Accessories Family Story

”Just before my parents were married in 1954, my mom found a pair of hammered silver ball cufflinks in an antique store. With life on a farm and the cufflinks generally going unused, my mom decided to smelt the cufflinks into a set of beautiful earrings in the same hammered style.

It takes me until I'm almost 40, but as any good daughter would, I finally find a way to borrow these earrings, and manage to drop & step on them at the party - and in my (tipsy!) panic, I hide the bent earrings in my purse. A few years later, I discover the earrings in the bottom of my purse & immediately take them to a jeweler for reconstruction.

In 2008, I am faced with one of the biggest decisions of my life - to continue designing for someone else, or to start my own fashion brand?

I think back to the moment I knew I had to follow my dream of designing. It was a year after my beloved sister had taken her own life. This core-shaking experience convinced me that life is too short to spend your time on what you don’t love.

I was actually educated and worked as a nurse for 4 years, because that was 'the right thing to do', but it just wasn’t my calling. I packed my red suitcase and hopped on a train to Rome. Two weeks later, I’m calling my parents from a phone booth to tell them I’ve been accepted into a design school there. To my relief (and surprise) they supported my decision.

It was these memories that made me certain that I now had to design for myself, and I knew I had to honor my family’s influence and support. That’s why every single Hanne Bloch style now carries the signature hammered balls & rings honoring my family.”

- Hanne Bloch