The fine jewelry brand Foundrae has been around for ten years, but it’s only now that founder Beth Hutchens has decided to venture into one of jewelry’s most traditional spaces: bridal. Only, Hutchens would never call it that.
Her new collection, titled United in Love, launched this week. It includes, for the first time, more traditional diamond solitaire rings with an unmistakable engagement ring vibe, alongside the pieces that have earned Foundrae a cult following, like enamel cigar band rings, engraved and diamond-flecked medallions, hefty chainlink necklaces, and diamond drop earrings.
Hutchens never set out to avoid the bridal space; entering this realm now has everything to do with how she’s watched her clients wearing her jewelry and following their lead. Customization has always been a key offering alongside Foundrae’s talismanic assortment of gems–engravers are on site at all of the brand’s stores. Being able to tell individualized story through jewelry has long been core to Foundrae; Hutchens has observed that her pieces have often been a part of big, celebratory life moments. Her bookend bands, for example, which are designed to flank existing jewelry, are often used to breathe new life into staid engagement rings and wedding bands.
Those pieces, Hutchens says, are often “the one piece in someone’s life that they feel is untouchable and static…so the reason I had done the bookends in the first place was to give people a way that they can use their existing pieces and then build on it.” One couple bought matching emerald pendants to show their commitment to each other. It all crescendoed to a revelation: “We just really found so much joy in being part of people's big moments when they're getting married or inviting someone to move in with them,” Hutchens says. “It just made me start to think about the whole idea of how people commit to each other, and I really wanted to put together a whole collection that was intended to be visual artifacts of the bond of love, whatever that meant for someone.”
Key to this collection is an embrace and acknowledgment of the expansiveness of love, a message that feels urgent in a political climate of eroding rights. “In the past there were barriers that prevented people from choosing who they could love,” Hutchens says. “This collection is a celebration of the fact that there are no barriers to who you love or how you love.”
So yes, there are traditional solitaire engagement rings and infinity diamond wedding bands, but there are also medallions that can be engraved and worn on chains, if that’s how you want to do it, or bracelets. For the solitaire, Hutchens imbued it with symbolism. “I have beads around it that are intended to be about Cupid's arrow and the idea that every moment of impact leaves this little bead of impression,” she explains.
Nothing is meant to be gendered. There are 26 pieces in total in the collection and the breadth is meant to provide options not just for the committed pair, but the community that supports them. “There are quite a few people that are involved in making a relationship work,” says Hutchens. “It takes great intent and effort that’s nurtured not just by the couple but by the many people that love them–parents, friends, chosen family. And so I also wanted the collection to be about that…how supportive this group is when it comes to love.”
