The Summer Looks We’re Still Thinking About 

Some Pieces Just Stick 

Most of what scrolls past in a given summer is gone from memory by the next one. But a handful of pieces earned real estate in our heads this season, and once you know the backstory, it makes complete sense why. Here’s what we can’t stop thinking about. 

The Necklace Melted Down From a Decade of Collecting 

Tricia Gordon-Johnston’s work under Tricia’s Handmade kept catching our eye for a reason that has nothing to do with trend and everything to do with story: every piece traces back to 2014, when she melted down decades of her own collected sterling silver and started making jewellery from scratch. “The silver had to be melted down before it became something new. That’s how it works.” A piece with that much personal history behind it doesn’t need a season to prove itself. 

The Bag Shaped Like a Flower 

Latoya Spence’s work under theyellowroom_studio kept resurfacing in our feed all season, bags shaped like large flowers, finished with banana leaves cut from burlap and vegan leather, colours pulled from her grandmother’s tie-a-leaf dish. “We love to stand out here. We love things that represent our stories and reflect where we come from.” It’s not just the silhouette that’s memorable. It’s knowing exactly which kitchen memory is hiding in the colourway. 

The Crochet That Took All Night 

Vivienne Richards’ work under Zee Richie sticks precisely because of how it gets made, stitch by stitch, often through the night, for what she calls “the risk takers.” “I will stay up all night creating. There is a rhythm to crochet that takes over once you’re inside it.” You can feel every one of those hours in the finished piece. 

The Straw Piece That Didn’t Need to Shout 

Sydia Sidcile’s straw work caught our attention this season for the opposite reason of everything else on this list, not for breaking tradition, but for how confidently it stayed inside it. “It begins in stillness,” she says of the process her mother taught her. “From that stillness comes the wandering: through global design, through nature, through architecture.” Proof the loudest thing in the room doesn’t have to be the loudest piece. 

The Piece That Reminded Us Adornment Can Be Personal 

Sha-Jay Williams’ beaded work under YAJAHS stuck with us for a different reason entirely, not one standout piece, but what she said about making them in the first place: “I want it to land on your skin and remind you that you are already enough.” Once you know that, a beaded necklace stops being decoration and starts being a small, wearable pep talk. Much harder to forget than a colour palette. 

Built to Outlast the Season 

None of these looks were designed to be forgotten by September. A beach in Discovery Bay, a night spent crocheting, a grandmother’s kitchen, a road sign near Negril, pieces built from real moments tend to outlive the summer they were made for. Worth a look in-store if any of these caught your eye while reading. 

Honourable Mention: The Earring Nobody Explains 

Davia Hines’ Papaya earrings, inspired by a real road sign on the way to Negril, deserve their own line here, small enough to almost miss, but they somehow capture an entire feeling about the island in one piece of clay. Her Carry Mi Ackee and Breadfruit pair became a bestseller for the same reason. “They say something true about where we come from without needing any explanation.” If you know, you know. That’s the whole appeal. 

And the One We’re Still Not Over 

Jermaine Edwards’ work under Lannaman Gems quietly changed how a lot of people think about natural materials this season, coconut shell and bamboo treated with the same seriousness a luxury house gives leather or gold. “Waste to beauty, right in front of me, every afternoon,” he says, describing watching his father do the same work when he was a kid. Pieces like that don’t just photograph well. They carry an argument, that beauty was never about the price of the raw material, only about the hands that transformed it. 

Ask Us Again in September 

This list will probably look different by the time the Post-Summer Sale rolls around, and several of these pieces move quickly once people see them in person, so don’t wait too long if one’s stuck in your head. A few others almost made the cut and deserve a mention anyway: Shanna Campbell’s resin-and-seed jewellery under Vintage Chic DESIGN, which somehow makes raw materials look like they belong in a gallery, and Sha-Jay Williams’ bolder statement pieces under YAJAHS that show up in every “best of the season” conversation we’ve had internally. This was never going to be exhaustive. It was always going to be personal. 

Come Find Your Own 

Which piece is actually stuck in your head this season? Half the fun of a list like this is arguing with it, come tell us we missed one at the store. Every piece here earned its spot the same way: by being unmistakably, specifically itself, made by someone who wasn’t trying to please anyone but their own eye. The best way to end a list like this is honestly to stop reading it and go start building your own version. 

Shop Things Jamaican in-store at Devon House, NMIA, and 14 Camp Road, or online at thingsjamaicanshopping.com. Wear Jamaica Fi Summa. 

Editorial Team

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