Wendy Brandes Jewelry X the Style Crone, Part 2

It’s time to reveal the second image from my new brand campaign with Judith Boyd, aka the Style Crone. In this one, she’s modeling my turquoise skull ring. The hand-carved skull is set in 18K yellow gold and accented by 192 rubies weighing a total of 1.84 carats. This one-of-a-kind piece is available on my website and 1stdibs.

Creative direction + styling by Shannon Sense
Assisted by Jade Mayo
Photography by Courtney Moore
Makeup by Beau Derrick
Hair by Sean Christopher Fears
Nails by Yuko Atrie

Here’s a close-up of the ring.

Click to shop.

Let’s not forget the side view, so you can appreciate the rubies.

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In Judith’s photo, you can also glimpse my Carpe Diem black-diamond skull earrings in this shot. This is also a one-of-a-kind design, available only on my website and 1stdibs.

Click to shop.

To celebrate the new campaign, I’m giving social-media followers 10% off any jewelry purchase over $100, both on my website and 1stdibs. To make sure you get your special price, email me at info at wendybrandes dot com before purchasing anything, because this offer isn’t available to the public at large. (One item in the photo that’s not for sale is the blue, ruffled Junya Watanabe jacket that Judith is wearing. That’s mine! I bought it in 2012.)

In case you missed last week’s image of Judith modeling my solid 18K gold Memento Mori skull cufflinks, here it is again.

Click to see the cufflinks in detail.

By now you may have noticed that Judith is wearing a hell of a lot of my skull jewelry. That was a deliberate choice because certain jewelry themes I work with — like skulls and snakes — are often stereotyped as “punk” or “young” when they’ve been a staple of jewelry designs for centuries or even millennia. To personify the history and majesty that fuels my work, and to show that jewelry is for everyone, I knew I had to work with Judith. First of all, she’s gorgeous and has a distinctive personal style. She’s also 76 years old, and my photos of her are 99% unretouched. (I did see retouched versions and chose to go back to the originals.) The only “work” that was done here was adjusting the color of the hair extensions that created Judith’s mullet to better match the naturally bright white of her pixie hairstyle.

To me, she looks like a queen. And I’m happy to see she’s inspiring some deep thoughts. On Judith’s Instagram, for instance, “Crone in Training” left this comment:

“Love this. Made me look inside and question my standards of beauty around femininity and age. Thank you @stylecrone for helping expand the definition of beauty and challenging sexist and ageist ideals. This campaign inspired me and helped me untangle some of my own internalized ageism and sexism.”

To learn more about how I choose models to represent the Wendy Brandes Jewelry brand, check out last week’s YouTube video.

By the way, anyone who makes a gif of the constantly shifting positions of my Anne Boleyn “B” pendant in the video will get extra-special treatment on a jewelry purchase.