Adwoa Aboah On Designing Her New John Hardy Collection from Home
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Adwoa Aboah and John Hardy go way back. Aboah has been the face of the Bali-based jewelry line for four years, but posing for their ads wasn’t enough for the talented multihyphenate. In 2018 Aboah channeled her distinctive style into her first AA x JH capsule for the brand, turning her lifelong interest in jewelry and countless artistic inspirations into wearable art. Now she’s releasing round two with the aptly named Mad Love collection. Exploring the power of connection at its most radical, inclusive, and authentic, the collaboration hits stores and the John Hardy website today. Featuring an elegant interpretation of the heart motif rendered silver and 14K gold chainlinks, it takes the familiar symbol of romance and reimagines it for 2021.
For Aboah, working on this particular release was meaningful, both for the creative freedoms it offered her and how it built on her existing collaboration with the John Hardy team. “Personally, it’s a dream to work like this,” she shared from London. “As a model, something I’ve always strived for is being more creatively involved. As this was our second collection, it felt perfect because I was given the space and trust to do what I wanted.”
Even before she began the design process, Aboah had a few key themes in mind. An avid collector of jewelry, she found herself drawn to pieces with knots, rope detailing, and hearts—a symbol she enjoyed enough to incorporate into her body art. “Whether it be in doodles or the tattoos I have, the heart repeats itself a lot of things I do,” says Aboah, who notes the special significance the symbol has in Gurls Talk, the community-led non-profit for young women’s mental health that she launched in 2015. “It’s how I sign off letters or [something] I say at the end of phone calls and texts, so naturally it worked.”
Layering upon hearts and chains looks easy, but there’s an art to making it all work together. For Aboah, who regularly mixes metals, textures, and eras within her jewelry collection, it’s all about finding what makes you feel most comfortable and playing around with contrasts. “I hope to see people mix these pieces in with everything they own already,” she says. “It looks best stacked with your other favorites whether you’re wearing gold or silver. I love the juxtaposition between something wonderful and handcrafted with a [costume] piece you may have found a little shop somewhere.”
Designing a collection during the whirlwind of 2020 meant finding ways to stay centered and creative while living with the coronavirus pandemic’s realities. Used to an in-demand model’s nomadic life, Aboah found adjusting to the new normal of life led indoors took time. “So much of my work over the years has been dependent on being around people,” she says. “Though actually, it can [also] be quite lonely because I’ve spent so much of that time traveling. This idea of working from home has been interesting; I’ve had to figure out a routine for myself.” Her daily practice includes exercise, self-care, and connecting with her audience via a brand new medium: podcasts. “Doing the Gurls Talk podcast has been a saving grace,” says Aboah. “It’s something where I have to show up a few times a week, and that sounds simple, but little things like having a shower, putting a little moisturizer on, or being kind to myself all help.”
To that end, Aboah is looking forward to seeing what 2021 has to offer. After designing a collection, expanding Gurls Talk, and even purchasing her first home, she’s ready for what’s next. “I love to work and put all my attention into a project,” says Aboah. “It’s amazing to be the face of a brand, but It feels different to look at an image of yourself and know that you were creatively involved [in the products] that you’re showcasing.”
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1/15Aboah s heart sketches for the collection.
Photo: Courtesy of John Hardy2/15