Sweetlimejuice is the brainchild of Jovy Hon and Simpson Ma. They met while doing their undergraduate courses at the London College of  Fashion (BA Fashion Marketing, BA Fashion Jewellery design respectively) and upon graduating, the duo decided to set up their own brand in 2018, promising high quality jewellery with a human touch to all their pieces. Creating pieces that feel substantial once in your hands, and sculptural in the way they sit on your ears or collarbone, you'll  find spike ear-cuffs, pendants with icy blue topaz at centre, and rings with stone cuts sharp and geometric. We sat down with them to discuss everything from the story behind their name, to finding inspiration all around them.

Because: Let's start with your name! Sweetlimejuice. How did you come up with that?
Simpson: It was actually pretty random. Back [in 2018] I was playing a video game where there was a player called “Orange Juice” and he was like a little mini-me. So I wanted something associated with me on a daily basis, but twist it into a party context as well. So lime juice came into my mind. Whenever we go out and do shots, we'd need to add lime to make it taste good. So we wanted to play around with this idea to call it sweet lime juice, making it bold, but still rooted in daily life.


Because: Can you tell us what your philosophy it comes to making jewellery?
S: To me, it's a labour of love. Everything we make, we give a feel of the hand. Jovy: Yes. Some more words would be handcrafted and innovation too. S: And I would add observational. I think a lot of our philosophy is taking elements from daily life, what happens on the street. So, I would say a lot about pieces that we've designed, we want to harmonise with our audience. We also love to combine a balance between handcrafted and futuristic designs together. So something like the middle point of two extremes.

Because: Do you produce everything in house?
J: In the beginning we did, yes. But we are expanding right now so we are outsourcing some of our stuff.  S: But everything we do at the end goes through our hands, we want to give every
piece a human touch. So all the wearers know that their own pieces have some connection between us and them.

B: What is your main source of inspiration?
S: I think mostly we looked at sculptural art, for example from Anish Kapoor, a British sculptor. Also, we get inspiration from random places. For example, the people that intern here, we're getting a younger generation of interns that come to us, which we find really exciting and interesting. And it’s quite inspirational to watch how they dress or how they see things with a fresh eye.


B: One of your most famous pieces is the denim wrap stone. Can you talk us through the process of making it?
S: The concept started around societal anxiety and I thought about how to put that feeling into a piece of jewellery. I wanted to make something that was kind of a protective shield on top of precious objects. And the idea came through because I wear a lot of denim and I feel like denim jeans represent me and also in the sense of protecting to me. And I thought the idea to incorporate denim into something precious which gemstones. So we mould that fabric into the gem.

B: Do you have a favourite piece you've designed?
S: Right now, because we've kind of developed a new signature, which is the Silver Metal Zong Cover Pendant Necklace. It’s an evolution from the denim stone and translated into metal that only partially hides a coloured gemstone.

B: How do you feel connected to the people wearing your jewellery?
J: I would say still, the main source would be social media. Instagram will be one of the biggest sources [of contact] because basically we rely a lot on social media to promote and to communicate with our audience. Obviously, it's the cheapest and quickest way for us to connect with a large group of people that we've never met before. But another very successful   way was the party that we did last year during London Fashion Week. We had a little launch party for our new collection. We got a lot of good feedback, because people could finally see the products in real life [after lockdown].

S: A few of my friends said to me that maybe we should have sold pieces at that party, because when people get drunk, they will buy [laughs]. But no, it was a lot of fun. This  feels really good to see them and also connected with them again in real life.


B: What are your plans for the future?
J: We want to do a few pop up stores in the future. I don’t know if we will have a flagship yet in the next five years, but definitely every year we hope to do at least one pop up. S: Or some physical event! J: Because with jewellery, I think is it so important to touch it and to actually see it in real life because it feels different. When you're just seeing it on your phone or on your
laptop, it is so different, you need to pick it up and feel the weight of the pieces in your
hand.