NEW YORK, NY.- Somewhere at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, is one of four gold bracelets, gifted to Shiona Turini by her mother. She lost it while diving into the water from a cliff. A friend helped her search underwater for it with no luck. But this hasn’t deterred Turini from wearing most of her personal jewelry at all times.
In an interview that has been edited and condensed, one of the stylists behind Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” era talked about her most cherished pieces: two necklaces and the three remaining gold bracelets that represent home; three rings; and a friendship bracelet that she found at a truck stop while styling Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour.
Q: Do you have a favorite piece of jewelry?
A: I pretty much wear the exact same jewelry every single day. I’ll start with the bangles: I feel like every Caribbean girl has gold bangles. And when I was, I guess, turning 16, my mom gave me these four. The thing with my mom is that she always wore a stack of gold bangles, so every time she walked down a hallway, I would hear the jingle-jangle. And now I do that. I’ve had people at work be like, “I always know when you’re coming.” That is a sound that defined my childhood.
Q: It looks like you’re wearing three bangles right now ...
A: I was filming a video one summer, and I had climbed up this very high cliff in Bermuda, and I went up higher than I’ve ever been and jumped and lost one of the bracelets. I’ve spent the past couple years, every time I meet jewelry designers, asking if they can recreate this so that I could go back to my four.
Q: What’s the story behind the gold pendant necklace you never take off?
A: These are my parents’ fingerprints. My mom gave me this for Christmas one year. And my sister also wears an identical one. Even when I shop for jewelry, if I get myself something, I get my sister one, too.
Q: What’s the other necklace?
A: This little necklace, which is a new addition to the crew, is a map of Bermuda. I love it so much, because it’s locally made. This couple that I’m obsessed with, they have a jewelry store. It’s called Davidrose, and it was a part of their new launch.
Q: What about your rings?
A: So these three rings right now, I never take off. The first one is very special, because it’s the ring I used in “Queen & Slim.” It was my first film; it was Lena Waithe’s first film, it was Melina Matsoukas’s first film. The Cartier Panther ring: I love panthers. And then this was a gift from Chanel.
Q: Tell me about your bracelet.
A: This is my friendship bracelet. I was on the Renaissance Tour as a stylist, and when we were on the road, I was on Bus Six, and I loved the crew on my bus. It was glam and the rest of wardrobe, and we would play this game at the truck stops. We called it “truck stop fashion.” Sometimes it’d be like, OK, you have to go and buy a $10 gift for someone else. So on this day we were like, OK, we all need to get friendship bracelets.
Q: What are some things you consider when styling jewelry on someone else?
A: I love when people have that piece that they never take off. We all know how it works on the red carpet: You borrow jewelry, you give it back. The most fun I have styling clients is when we get to incorporate their own jewelry.
Q: How do you bring out a fictional character’s “personal style” through jewelry?
A: For “Insecure,” I tried to work with as many Black jewelry designers as possible and make sure that you saw it more than once on-screen. “Lady in the Lake” was my first period piece. So I got to deep dive into 1960s fashion and ’60s jewelry. If you had the necklace, you had the earring and you might have had the cocktail ring. It was so much about a full set.
Q: Do you have any jewelry that you find yourself styling over and over?
A: I love Tiffany’s Bone Cuff. I use them so much in my work, for so many different clients, because I love the history of Elsa Peretti. The other piece of jewelry that is a frequent theme in my work are grills. I worked in an orthodontist office for so long — all through high school and college. Designing grills is one of my favorite custom jewelry moments, and I’ve done it for so many clients. We did it for “Queen and Slim.” And I did a whole grills story when I worked at Cosmo. There’s so much passion and care in designing a piece of jewelry for the teeth. I’ve been doing it for a while, because it’s something that I felt culturally connected to, being from an island, and going to a Black college. It feels like it’s rooted culturally in me.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.
