Zoe Cassavetes and Ileana Makri Release a Fantastic Jewellery Ode to Greek History
Cassavetes and Makri were launched by a mutual buddy around the pandemic and promptly bonded…

Cassavetes and Makri were launched by a mutual buddy around the pandemic and promptly bonded about their shared like for jewelry and Greek historical past. “Ileana is the coolest female I have ever achieved,” suggests Cassavetes. The two worked completely over Zoom on the collection, a meeting of the minds which Cassavetes suggests, “actually saved my mind during lockdown.”
Designer Ileana Makri carrying pieces from the 1821 Liberty Assortment.
Photograph: Courtesy of Ileana MakriMakri, who has labored with talismans like the evil eye in the previous, dug deep into Greek background to unearth victory symbols to use in the collection. “I arrived throughout a collection of banners raised by several leaders of the Greek Revolution and I imagined they have been unquestionably breathtaking. They all experienced that deeper feeling of freedom that led to naming this capsule assortment ‘Liberty,’” suggests Makri. “Each piece is an ode to liberty which, for me, is the greatest worth in daily life. Without the need of it, there is no lifetime.”
The “Jerusalem Cross” ring.
Photograph: Courtesy of Ileana MakriThe assortment is a background lesson wrapped in diamonds and gold. There is the “Jesus Christ Victorious” pendant, crafted out of 18k white gold and featuring blue sapphires in a cross shape. It symbolizes the flag raised by General Dimitrios Plapoutas during the rebellion of the city of Tripolitsa in 1818. A further stunning and fact-packed piece is a ring dependent on The Flag of Kastelorizo. Created from 18k white gold and enamel, it features a coronary heart created from rubies to symbolize adore, and an anchor and cross built of blue diamonds that necessarily mean hope and faith. The rings and pendants open up like a locket, identical to a poison ring—a style which holds a little something beneath the bezel—a motif that Cassavetes and Makri chose to use all over the selection.
Cassavetes, who is fifty percent Greek on her father, director John Cassavetes’s facet, took the challenge as an chance to dig further into her track record. “Of class, remaining Greek, it is an homage to my roots,” she says. “It is exciting to me due to the fact as you get more mature, you’re like, ‘What is my heritage yet again?’ Somebody informed you [about it] when you have been youthful, then you dwell your lifestyle, and inevitably, you are like, ‘Oh, I’d like to study more about where I came from and study about these people.’ Also, it is an remarkable civilization.”
Cassavetes donning the War Ensign 1821 ring.
Photograph: Courtesy of Zoe CassavetesCassavetes types the items in very a modern-day way, throwing a pendant necklace around a white T-shirt or putting on a ring with a typical white button-down. And while her adore of all items Greek is from her father, her obsession with jewelry hails from her mom, the actress Gena Rowlands. “I appear from an previous college mother and grandmother who donned a ton of jewellery all the time. It seemed actually standard and extremely potent and stylish,” says Cassavetes. “Life is way too small, so enable me just set on all my jewellery and just use it!”
The “Jesus Christ Victorious” necklace.
Photograph: Courtesy of Ileana Makri