Jewelry designer Bernard James grew up in Brooklyn’s “little triangle,” wedged between the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Brooklyn Library. As a teenager, he’d escape to Soho, absorbing fashion and creative energy long before he knew he’d build a brand there. His first design experiment was a high-school fashion show he produced himself while also teaching himself to sew. Jewelry came later, almost accidentally, under the mentorship of a family friend named Dennis, a retired jeweler with 40 years of production knowledge. James would bring the ideas; Dennis would show him how to make them real.
That Brooklyn foundation still runs through his work. Flora, his signature collection inspired by the Botanic Garden, mixes green-gold hellebores, rose-gold petunias, white-quartz daisies, and diamonds into unisex compositions that feel both emotional and architectural.
When you’re sourcing stones, what matters most to you?
I only work with sources that responsibly mine natural diamonds, because I think that there is such beauty to something that the earth has naturally created. I mean, you can’t replicate time.
Flora feels personal for you. Where did the original idea for it come from?
Flora does have such a personal inspiration, and I grew up next to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and would always go there as a kid— as I do even now — just to sort of reset, reorient, and be in nature in this crazy city.
When you look at engagement rings right now, what do you hope people keep, and what do you think they should feel free to let go of?
One thing I love about how people are regarding engagement and wedding rings now is that they’re not afraid to do something completely different. I do respect tradition. I love this idea of nodding to the classics. I love focusing on a center stone that is respected, that is cared for, that is, again, a symbol of love. So I would hope that that tradition remains true, but other than that, I would say: Go for it. Just do whatever you want.
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