From a pre-pandemic acquaintance that started over a single lunch, Minneapolis-area creatives Larissa Loden and Heather Fox have grown together over the past two years to develop both a beautiful friendship as well as a full-fledged jewelry collaboration.
Loden has her own jewelry brand that emphasizes bold statements, boss babes, and female strength. Fox is a real estate expert, home accessories designer, and cohost of HGTV’s Should I Stay or Go, a show she created with her husband, Brad, to help families determine whether they should move or expand on their homes.
Their jewelry collaboration, Larissa Loden x Heather Fox, debuted March 31, and items from the architecture-inspired collab of earrings and necklaces sold out within hours. Loden says customers connected to the jewelry’s shapes and materials as well as its unique inspiration: architectural light fixtures.
Light fixtures? To inspire a jewelry line? Loden, whose designs never shy away from, well, anything, says it was the perfect mix between their two talents.
“Light fixtures are the jewelry for a house,” Loden says. “She had light fixtures on our shared Pinterest board, and I instantly knew exactly what I wanted to do. It never happens like that. I put pen to paper, and 60 minutes later, it was there. Instant flow. I presented it to her, and she loved every piece.”
Loden and Fox met about six months before the pandemic began in March 2020, and their acquaintance came about somewhat because they work in the same city. Fox was opening a store, so the pair met for lunch. Fox started carrying some of Loden’s jewelry in her shop and studio Foxwell, and a friendship began to blossom.
When life began to open up again, Loden started to think about a collaboration with Fox, recalling their earlier connection. She reached out, and Fox was ready to work together. “I knew she had a great design aesthetic and eye,” Loden says.
Each item is named after a creator, in the case of the Heather earrings, or a female architect, something Loden thought was a fitting honor for these jewelry pieces. For example, the Sklarek necklace (shown below) is named for Norma Merrick Sklarek, known as the “Rosa Parks of architecture,” and one of the first Black female architects in the United States, Loden says.
“This collection is very much me in terms of its focus on architecture,” Loden says. “What I love about architecture is you can have something maximalist and minimalist at the same time.”
What also makes the LL x HF collaboration stand out is its materials, Loden says.
“The material is a rubberized polymer, which is super lightweight. It’s different than a lot of other things you see out there,” Loden says. “We chose to design with it because you can create unique color pops that you won’t see anywhere else.”
Loden says they also decided to do some longer necklaces that have extenders on them so the wearer can choose not only the length they want but also give the necklaces more flexibility in the way they can be displayed.
Top: Heather Fox (left) and Larissa Loden took a friendship plus a light-fixture-obsessed Pinterest board and created a one-of-a-kind collaboration that blends architecture and jewelry (photos courtesy of Larissa Loden).
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