All About Monies, the 45-Year-Old Danish Jewelry Brand Landing at Dover Street Market Just in Time for the Holidays

Casting light into the shade of Black Friday is the arrival of Monies jewelry at Dover Street Market in New York and Los Angeles. Though new to DSM, this Danish brand hardly falls within the emerging talent category, having been founded in 1973 by husband-and-wife team Nikolai and Gerda Monies (pronounced mawhn-yes) in their hometown of Copenhagen. The pair work in a waterfront atelier filled with treasures from around the world. There, they create statement pieces that are anything but demure. Their aim is major impact, but bling is not their thing. Though both are trained as goldsmiths, they prefer to work with natural and ethically sourced materials, often with ancient histories like fossils, acacia wood, ebony, and mammoth tusks. These they form into organic pieces that have a “found” quality as well as an artfulness. Monies’s connection to nature is especially resonant now, when there’s a growing awareness of fashion’s negative impact on the environment. In these xenophobic times, the work celebrates globalism as it references many cultures and is crafted from materials sourced from every corner of the globe.

Monies x Astrid Andersen Spring 2018Photo: Courtesy of Astrid Andersen

Forty-five years in, Monies is in expansion mode. Having worked on runway pieces for Chanel, Donna Karan, and, most recently, Astrid Andersen, the couple opened a new boutique in Paris this spring. Now, they’re capping off the year with the imprimatur of cool from DSM.

Here, the designers of Monies talk to Vogue about their past and future plans.

When and how did you discover you were a creator?
Gerda: My mother sacrificed her jewelry [to me] so I could put it together in a new and more interesting way.
Nikolai: I come from a family of designers and artists, so I was brought up with creativity around me.

Monies workshop in Copenhagen.Photo: Niclas Jessen / Courtesy of Monies

How did you meet?
Nikolai: We met in the school of goldsmiths, which is an apprenticeship-based education. We were instantly fascinated by each other and found a mutual passion for design which we wanted to show the world.

What is your training?
Gerda: After finishing goldsmith school, we continued our education by working for designers we looked up to. I went to Whiting & Davis in Boston.
Nikolai: I began working with design for Ettore Sottsass and Mario Bellini in Milan, whom I learned a lot from. At Bellini, I worked on the buttons on Olivetti products like calculators and telephones; with Ettore Sottsass, I worked on different design objects and jewelry.

Monies Unique acrylic bangles.Photo: Niclas Jensen / Courtesy of Monies

When did you start your business and why?
Nikolai: In 1973. When we returned home after our stints in Italy and the U.S., we felt invincible. We both like oversize accessories. The only materials we could afford in those dimensions were aluminum, cork, wire, and plexiglass, but we were able to make jewelry with an attitude, pieces that say ‘look at me’ not because of their material value but more because of their brave, humble—and in our opinion—consensus-leveling design.

Monies Unique necklace with citrine and rutilated quartz.Photo: Niclas Jensen / Courtesy of Monies

You are trained as goldsmiths but use mostly other materials, why?
Nikolai: For us, the material is second to the design, and our design is big, bombastic, and full of textures and volume. This is something that traditional materials simply could not live up to.

What attracts you to these materials?
Gerda: Looking at a 150-year-old root of a tree or a 40-million-year-old piece of amber with an insect inside or a 3-million-year-old fossil of a shark tooth, I get filled with happiness. I see it as an honor to be able to work with the history of our planet in this way. It is truly humbling, and I am very grateful. I think Alexander McQueen said there is no better designer than nature, and I could not agree more.

Monies Unique necklace with mountain crystal, ebony, and leather.Photo: Niclas Jensen / Courtesy of Monies

Where do you find them?
Nikolai: Working with these materials for 40 or so years, we have personal contacts all over the world who write us when they find what we like, [which is] not the perfect, flawless pieces but rather the unusual and the untraditional ones that stand out and are unique.

Monies Unique necklace with amber, ammonite fossil, mammoth tusk, deer antler, and citrine.Photo: Niclas Jensen/ Courtesy of Monies

What is the most unusual material you’ve worked with?
Nikolai: We mostly work with obscure and unusual materials, but, to be honest, the most astounding materials are often the most common, just treated in a new way. When we cut open and polish pieces of flint from the Danish coast the deep gray and black hues that came out were just overwhelming. Sometimes the combination of materials is awe-inducing: When we were trekking in the Himalayas, we found these ancient pearls made from the core of seashells found in the mountains, which—millions of years ago—used to be a seabed. The locals had repaired the cracks within the seashells with crushed turquoise . . . just incredible.

Pieces of Danish amber at the Monies workshop.Photo: Morten Bjarnhof / Courtesy of Monies

Is sustainability part of your practice?
Nikolai: It is in our DNA to work sustainably, and we are taking further steps to have even less footprint in the world. We are always looking to source our materials ethically so that we do no harm to the people and nature that provide the magnificent materials we work with. We are also starting to look into all aspects of our production and transportation so we can minimize our carbon footprint.

Freja Beha Erichsen wears Monies necklaces.Photo: Karl Monies / Courtesy of Monies

Would you describe your work as Danish?
Nikolai: Part of the design is very Danish in the sense of its straightforward simplicity. We grew up in homes where Danish design was very present, and, naturally, their aesthetics became a part of our vocabulary. Another part of our work is very un-Danish in its flamboyancy and over-the-top use of the materials.

You’ve been in business for 45 years; how did this project with DSM come about?
Gerda: We have always admired Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons’s approach to both fashion and retail: It’s brave, daring, and different from anything else. Working with them has been a dream of ours.

Did you create special pieces for them?
Gerda: Not yet—we would love to—but they already picked some of the most amazing pieces of the collection, so that is a pretty good start.