Jill Golden Goes to Seventies London (in her Mind)

Somehow, the journey began with a YouTube video of a lion.

You know the Christian the lion viral video? Well, that whole saga was the totally unexpected jumping-off point of what soon became Jill Golden’s obsession with London in the seventies—the fashion, homes, music, all of it. Turns out, her parents had visited the city during that period and dug up old travel slides from their time there, sealing the deal: She had to dedicate pieces of her glossy, easy-to-wear jewelry line Flutter to the era. Here’s what fueled the Jubilee collection—which includes her Of a Kind edition! —and how it came together.

Get a load of the Of a Kind edition Jill’s fascination inspired—a leather and gold bracelet. WHOA.

“1977 was the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, which was a huge celebration. But it was also a time of economic distress, which coincided with—or maybe sparked—the punk-rock movement. Perhaps the pinnacle of punk was the Sex Pistols’s controversial song ‘God Save the Queen’ and their performance on the Thames just days before the Jubilee.”

“The rise of the punk-rock movement also extended into fashion, with Vivienne Westwood and her partner Malcolm McLaren, who was the manager of the Sex Pistols.“

“There was also a large presence by Biba in London at that time, with Barbara Hulanicki opening of her large department store—which had an Art Deco style—on Kensington High Street. I think all of these forces together made my collection a real mix of industrial and jeweled aesthetics, with colorful accents and a variety of materials and shapes.”

“The first piece I did was the Rendall necklace—it has a bit of an industrial-slash-vintage vibe. The lions on the ends are a nod to that original documentary that started the whole adventure.” (And those are her parents’ images in the background!)