Hernán Herdez is an 11-year-old jewelry line made by Melissa Hernandez. And it began, like so many creative ventures do these days, as a hobby. “I was living in New York at the time, I moved there for an internship, and was working as an art director, but my accounts were pretty boring,” she explains on a recent call from her studio in Puerto Rico, where she’s based. “I needed a creative outlet.”
While she spent her days working on how to market “cell phones,” among other decidedly un-sexy things, she began making jewelry, which she sold under the name Coyote Negro, along with vintage clothes and pieces by other designers. She describes those early pieces as “bohemian and elaborate,” which makes sense given the trends at the time, but by her second collection she “landed on something more modernist and maybe even dark.” It was then that she decided to just focus exclusively on jewelry. In 2018, she changed the name to Hernán Herdez, a play on her last name and a kind of “alter-ego” that often makes people think the line is designed by a man.
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By then, her now-signature aesthetic had been established; hers is a kind of nature-based minimalism dominated by asymmetry and organic shapes. Pieces are punctuated by baroque pearls and colorful semi-precious stones. “It’s a minimalism that’s more inspired by the Caribbean, by latinaje,” she explains.”You know, we’re more out there…more loud. But within that world I like to keep things somewhat quiet, simple, and modern.” It’s not a surprise that artists like Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro, and Young Miko have been spotted in her designs.
Five years ago Hernández moved back to Puerto Rico and decided to focus exclusively on the brand. “I’ve always been working in branding and freelancing but I realized there just wasn’t enough of me to go around,” she says laughing. She and her partner, the photographer Quique Cabanillas, with whom she often collaborates, share a large and airy studio in Santurce, where she works on the jewelry with one other person. The pieces are all made from recycled metals in New York and Thailand, and she’s recently introduced a line of fine jewelry made from 14k and 18k white and yellow gold, including an offering of engagement rings and wedding bands for couples that are looking for something a little different. Her collections are seasonless; she makes things when she is inspired, or when she comes across new materials, which further emphasizes that her pieces are made for life, not for trends.
Launched earlier this summer, the latest Hernán Herdez collection is her best one yet. Infused with a playful spirit, it incorporates the body itself as an element of design, with pieces that surround earlobes or curve around fingers in unexpected ways. “Last year I didn’t design too many pieces and this year I really felt a creative surge,” Hernández explains. “This is the collection that has felt the most solid to me.” To celebrate the launch, and her 10th anniversary, the designer is returning to where it all began, hosting a week-long pop-up at Assembly in the Lower East Side, and doing a wheatpaste campaign in the city’s streets. “I feel like this is the first time I am presenting my work to the world, when I feel the most prepared to show all my work,” she says. “New York is like my second home, it’s where I found myself as an artist, and an eternal source of inspiration.”
