Her fiery stand-out red mane, cut in the blunt style of her favored Japanese aesthetic, not only matches Betony’s love for the archetypal kimono but echoes her willingness to stand on her own despite the misconceptions and judgments that go along with human sexuality, a subject in which she is currently getting a PhD. In keeping with the independent character of her pioneer parents, Betony embraces “shapely” and swears by Vivienne Westwood, one of the few designers she can wear-off-the-rack. Otherwise, she creates eighty percent of the clothes that she wears. Betony’s dad, originally from Martha’s Vineyard, is a low-flying pilot who built helicopters in their Victorian library. While her mom, descended from King Edward VII and in 1960 joined what are known today as the Greensboro Four in what was then called the “Sit Down” at a “whites-only” counter that helped spark America’s civil rights revolution. “She’s definitely got something to do with my spirit of fighting for what I believe in,” Betony states.

Educated on two continents in art history, goldsmithing, and industrial design, Betony’s “sado-chic” creations are born from a deep intelligence and sophistication. They have grown only bolder since the early days, when her jewelry could literally stun buyers into a shy silence. Whether in a black lace dress designed by Emilio Pucci’s Peter Dundas over a Mr. Pearl corset or donning her irrepressible, Paradise Found rings — which, when inverted, double as massage rings — Betony is immune to the twisted hypocrisy of society. “My mission is a mission of sexual well-being,” and for empowering people, she feels, “The jewelry is just a bridge to that.”

Click here for Betony’s website.

If you love Betony, you may also like Bliss Lau, Drue Kataoka and Virginie Sommet.

If Lauren could choose any period to live in, it would be Palm Springs in the 1970s, with their pool parties, big heels, huge jewelry and full make-up, where she would fit right in with her pink Chanel wedges and Theory shorts. However, Lauren is quintessentially English, growing up in what she describes as her “smart” and “hideous” gray flannel grade school uniform with an appetite for milk curd, truffle toast, and everything pork (belly, jaw, and cheek). It is endemic to her culture to have a holistic outlook on how much better the planet would be for the entire living kingdom if we did not waste food and if we knew its source, as is going to classes with refugees from foreign countries who have lost everything – their homes and families – and sought a new home in England through the Commonwealth of Nations.

However, it is gemstones and the art of cutting them that sends Lauren out of this world and into another plane. “There’s always this little bit of wonder that they took millions of years to form, that they came out of the earth and that no two are completely identical. It’s incomprehensible that they were down there long before we were ever on this planet,” she says. As her elegant ensemble of Paul Smith pieces – a power-blue pleated blouse tucked into high-waisted trousers – would suggest, Lauren loves color and is particularly obsessed with how light plays on her jewelry designs. Sapphires, lilacs, aquamarines, greens, browns, and the champagne and cognac hues of diamonds give her chills. “Shoes don’t do it,” she says– Carrie aside.

If you love Lauren, you may also like Irina Lazareanu, Sorcha O’Raghallaigh and Lesa Amoore.

Being From a small city, Amristar, in the foothills of the Himalayans, until he moved to NYC at the age of five, has given Waris a deep connection to his roots and a strong identity. But having a sense of tradition does not mean that he is anti-progress. Commerce for him is just not without a philosophical idea behind it, “I love spending and going to really nice places….so it’s very, in fact, pro-capitalism, very pro… just this idea of that’s your vote, that’s your dollar, your yen, your pound, your vote,” he states, “it’s a respect for ideals.” Humbly inspired by love and history, Waris doesn’t profess to know about either, he produces his jewelry designs in places that are ancient kingdoms, like India, Thailand and Italy. Sitting on top of layers of the past inspires Waris. Similar in it’s consideration, Waris picks the fabric that his tailor uses to make his suits, he knows where his organic eggs come from and he purposefully supports that farmer, wears a simple steel bracelet for its representation of purity and his friend’s APC jeans, for being the real McCoy in fit and quality. Uncontrived, comfortable in her skin and elegant is how Waris describes his mother; super-natural and super-chic is how he describes his father, and all of the above is how I would characterize him. There is no substitute for being conscious, how you feel about what you are wearing and how you are living, shows.

If you love Waris, you may also like Mateo Bijoux, Preetma Singh and Daniel & Steven.

