j hannah Archives - The Debtist

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First and foremost, I am a lover of all things misunderstood and socially unaccepted. It’s in my hard-wiring, perhaps in recognition of my own youthful quandaries as an immigrant, introvert, and straight-arrowed studious female. I have a soft spot for defending the outcasts and arguing the other side. For example, I decided in my teen years that my favorite number would be thirteen, donning it on my soccer jerseys because the movie ‘Freaky Friday’ had all my classmates hating on the number. I chose it because “it wasn’t fair”. And when my mother asked what color I wanted to paint my room after we moved for the tenth time in my life, I mortified her by picking a dirty greige-green, the color of mossy detritus. It doesn’t come as a surprise, then, that I equally love J Hannah’s newest polish release named similarly after my self-described teenage room. In fact, I adore it.

The color, called Compost, was fashioned after Pantone 448C – a color that market researchers agreed upon as The Ugliest Color in the World. A mix between olive-green and brown, Pantone 448C was originally invented by the marketing agency to slap onto the face of cigarette boxes to deter users from continuing their smoking habit. The message was plain and clear: stay away from this hideous substance, like tar dripping down one’s throat, or the color of ashen decaying lungs after years of smoke. But rather than repulse from this cursed tint, J. Hannah instead embraced the color and revived it as something sophisticated, without changing it.

On Instagram, she writes:

“A study in Jolie-Laide, ‘Compost’ is a statement in the nuanced line between the revolting and the luxurious, between the hideous and the refined. A reminder to not flatten beauty’s complexity into a single note. (In other words, if you know, you know.)”
J. Hannha’s Instagram

For you see, this Compost color is, to me, a beautiful color indeed. It is the color that I seek on my travels abroad, the one I am drawn to in nature and calmed by. Likewise, it is the base shade in my home – a color that sums up the beige, grey, green, and brown hues. I present to you a personal color study of Compost, that hopefully by the end, has you DIGGING it, too.

It reminds me of the first signs of life, in the form of lichen and moss, on our most recent trip to Iceland.

It reminds me of mountain terrain in the fjords of New Zealand.

It reminds me of Fall in Germany, the foliage around the Neuschwanstein Castle.

It reminds me of Michael’s hazel eyes, when the morning light hits it just right.

It is the color of our Parachute Bed Sheets, or this linen set,

menuaw18-aprilandmay — As well as the most luxurious rooms in the world.

The Audo - a new hybrid space from Menu | These Four Walls blog — It is described as baroque mulch and organic drab.

It is the exact nail color I want on my nails to carry me through the Fall and Winter Seasons.

I have had the pleasure to have been #gifted a bottle of polish and have already tried it on myself. It is the third in my J. Hannah Polish collection- along with Patina and Miso. It pairs quite nicely with all the J. Hannah silver jewelry too (The Pearl Demi Signet recently replaced my wedding ring. Meanwhile the Form Hoops I is my daily earring and I carry a tiny milled Emax tooth in my Objet Pendant.) One thin, watery coat makes for a limey-green moss color, not far from the olive trees lining Jenni Kayne’s home. Two coats adds a smidge of brown, similar with the photograph above, complimenting the color of ground coffee beans. Three coats, though, is my favorite. The color of MENU Space’s NoNo Coffee Table, Nordic Knot’s Norr Malarstrand 01 Rug, and Bemz’s Zaragova Vintage Velvet in Olive Green. The color pairs nicely with black, brown, cream, and rustic terra cotta orange and reds. It is, in my opinion, the jewel tone of today’s modern world, as our field of acceptance and inclusion expands, in a year when it becomes most necessary to make the ugliest of circumstances beautiful. Iykyk.

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J. Hannah is a brand after my own heart, and the founder, Jess Hannah Revesz, is a kindred spirit. She has been described as a minimalist, chic fashionista but when I read her interviews, I see her as more of a muted, sophisticated, ethereal soul practicing restrained maximalism through intentional design choices – and it translates well to her jewelry line.

