Sisters + Craft = Anndra Neen

If your designs had a human equivalent, who would they be?
Phoebe: "The lovechild of Iris Apfel and Tilda Swinton."  
- www.refinery29.com

Thinking outside the proverbial box, that's what Phoebe and Annette Stephens (born six years apart) are accustomed to. Their creative talent does not come as a surpise;  their family is a highly creative family in Mexico city comprising of various artists: Luis Stephens (their father) was a painter, Conlon Nancarrow (their grandfather) a progressive composer and his wife, Annette Nancarrow was an artist who also designed jewelry for the likes of Peggy Guggenheim and Frida Kahlo. Fall 2009 was when the sisters launched their own jewelry line named Anndra Neen.

Their collections are pieced up of rugged as well as refined bracelets, chockers and knuckle dusters made of bold nickel-silver or hand-hammered copper, all  manage to walk the fine line between eye-catching and over-the-top. The sisters design from their studio in New York and have the pieces hand crafted by artisans in their native Mexico.

So what is inspiring them? French medieval armor and Dario Argento films as well as ancient textiles and Alexander Calder pieces. But is is not just jewelry they make fantastically well. They also make some of the coolest clutches ever seen each wrought out of metal and women into cages or stone-studded envelopes.

Recently the Stephens sisters collaborated on a line of shoe clips with TenOverSix, designed the spring 2011 runway jewelry for Matthew Ames, and are gearing up for the launch of their website and their own New York Fashion Week presentation in February, which will showcase their latest wares alongside the artwork of their father and grandmother.