Lauren Harwell Godfrey talks jewellery for social change

By Kim Parker

Lauren Harwell Godfrey is going through “a bit of a fire opal phase” right now. The San Francisco-based creator, who speaks to me via Zoom from her studio, is busily unpacking some of her latest talismanic jewels on the eve of an important trunk show and focuses her phone camera on an extraordinary pair of opal drop earrings. “I love a crazy gemstone colour combination. These have canary-yellow tourmalines next to the bright-orange fire opals, next to cool-blue turquoise. It’s like candy,” she tells me. “Fire opals really spoke to me at Tucson [Gem and Mineral Show] this year. I go through phases of loving certain colours, and I just really fell for their cheerful, optimistic shade. Maybe it’s just what we all need right now.”

Harwell Godfrey is somewhat of an authority on feel-good jewels. The former advertising art director and food stylist started making “fun, festival-type jewellery with bits of leather and crystal,” for herself and for friends as a creative outlet, before launching her eponymous fine-jewellery brand in 2017. “I was like, ‘Okay, I love fine jewellery and I feel I could design it well,’ so I reached out to my friend, Randi Molofsky, who runs a brand development agency called For Future Reference, and they all just took me under their wings and helped me produce my first collection,” she explains.

In just five years, Harwell Godfrey’s colourful, richly textured gold and gemstone pieces – which she describes as “maximalist and geometric” – have amassed fans from Cynthia Erivo and Blake Lively to Kamala Harris, and garnered their creator a clutch of covetable accolades, including the 2022 Gem Award for Jewelry Design, and, as of the time of writing, a nomination for Emerging Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America – the only fine jeweller put forward in this year’s category.

“It feels amazing, for sure, because I still feel like the new kid on the block in some ways,” she says of the industry recognition. “But I also take it as people really getting behind what I’m doing, so I get to keep doing it. I see it as an honour that I need to keep living up to.”

Another major source of motivation is the need for her pieces to give back. In early 2020, Harwell Godfrey introduced her first Charity Heart pendant, to raise funds for causes such as the World Central Kitchen, which, as part of their mission, supported families in need of help during Covid. Following the murder of George Floyd, she also created a sleek black onyx version to benefit the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. Since then, other hearts have benefitted Human Rights Campaign, Every Mother Counts, and Futures without Violence, where Harwell Godfrey is also a board member.

“It didn’t take me long to figure out that I wanted to use my platform and position to make jewellery that could affect social change, to fight for our sisters and brothers and anyone who needed us,” she says. “We’re in a broken country right now and we must do what we can to fix it, so we’ll keep these designs going and keep partnering with good causes. I think, of all the pieces I’ve made, I’m proudest of these hearts and the money that’s been donated through them. We’ve just gone over the $250,000 mark, and I’d love to keep that going.”

Harwell Godfrey is also a keen believer in jewellery’s ability to affect change on an individual level. “I wear my grandmother’s diamond ring and I think it helps me hold on to her, in some way. My engagement ring, too, has a diamond that holds a special energy for me. I do think stones can hold energy. Turquoise, for example, makes me feel really calm whenever I wear it,” she says.

The jeweller also says she creates every piece with a good intention. “I even put little engravings on the backs of a lot of them… I just think that if I put my pieces out there with positivity, somehow it will get around. Jewellery is my way of connecting with people.” To keep the good vibes in full flow, the designer works to music. “A lot of the time, it’s jazz. I even named my son Miles, after Miles Davis. But Bobbi Humphrey’s always playing, too, and Frank Ocean. I’ve also been listening to Thundercat and Phoebe Bridgers – they’re enormously talented.”

And while Harwell Godfrey doesn’t tend to work with a physical mood board – “it’s all in my head” – she has filled her lavender-coloured studio with trinkets and treasures sourced from markets all over the world, such as a wooden African mask found during a trip to Marrakech, gleaming mineral geodes, and a gilded textured mirror “stolen” from her own home. “They’re all things that I’ve collected over time and that mean something to me. I wanted this space to feel like an extension of me. I even put in a gold beaded curtain and painted gold stars all over the place, so that when clients come in, it feels like they’re a part of the Harwell Godfrey universe,”
she says.

In the coming months, that universe will only be expanding. “I’m definitely on a mission to keep growing this brand and keep making positive things to send out into the world,” enthuses Harwell Godfrey. “We’ve got a little capsule collection coming out towards the end of the year, which I’m really excited about, and I’m hoping to launch another collection with more of a protective quality to it, since there’s been so much discussion about the rights of women to our own bodies, and how those bodies are being legislated by men. I wanted to make something happy and joyful that also felt empowering for us. And I’m sure there will be more charity hearts to come. I’d love to hit the million-dollar-donation mark with those.” A big ask, indeed: but if anyone can achieve that, it will most certainly be Lauren Harwell Godfrey.

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