It’s ironic that Mateo is a gay man from Jamaica who escaped to boarding school in New Hampshire to get away from what he refers to as a homophobic culture, but is so comfortable in his masculinity. Consistently polished and confident, he might be ridiculed at home for being too feminine in a preppy yellow v-neck sweater, vintage Pierre Cardin pants, Fred Perry shirt from Raf Simons and turquoise necklace of his own design, yet butch straight men in his native country are bleaching their skin, wearing leggings and piercing their navels. Still, butch is something Mateo does with taste, like the “Oxford boy” he considers himself to be, in his denim vest and leather jacket that he studded himself, Yankees hat and a dangling crystal earring of his own design.

In the book “Think and Grow Rich,” there is a story about a man digging for gold in California during the Great Depression. He gives up, missing the pay dirt by only two feet ahead and the next person inherits the riches. Obsessed with the cautionary tale, Mateo is determined to never give up and accept the temporary defeats that are on the route to success. Distinguished and at peace in his bow ties with denim shirts, studded tuxedo shoes, blazers in every color plus leopard, and always a powerful cocktail ring, he’s already there.

If you love Mateo, you may also like Ronald Sosinski, Bliss Lau and Quinn Aston.

Philip’s ball and chain bracelet is reminiscent of something as simple and classic as Cartier, but next to his tattoos, it reveals the rebel who once shunned loafers after a lifetime in prep school. The codes of preppydom are so embedded in Philip’s DNA that one of his tattoos says ‘fuck you’ in a Lands’ End monogram font. With a signet ring, Church’s, red and royal sweaters mixed with vintage blazers and bandanas, he still wears his clothes like a school uniform with some version of the same thing all week. And I can’t help but see a relationship between Philip’s ancestors who date back to The Civil War when I see his signature beard.

With the detailed eye of a writer, Phillip’s ideas are expressed in all aspects of his life. He attributes some of this to the quizzes he would receive from his art historian mother on schools of paintings. Quick to recognize the Baroque, Rococo or 16th century Italian, Philip sees everything in vignettes of a place and time. A finished, well-curated room completes a scene in his mind and begins with a historical reference like the antique map or tapestry in his bedroom. Likewise, Philip’s bathroom is tiny in size and filled to the brim with antique photographs.

The vaguely familiar but relevant is an obsession of Philip’s. His jewels often show the parts in an effort to convey the beauty in the connection between things, especially when they are handmade. Whether it’s the way that metals fuse or a joint screws on, he sees his jewelry as part of a continuum. “Like architecture and sculpture, it lasts thousands of years. You are borrowing it, inhabiting it… then it goes on the the next person…and like writing, you throw it into the world..it’s not really yours.” So here’s to being so unabashedly who you are that you garden in the things you covet.

If you love Philip, you may also like Gerald DeCock, Justin Giunta and Simon Rasmussen.

With artist parents, Bliss’ primary toy growing up was a sketchbook and as a result, she feels that she possesses an innate reactionary and trusting perspective towards her own work, or as she says, “an emotional reaction, and then I ask myself why I had that and then tell myself that’s the direction I need to go.” A similar instinctual confidence is apparent with her clothes, which are subtle and versatile, while front and center. Like her jewelry, Bliss’ pairing of an earthy, woven Ohne Titel poncho worn over Blackmilk tights with a trompe l’oeil garter portrays a female who is as powerfully seductive within as she is on the surface.

If you love Bliss, you may also like Angela Nam, Hannah Marshall and Rochelle Goldberg.

Of her own writing Nina says, “I find the prospect of realizing a narrative and visual concept really exciting, like the creation of a small fleeting world that really communicates who you are.” The spare, rhythmic sentences of Joan Didion’s writing are an influence on Nina, as is the distinctly handsome and beautiful phenomenon of Tilda Swinton. Like them, Nina’s image is a manifestation of her monochromatic mood with her striking platinum hair and white pieces, including a leather Junya Wantanabe motorcycle jacket, Uniqlo jeans and Phi booties. Being understated and distinct at the same time is not easy to achieve. Nina’s oversized chambray shirt with the quest-ending over the knee black boots could stop traffic with its suggestion of a timeless classicism that is provocative but tasteful.

If you love Nina, you may also enjoy Fatima Al Qadiri, Celia Ingesson and Natia Dune.

If you like Danielle & Jeffertitti, you may also enjoy Oliver & Kira, Chase Kohl and Don Pedro & Kirsten.

If you like Dustin, you may also enjoy Sarah McGovern, Kristopher Daddona and Chase Cohl.

Check out Jessica’s website!

If you like Jess, you may also enjoy Sheena Matheiken and Ms. Fitz.