit Refinery29.com for more details.
