PHOEBE and ANNETTE STEPHENS | ANNDRA NEEN

Brass Braid Cuff Bracelet from  Brass Collection

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico is a beautiful coastal city that offers invigorating water activities including para sailing, snorkeling or surfing.  

At night you can wind down or up patronizing such eateries like Villa Serena and Arrecifes.

Mexico is also the birthplace of featured sibling design duo Phoebe and Annette Stephens.

The Stephens sisters’ level of creativity is voracious as their fashion jewelry brand, Anndra Neen, is composed of a whopping twenty-one collections!  

Informed by nature and geometry, the brand’s rustic assortment of fused silver, bronze and gold choker necklaces and cuff bracelets is at once sculptural, classic and evokes the warrior princess.

There is little use of gemstones and the accents incorporated are created through oxidized metals or variegated metal surface textures from simulated tree bark to dots to molten silhouettes. 

Their unique artistic vision is strongly influenced by their sculptor/jeweler grandmother Annette Nancarrow.  The sisters reinvent the ancient aesthetics that captured Nancarrow’s imagination. Ultimately, however, their handmade jewelry designs reflect the modern woman.

“Our jewelry evokes me and Phoebe’s personal histories.  After we moved to New York from Mexico City I pursued a career in theatre and Phoebe became a fashion specialist for Phillips de Pury,” says Annette.  

Brass Web Choker Necklace from Web Collection

“Our grandmother is a big inspiration to our brand.  She blended pre-Columbian stones and shells with mixed metals.  We were surrounded by her art and jewelry. 

What we wanted to do was draw our own interpretations of antique European jewelry, ancient Egyptian motifs, Japanese design elements and Bauhaus graphics to create a vision that respects its antecedents and is at the same time relevant to the moment.”

We collaborate with jewelry artisans in Mexico who are true artists.  They don’t just make the jewelry, they have a vision.  They see all the possibilities of what can be made using the metal.”

Since its inception in 2009, the sisters were guests of Harper’s Bazaar for the magazine’s first annual Accessories Bazaar during September 2010 Fashion Week.  

Fashion designer Matthew Ames joined creative forces with the Stephens for his Spring 2011 collection; and by Fall 2011 the Anndra Neen brand was awarded the Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize.

What are the sisters’ plans for the future?  “We want to expand into home décor,” says Annette.  “For right now our jewelry is for women who dare to wear it.  We have learned that people really love our statement pieces. 

Brass Peak Ring from Wire Collection

You would think they would want the smaller, cleaner pieces but they come for the statement pieces!  After getting so much attention from a piece people have told us they have become addicted.  That is definitely something we love hearing.”