Hisano/little h: A New Generation of Pearls
Pearl ring in rose gold with rubies
There are some designers who thrive on challenging the conventional notions of fine jewelry or bucking traditional concepts. Hisano Shepherd is one of these designers. She began her career as a pearl designer eight years ago when she began working with her husband, Jeremy Shepherd, the well-known founder of Pearlparadise.com, the multi million-dollar online pearl company.
During that time she noticed that there were only a few contemporary designers who were breaking with tradition, creating pearls that were distinctive—from fairytale flourishes to ultra futuristic. But as Hisano viewed it, this was just a beginning in pushing the boundaries of pearls for the millennial generation and for women who wanted more distinctive, unpredictable and imaginative pearl jewelry. Hisano set out to create a collection that changed the perceptions of pearls as classic, formal, preppy and/or bridal to designs that are more edgy, unexpected and versatile.
Hisano named her collection little h and launched in 2011, based on a nickname given to her due to her diminutive stature of 5 feet tall. While Hisano might be petite, she thinks big. She noticed that in gemstone jewelry, natural-forming geodes and irregular shapes had taken the contemporary design market by storm. In 2014, her imagination knew no bounds in creating geode pearls, in which she slices glorious luminescent soufflé, South Sea and Tahitian pearls in half, polishes them to a smooth concave and fills them with inverted carats of gemstones, including natural-color sapphires, rubies, peridots, amethysts, seed pearls and black and white diamonds. The effect is striking in its likeness to that of a natural-forming geode.
Hisano explains “the technique to fill the interior of a pearl with vibrant gemstones requires unparalleled precision to shape it into a look that seems unstudied and artistic in its approach and styling and creates a modern dialogue with the oldest gemstone known to man.”
- Sapphire and Pearl pendant
- Sapphire and Pearl pendant
Celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Olivia Wilde, Elizabeth Banks, Selena Gomez, Anna Sophia Robb and Emma Roberts have been spotted wearing pieces from Hisano’s collection, which has garnered five jewelry industry awards.
Whether in pendant, rings or bracelets, Hisano explains, “It’s so inspiring for me to see women wearing pearls daily, casually, layered and with everything and anything in their wardrobes.”
In partnership with little h by Hisano
