Designer Brent Neale Winston is a child of the 1980s. Growing up in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore, she spent her summers at the local pool. When she was around 11 years old, her parents first let her ride her bike there alone.
“I remember that feeling of pulling the bike out into the alley and the exhilaration of riding down the hills,” Winston writes on the website of her New York City–based brand, Brent Neale. “It was Keswick to Wyndhurst and then finally a left onto Lawndale. I would park my bike and go into the Roland Park pool, where I would quickly call my mom from the pay phone to let her know I was there.
“From there on out, the day was mine. I would play hopscotch on the blacktop for hours with whomever was around. We made the court with chalk and used rocks as our markers. When the Baltimore heat got to be too much, we would swim. And when I got tired, I would put my wet towel around my neck and slowly bike home.”
Winston’s nostalgia for those childhood days, when she first learned the value of self-reliance, is the wellspring for Hopscotch, Brent Neale’s latest collection of rings, bracelets, earrings, and dramatic pendants. The pieces are distinguished by a graphic medley of cabochon-cut, box-shaped gemstones arranged in the distinctive silhouette of the eponymous kids’ game. Some earrings feature round drops—in gold, aquamarine, pink opal, amethyst, blue chalcedony, carnelian, and other colorful stones—representing the “marker” tossed onto the hopscotch grid.
The collection is among a wave of designer introductions that conjure the playfulness of youth. From high jewels that pay tribute to Rubik’s Cube (Boucheron) to pendants that recast the Magic 8 Ball, the classic fortune-telling toy, in 18k gold and diamonds (Marie Lichtenberg), the jewelry mood of the moment is nostalgic, lighthearted, and unapologetically ’80s-inspired.
It’s also steeped in colors—bold, bright, and occasionally clashing. Look to Nadine Ghosn’s new collaboration with crayon maker Crayola, which includes open-ended bracelets and rings that look as if they’ve been bent by a child. Like the Pencil bracelets and rings in her Too Cool for School collection and the sophisticated yet humorous pieces in Winston’s Hopscotch line, the Crayola designs are intended to make you smile.
Mission accomplished.
Top: Medium Carved Stone Hopscotch earrings in 18k yellow gold with aquamarine, chrysoprase, carnelian, green agate, pink opal, yellow chalcedony, rhodochrosite, amethyst, purple opal, blue chalcedony, and 0.42 ct. t.w. round diamonds, price on request
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