The first time I saw the Resistance Revival Chorus wearing the RESIST necklace on the Tonight Show, I had to sit down for a second. I’d made the necklaces specifically for them - hand-written the word, manufactured and packaged them. And there they were, a group of women singing on national television with the word RESIST in gold across their chests.

That was a decade ago. The necklaces have since then been to Carnegie Hall, and to rallies and rehearsal spaces and probably a few kitchen tables where someone needed a reminder of who they are and what they can do.

But here's what I keep thinking about in 2026: wearing your values on your body used to feel like a statement. Now it feels like something braver.

Resistance jewelry isn't new. American suffragettes wore white and gold. Abolitionists wore cameo brooches carved from black glass. The gesture is old - you put something on your body that says, without you having to open your mouth, “Here is what I believe”. 

What's changed is the temperature. A feminist necklace that says RESIST or JUSTICE or FIERCE isn't just aspirational anymore. It's a conversation you're choosing to have with the people you come into contact with. Some days, that conversation is exactly the point. 

The thing about these word necklaces is that the person who reads it most is you. You catch it in the bathroom mirror at work. You feel it against your collarbone when you take a breath before a hard conversation. The resistance isn't always loud. Sometimes it's just - I'm still here. I still believe this. 

I designed the Empowerments collection as a way to prompt qualities that are already inside the wearer. Not to give you something you don't have, but to remind you of something you do. 10% of every Empowerments necklace goes to Girls Inc., because if we're going to put words like BRAVE and MIGHTY into the world, those words should do more than look good.

The RESIST necklace started as a piece I made for a chorus. It turned into something bigger. That's how resistance works, I think - it starts with one person deciding to be visible.