Sarah Magid, like most Americans, has been deeply shaken by the recent school shootings in the United States. (The shootings are a near-weekly occurrence—there was one in southern Maryland that left two students critically injured just this morning.)
“The thought of my two children going to school and never coming home terrifies me,” says the jewelry designer, echoing sentiments similar to those jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher shared with me last week. “My son just started high school this year, and I saw his reflection in the teenagers killed at Parkland.”
And like Fisher, who launched a capsule collection in March with 100 percent of proceeds from every product sold benefiting Everytown for Gun Safety, Magid has created a platform and product designed to support frontliners pushing the government to enact stricter gun-control laws.
Personelle, which is a completely separate brand from Sarah Magid, and which has its own website, is a “female-focused brand that focuses on personal meaning in jewelry,” says the designer, who mashed together the words “personal” and “elle” (French for woman) to create its name.
For every Personelle piece sold, a percentage of sales “will be donated to causes we believe in.” The brand’s first beneficiary is March For Our Lives, the pro-gun-control rally scheduled for March 24 in Washington, D.C., which was spearheaded by student survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
Twenty-five percent of Personelle’s first product, a simple coin pendant that transmits an ardent message, will be donated in support of #marchforourlives.
Top and above: The hand-forged bronze coin Personelle pendant that benefits the upcoming March For Our Lives event in Washington, D.C. (images via @p_e_r_s_o_n_e_l_l_e)
The pendant was inspired by Roman and Greek coins: One side depicts Lady Justice holding her scale, surrounding by the words “We Demand Change,” and the other side features two hands clasped together to represent unity, inside the phrase “March For Our Lives.”
The coins, which retail for $30 each, were designed and hand-cast in New York City from recycled bronze and come strung on an orange leather cord, the symbolic color of the gun-reform movement. They are “meant to symbolize the power of the movement,” says the designer.
Magid says that in the past she might have felt compelled to keep her political convictions out of her brand, but “things feel different now. I no longer see fashion or any part of our daily lives separate from politics. I felt compelled to use my talents to do something for March For Our Lives, inspired by the students who are demanding change and the belief that this should never happen again.”
She plans to introduce new products for Personelle—all “designed into other concepts of giving back”—in the near future.
Follow JCK on Instagram: @jckmagazineFollow JCK on Twitter: @jckmagazine
Follow JCK on Facebook: @jckmagazine
