Jacqueline Rabun: ‘It took me years to develop my design language’

Jacqueline Rabun is an American jewellery designer who has earned her place in the sun, both figuratively and literally. After more than 30 years in the UK, she is enjoying renewed inspiration in California, where she spent most of her early years while, in London, an extensive retrospective of her work celebrates her prodigious talent.

There are more than 250 pieces on show at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in west London, with which she has collaborated since 2021. And out of this relationship has come one of her most recent collections: Metanoia, showcasing much that is special about her as a designer.

The collection includes torques and rings in both 18ct gold and silver, all set with a large gold-shot smooth, pebble-shaped piece of rutilated quartz. The shapes are large and sculptural, with a pared-back minimalism that exudes poetry and power, and comes alive when worn.

At the opening of the exhibition, late last month, Rabun was wearing the gold version — and, as striking a figure as she is, it was the neckpiece that first caught the eye. The show spans her 30-year career and, when looking across at what she produced during that time, Rabun says what stands out for her is “looking at my work in this amazing environment and to know that it was worth it. It was worth all the twists and turns. It looks like there’s a certain ease to it all. But no, it doesn’t come like that. I wish.”

It did in the beginning, though. Rabun moved from the US to London in her twenties, in 1989, where she began making jewellery and opened a studio. Her first collection, Raw Elegance, was launched the following year and was snapped up by Barneys in New York and 10 Corso Como in Milan. Then, in 1992, her jewellery, a silver chain necklace and identity bracelet, was worn by supermodel Linda Evangelista on the cover of the September issue of Vogue.

“It was a thrill when I reflect on it,” she says. “I think, ‘Wow, that was amazing.’ But, when you’re in the moment and you’re running a studio and all these things are happening around you, you don’t quite take things in.”

More recently, when going through her archive to select the pieces to be shown at the retrospective, Rabun says: “I was quite reluctant to bring out the early work. The current work, in terms of the language of design, is so me. It’s more refined, considered and focused.”

On reflection, she is pleased that she agreed for this phase of her work to be represented. “Perhaps if a student comes to see the retrospective they can see the journey and they can understand that it takes a long time to really develop your design language. It’s not overnight. It took me years.

“You know when you’ve found it. You sort of fall in love with your own work. We love what we do. But it is a different thing loving it and falling in love with it. When you start to fall in love with it, then the world starts to really embrace it.”

Rabun’s early design influences came from London’s subcultures: “Punk, Caribbean culture, African culture. You can see there’s a lot of chains and beads coming together in my early work. It represented London’s diversity.”

It was among the chains of her earlier pieces that Rabun found the inspiration for her latest collaboration with jewellery and silver brand Georg Jensen. Her long-term relationship with the Danish company began in 1999 and has been a profound one for both parties. “Working with Georg Jensen has allowed me the space to really hone my designs. Also, it has an amazing studio where ideas are developed and the technical side of things — the craftsmanship, the quality,” she says.

Rabun’s collections for Georg Jensen — Offspring, Mercy and Reflect — “have all been very successful for the brand”, she says.

Reflect, a collection of gender-fluid jewellery and her most recent for the brand, is the one that has helped her reassess her earliest work and “really appreciate it”. “One of the [early] bracelets in the exhibition was the inspiration for my Reflect collection, which reflects on the past and my time in London, my journey . . . and all that influenced my work. Taking that chain design and looking at it with fresh eyes and a Scandinavian sensibility.”

But there is more to Rabun’s work than a stylish, minimalist aesthetic. She refers a lot to the challenges she has had in her life and to the empathy she feels for others and their stories. “I’m really a sensitive person; I really feel everything,” she says. “And, because I’m made like that, it comes through my work. When I see situations in the world it affects me. It goes deep into my soul and comes out in my work.”

This comes through in all her jewellery, including her Black Love collection under her own brand: talismanic pieces that celebrate “love, justice and equality”.

For now, Rabun is focused on enjoying the Los Angeles sunshine, and creating a new show space and studio, while also “being grateful of why I am here, to share this gift that I’ve been given”.

Jacqueline Rabun: A Retrospective, until November 18; Ladbroke Hall, 79 Barlby Road, London