If there’s anyone who can bring a chic refresh to corporate dressing, it is jeweller Jessica McCormack. The master of day diamonds, McCormack puts a modern spin on antique-inspired designs, bringing a cool wearability to traditional forms.
Rush Hour earrings, from £3,000
In new collection, Rush Hour, McCormack subverts office dressing – unadorned silhouettes, unfussy accessories – with an ode to modern minimalism. Clean, undulating curves of yellow and white gold snake around the neck or the fingers, while diamonds teeter on torques or stud a twisted torsion of rings. ‘In making this collection I knew that if I wanted the pieces to be bold and powerful there would have to be a simplicity to the silhouettes,’ McCormack says. ‘Finding this balance was important because I wanted the pieces to work in the context of a corporate lifestyle. In this way, the pieces are refined and wearable - most of them are technically designed to fit and sit well on the body - while also being striking and interesting.’
Paired with power suits or t-shirts, McCormack is keen for pieces to be wearable, eschewing the sense of occasion fine jewellery usually demands. In her hands, precious stones and metals are accessible and cool. ‘My aim with the Rush Hour Collection is to redefine the boundaries of corporate dressing. There are standard office jewellery dress codes for women, which frankly are quite dull, so I wanted to play with the idea of corporate dressing and transform it into something exciting, yet sophisticated. I want my clients to feel empowered when wearing their jewellery, and where is that more needed than in the workplace. With Rush Hour, I have designed pieces to make a statement as serve as a source of inspiration for their wearer.’
McCormack draws on her distinctive jewellery pieces, such as the Gypset earrings and torque which are both rethought here. ‘It has been a really fun process. Creating pieces that pay an acute attention to the various forms of the body has been very interesting as well, it was one of the most challenging aspects of the design process, but ultimately the most rewarding – because the end result is so great.’
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