Jewelers—especially those in coastal markets—have a unique opportunity to capitalize on a viral moment with jewelry inspired by Nantucket lightship baskets.
It started with a sign that said No influencers. If you spent any time on Nantucket this summer, you might have seen the sign displayed prominently in Four Winds Craft Guild, a crafts and antiques gallery that is one of the island’s top purveyors of authentic Nantucket lightship baskets and basket bags. And even if you didn’t spend any time on Nantucket, you might have seen the recent editorial coverage and social media content that the sign prompted when a photo was posted to the Four Winds Instagram account earlier this summer.
The online chatter surrounding the Nantucket lightship basket—and, mainly, the top-handle bags that descended from them—has effectively caused this icon of New England style, rooted in the island’s maritime history, to go viral. But they’re not priced for mass consumption: Prices generally range from $650 to $4,000 for authentic pieces created by master artisans; custom designs can fetch $15,000 or more.
Despite the aspirational price point, the basket bags, which are also known as friendship baskets, are having a very good summer, as The New York Times recently put it.
Some retailers would agree.
The increased visibility of such a niche item on social media has naturally increased the lightship basket bags’ appeal to a wider audience—including consumers who prefer jewelry over handbags: Jessica Kagan Cushman, the jewelry designer who introduced the jewelry industry to the term neckmess, has been staging weekly flash sales of lightship basket bags from her extensive personal collection (pictured above).
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Four Winds’ sales of the bags have increased by 40% this year over last.
Could jewelry inspired by the basket bags be next? The category already exists; what’s less clear is whether the current attention will turn it into a trend. Meanwhile, there is quite a bit already available.
Four Winds recently hosted a trunk show with the brand Paris & Lily, which pairs basket-weave elements with gold and diamonds and other materials, such as lapis and pearls.
“The Nantucket lightship baskets were a staple of my youth,” founder Jennifer Odell told JCK’s Brittany Siminitz a few years ago. “My mom learned basket-weaving with her friends and would share her beautiful pieces with my sister and I. Earlier in my goldsmith career, my mom and I collaborated on the cuff. She wove a cuff for me, and I made gold caps adorned with diamonds—the piece has become a staple in my personal collection.”
Four Winds also carries the work of on-island makers including Caitlin Parsons, a second-generation basket maker who grew up watching her father, Tim, make lightship baskets. Adapting the same materials and techniques through the lens of her own aesthetic, Parsons also makes ready-to-wear and custom bracelets from her Nantucket shop, weaving traditional rattan around brass cuffs and finishing them with hand-carved end caps, often decorated with scrimshaw (pictured at top).
At Nantucket Looms, Dale Rutherford makes handwoven cane cuffs and delicate bangles laced with colorful lanyard. Rutherford learned the craft from Tim Parsons, and has been making baskets and woven pieces on Nantucket for more than 15 years.
And last summer, Silvia Furmanovich created a basket-weave bracelet as part of an exclusive collection with the Vault Nantucket, a fine jewelry store on the island.
Beyond woven pieces, there are lots of gold charms that replicate the baskets and/or bags in miniature, as well as other jewels that borrow the basket-weave texture as a design element. One important example of the latter comes from the American heritage jeweler Seaman Schepps, which has a store on the island and debuted the Sconset collection with its intricate openwork basket-weave motif in 2024.
Does it matter that summer is winding down? Not necessarily. The appeal of Nantucket lightship baskets—and the jewelry they inspire—isn’t limited to a single season. For jewelers, the opportunity may be less about chasing a viral moment than recognizing the broader appeal of an established New England icon that is suddenly attracting a new audience. The question now is whether that attention will translate from the basket to the jewel box.
Top: A stack of custom cuffs by Caitlin Parsons (photo: Caitlin Parsons)
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