Growing up, my mother, who was a fashionista in the truest sense of the word, would always describe my style as “old age”. Despite her efforts to mold me into someone who loved diamonds, glitter and glam, my calling remained with materials that portrayed their travels through time – like iron that rusts, silver that dulls, and linens that yellow. So it only makes sense that I fell in love with a jewelry line that mimics vintage styles using 100% recycled materials of the finest quality – the epitome of making something new of old. In fact, 100% of J. Hannah’s cast gold and diamonds are recycled.

When Jess began her company, she was herself making each and every piece. As the company grew, she has maintained that level of sustainability. It goes beyond sourcing truly good materials, although she does that too. Her efforts extend throughout the entire company, from employment to packaging. All employees are guaranteed a fair wage and good working environments. The packaging remains as plastic free as possible. And the products? Well, they remain hand-made.

The collection of jewelry contains styles you would have found in your grandmother’s vanity drawer. Signet rings and hoop earrings dot the online catalog, with modern takes on pendants and lockets mixed in for good measure. Despite the vintage inspiration, the pieces have been updated for the modern woman. This pivot ring, for example, which mimics a fidget spinner, helpful during high anxiety days filled with plenty of work and daily goings-on. Or this Objet Pendant, reminiscent of lockets that used to hold your loved one’s photo or note, but can now be used to hold a back-up hair tie, an Advil, a CBD mint, or a special quartz talisman. My absolute favorite, though, is this niche ring – the perfect be-all, end-all wedding ring for life. Speaking of wedding rings, Hannah recently co-founded a company solely focused on matrimony, called Ceremony.

Far from simply having good, clean, modern design, part of what caught my attention was J. Hannah’s consideration for even the minutest of details. I found it endearing that the company released their own nail polish to fully capture the overall esthetics. In other words, “Why stop at the jewelry itself?” With playful names such as Patina and Eames, the polish collection really pays homage to things of the past, while introducing an application for this generation of young women. They are pleasingly unexpected shades that my mother would never approve of, that which resembles the color of mold and miso soup (Miso, by the way, is my favorite hue). But they are colors that are true to me, each once matching my jewelry. J. Hannah’s big picture mindfulness coupled with extreme scrutiny of the little things that add to the whole is a mirroring of the way I myself approach the world.

Lastly, I would like to leave you with J. Hannah’s words about owning jewelry, in general.

“Never taken off” is how we want our customers to wear their jewelry, but it’s also a context for their purchase. We do not expect people to be able to afford our jewelry on a whim—it’s a luxury product. We see a lot of language used in our industry that tells women “this product will empower you” or “you need and deserve this,” as though jewelers are providing something necessary or benevolent, which is such a fiction. Jewelry is extra, it’s fun. It’s special and rare and expensive and hopefully something the customer will deeply consider as a special purchase that will last them a lifetime. We envision our customer as someone who saves up for that perfect piece of jewelry they’ve wanted for so long, or to commemorate a major life event. Hopefully they will pass it down one day as an heirloom. This feels closer to reality, which is important when we are continually exposed to entire Instagram feeds that promote excess as the norm. The prevalence of fast fashion works against us in so many ways and everything comes back to sustainability. Trend-based shopping is a wasteful pursuit. If the consumer started thinking about their purchases from a cost per wear perspective, it could change the whole design industry.
-J. Hannah in an interview with Forbes magazine

J. Hannah’s jewelry is far from cheap. It is actually very expensive. But the price reflects quality, as well as a way of living. It accounts for the difficulty in finding sustainable materials, as well as providing well for those who make our stuff. It is meant to change your spending habit, as well as the way you view the fashion industry. Not everyone can go out and buy themselves a J. Hannah ring, just because. Nobody, in my opinion, should. Restraining ourselves from whimsical purchasing of products will rewire our brains to not satisfy our wants so immediately, as well as build a higher sense of value for what we do spend money on. I am all for it.