“The first thing she does in the morning is wash her face and put on her earrings,” Luu says of her 92-year-old grandmother. Her grandmother’s rocking chair became the thought behind the delicate geometric cane design and embossed details on handcrafted rings, bracelets, and earrings.
Sharing what it means to be Creole and her family’s stories inspired Luu’s jewelry collection. The Beads bracelet is symbolic of the beads Caribbean women collect and wear. “It’s a unique point of view, and people automatically feel the meaning and purpose of it.” The ManLuu Cane cuff bracelet reminds Luu of her grandmother’s rocking chair. I love the richness of my culture and my heritage,” Luu says. I’m an island girl-you have to remember, Manhattan is an island as well. “When COVID happened, I asked myself: What is your legacy? I’m a proud Caribbean woman. She started drawing new jewelry, taking inspiration from pieces she knew by heart. When she couldn’t find everything she wanted, Luu says, she decided to make her own. She also decided to start gathering jewelry to create an exhibition and, perhaps, a book.īut seeing this beautiful work brought out something she didn’t expect: her own creativity. She thought about her Caribbean heritage, studied postcards and photography from the region, and collected everything she could about Creole women. Families pass down jewelry as an inheritance to both sons and daughters.Īs she recovered from COVID-19, Luu says she thought deeply about her future and her life’s goals. There, Luu says, women wear jewelry every day-to go without earrings, a necklace, or a gold bracelet makes a woman feel underdressed.
Her grandfather had a jewelry store on Martinique, where her family still lives. In one key way, her story goes back even further. The ManLuu Beads layered necklace features three strands of gold beads and the signature embossed ManLuu octagonal barrel. How did Luu go from an extreme illness-she had COVID-19 in 2020-to starting her own luxury fashion and lifestyle empire? It was sudden, Luu admits, but that suddenness had a strong base in her longtime work as a brand architect and work as global chief content and creative officer for Essence Ventures, which includes brands such as Essence, AfroPunk, Naturally Curly, and Girls United. The New York–based brand has also added three new heirloom-quality pieces to its debut line: a beaded necklace, an embossed ring with a brushed finish, and Creole hoop earrings, all in 18k gold vermeil. This fall, ManLuu will expand into select Nordstrom stores and online on the department store’s website. By summer, it was on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop website, in Nordstrom stores, and on the bodies of celebrities including Cardi B, who announced her second pregnancy while wearing ManLuu. Luu launched her luxury jewelry line, ManLuu, in spring 2021. The result is a fine jewelry line that Luu says mixes nostalgia with fashion-forward design and a spark of something distinctly Creole. MoAnA Luu’s path to becoming a jewelry designer isn’t linear-it starts with COVID-19, a burst of self-reflection, a creative explosion, and, of all things, an email from one of the world’s most recognizable celebrity tastemakers.