An Instagram favourite – and for very good reason – WALD Berlin was founded by Joyce Binneboese and Dana Roski, a model and stylist respectively, and started out somewhere in 2012. Empowering women is an adjective and handmade jewellery is how they go about doing it. This is how it happened.
It all began with a bricks and mortar store in Berlin Mitte. Having taken a little break from it, they resurrected the store as an online-only destination which stocked a curated selection of lifestyle brands. It meant they could travel and be inspired – which they were: to launch WALD Berlin in 2018.
While travel is key to their design process, so too is its German roots. The brand is Fair Trade and family-run, with a focus on supporting women who struggle to get back into their careers after being full-time mothers.
The duo make sure to use recycled silver and gold and any leftovers that accumulate in the production process are reused at a later point. Chains used come from another family-run business, which is 100 years old. And shells – which is why you’ll recognise them as they are now synonymous with the brand’s whimsical designs – are acquired by working with a team of German biologists to make sure that sourced pieces are not on a protected species list.
Playful, colourful, fresh and contemporary, there is charm and whimsy to the pieces, which feature smiley face necklaces, and wittily named rings, bracelets and earrings.
