Mary Esses’ Diving Board 18k Gold and Diamond Jewelry Collection

The spirit of Brazilian jewelry designer Mary Esses’ new gold jewelry collection originates from the lighthearted and easy-to-wear spirit of her silver collection. “When I started with silver, I didn’t know how buyers would like it or the weight of it,” she reveals about her entrée into silver jewelry last year. But the end product—playful with substantial looks that are still light to wear—was so successful that she wanted to re-create it in a gold line that the New York City–based artist herself could wear everyday. Enter Diving Board: a collection of 18k gold and diamond-accented pieces that the artist debuted this spring. “It brings the spirit of Feather [her silver collection] to gold,” she told me this morning in a phone interview from—ironically enough—a beach on Long Island. “The collection is about standing on a board and getting ready to jump, and it’s about the sensation more so than the image of the board.”

For sure, the pieces feature Esses’ signature fabric texturing, but at the same time the styles are minimalist, “versatile,” maintains Esses, and ideal for daily wear. Plus, “it’s even more beautiful on than when you just look at it,” she says.

The designer liked the brown diamonds so much that she’ll use also them in the next generation of Diving Board (available in the fall), which will be in proprietary white-gold mix—“mixture between yellow and white gold that’s a light pewter color,” she explains—with brown and black diamonds.

To date, two retailers have picked up the line.

Mary Esses' new Diving Board collection