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Never Is the Next New Thing

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Throwback Thursday: Need Some Fucks to Give (or Wear)?

September 6, 2018 by WendyB

Almost 10 years ago to the day — during New York Fashion Week — I introduced one of my most famous and enduring jewelry designs: my sterling-silver swear ring set.

Click to purchase on my website.

The rings immediately took off with my gorgeous, adventurous blogging customers including Queen Michelle of Kingdom of Style …

Click for her original post!

… and Julia of the Thank You Project. Julia was my first customer in Russia AND the first customer to ask for her swear rings to be gold-plated.

Click for original post.

Buyers at big retailers like Bloomingdale’s fell in love with the rings too, but they all talked themselves out of the purchase. They told me they were scared to take something like this to their bosses. Of course, as I always say, “Never Is the Next New Thing™,” so everyone eventually got used to the idea of naughty jewelry. Did the stores then buy their swear rings from me? Nah, why do business with a small designer when you can just copy her? Topshop did it first in, turning out a cheap brass version of my unique font FOUR YEARS after I introduced the style.

The metal felt soooo bad and smelled like old pennies.

They knew they did wrong …

Click for my post on the whole drama.

… but it still wound up costing me $3,000 in legal fees to get the rings out of the stores as well as off the website.

After that, some wholesaler started churning out an even more identical-looking version of the rings, and I wound up playing a game of retailer Whack-A-Mole, requesting that the various stores that purchased the copies stop selling them. (Most of the stores were very cooperative.)

Click for my original post.

There’s no way to stop this kind of design plagiarism, of course, but I wasn’t going to take it lying down either. It devalues my product and brand when a company makes a sloppier version with cheaper materials while making it look nearly as good as the original in photos. People just look at the pictures and say to the originator, “You’re ripping us off for hundreds of dollars when clearly this is just worth $22!” Um, no. Sorry. Beautifully finished silver costs a lot more than poor quality brass copies.  In fact, the knock-offs are guaranteed to be marked up from cost many times more than my work is. Knock-offs are only worth doing if the factory is spending $1 and getting $22 back.

While I never got the big retailer sales, I did get some press …

Click for original post. I love how the other examples here are way more explicit than mine, btw!

… including this nice mention from InStyle.com.

Click for original post.

Not that long ago, the swear rings wound up on Bella Hadid in Paper Magazine. I mean, these things have had a long life!

View this post on Instagram

Swear rings on @bellahadid in @papermagazine ! #tbt #throwbackthursday #bellahadid #asseenon #swearrings

A post shared by Wendy Brandes (@wendybrandes) on Sep 6, 2018 at 3:18pm PDT

The swear rings were requested for shoots so often that I put aside a few pristine sets so that one batch could go out while the previously shot group was getting repolished (a lot of times jewelry isn’t handled very carefully on set). That led to a big surprise for me today, because — while doing a deep dive into inventory — I found those specially saved sets! I’ve got three in regular silver and two in gold-plated silver.

View this post on Instagram

I had no idea I had any gold-plated sets left! DM for price. #swearrings #jewelry #badass

A post shared by Wendy Brandes (@wendybrandes) on Sep 6, 2018 at 8:15pm PDT

So, if you feel like you’ve got no fucks to give these days, you can buy yourself a set! But don’t delay, because these are the very last of the swear rings. I won’t be making any more. The style had a good long run, but I’m discontinuing my work in silver in order to concentrate on gold and platinum designs. (I’ll talk about that more in a future post.) A lot of my silver designs do work in the other metals, but not rings of this size! Get this iconic, trendsetting original while you can. If you follow me on Instagram, you can DM me for a special price for my IG followers.

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Filed Under: Jewelry, swear rings, Throwback Thursday Tagged With: bella hadid, instyle magazine, paper magazine, swear rings

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sheila (of Ephemera) says

    September 7, 2018 at 1:50 am

    Wendy, I’ve dropped you an email about purchasing a set of the silver rings.

    Must have!

    Cheers,
    Sheila

  2. Patni says

    September 10, 2018 at 1:35 pm

    They are out for delivery!!!!

  3. HelOnWheels says

    September 20, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    The swear rings were my first ever purchase from you. I have loved and treasured them. They’re inspiring and iconic. They’ve been my favorite Wendy B purchase. Thank you.

    • WendyB says

      September 20, 2018 at 4:31 pm

      That makes me so happy to hear that!

      Let me know if you need any other silver before it goes. A NASTY necklace, perhaps? IDGAF? Middle finger earring? I’m just naming all my favorites here, LOL.

      • HelOnWheels says

        September 20, 2018 at 7:26 pm

        I WAS thinking of the NASTY necklace to add to my collection.
        I do have to add that the Edburga poison ring is the piece I wear most often. And I love telling the story behind the jewelry! The swear rings I wear when I need some attitude in my day (and to offend some people). 😉

      • WendyB says

        September 20, 2018 at 8:25 pm

        Edburga had such an entertaining story!

      • WendyB says

        September 21, 2018 at 8:52 pm

        Sent you an email btw!

      • HelOnWheels says

        September 24, 2018 at 8:49 pm

        YAY! Just replied to your email with all the details.

      • WendyB says

        September 24, 2018 at 11:20 pm

        Got it!

    • HelOnWheels says

      September 25, 2018 at 12:26 pm

      All the details handled! I can’t wait to get another iconic Wendy Brandes creation!

      • WendyB says

        September 25, 2018 at 11:15 pm

        Yay! It should arrive Thursday!

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MEET WENDY BRANDES

Award-winning designer of fine jewelry inspired by women's history and pop culture. A former journalist who writes about jewelry, fashion, medieval history, news, feminism, dogs, cats and whatever else is on her mind. Blogging since 2007.
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