Nina Runsdorf brings classic jewellery back to life to mark 20 years
New York-based jewellery designer Nina Runsdorf celebrates her eponymous brand’s anniversary with a new jewellery collection, ‘Archive’
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Nina Runsdorf has always loved jewellery, designing her first collection aged 12 at her kitchen table, and returning to the medium after her time spent working in the fashion industry. As she celebrates 20 years of her eponymous, New York-based brand in 2025, now felt like the right time for her to look back to where it all began.
‘I have always designed from instinct – guided by what I want to wear and influenced by the world around me,’ she says. ‘I feel that I’ve always evolved with the times. However, I have become more confident in taking risks, whether that’s relocating to be closer to my work or revisiting my archive for the brand’s 20th anniversary.’
Her designs remain timeless, as is evident in the new ‘Archive’ collection created to mark the two decades. Crafted, unusually for Runsdorf, in silver, the designs are faithful reinterpretations of some of her earliest works. ‘For the most part, the pieces remain almost the same, faithful to the original samples that I benched,’ Runsdorf adds. ‘We've made some refinements – adjusting the movement of the disc earring and swapping the stones for brown topaz. We've also introduced a scaled-down version of the large cuff bracelet, creating a more wearable alternative.’
Bracelets, earrings, rings and necklaces are thickly drawn in swirls of silver in the sculptural jewellery, as modern now as they were when Runsdorf originally created them in her early twenties. She found the process of bringing them back to life an enjoyable one: ‘The biggest challenge was finding the right manufacturer, especially since I hadn’t worked in silver since I was 18. That said, the process has been somewhat smooth... we haven't faced too many difficulties with “Archive”.’
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Hannah Silver is a writer and editor with over 20 years of experience in journalism, spanning national newspapers and independent magazines. Currently Art, Culture, Watches & Jewellery Editor of Wallpaper*, she has overseen offbeat art trends and conducted in-depth profiles for print and digital, as well as writing and commissioning extensively across the worlds of culture and luxury since joining in 2019.