We first stumbled upon Suz Atala’s beautiful jewellery on Instagram. It takes a lot for us to pause in our tracks and screenshot something, hit follow and love the crap out of an account, but that’s just what happened with Suz’s Tuza jewellery.
Why? It was largely down to Suz’s heavy golden vagina pendants. Yes, gold vaginas, that look like Virgin Marys or half blossomed roses from afar, but are most definitely labia on closer inspection. A staunch feminist, her vagina and sex charm pieces were cooked up by herself and Maia Ruth Lee, a super talented NY-based artist. Suz couldn’t have predicted the pick-up her vagina necklaces would get. Everyone from Scout Willis to Chelsea Leyland and BabyFace favourite Adwoa Aboah was rapping their womanhood on their chests, courtesy of Suz.
Suz’s incredibly detailed and even more beautiful in the flesh designs are a thing to behold. Chunky curb chains with flaming hearts, genital shaped charms and pizza slice pendants, enamelled monochrome hoops and single pearl drop necklaces. They are as idiosyncratic to Suz and her heritage as they are unique and timeless. Inspired by her Lebanese, American and Mexican roots, Suz’s designs embody her own sense of gravity, spirituality and light-hearted humour that she radiates and they’re a joy to wear. Each of the pieces are handmade in her workshops in Mexico, and, while she’s not visiting her team in Mexico she’s working from her East-Side Manhattan apartment-some-studio, with her faithful pooch Lola at her side.
It’s hard to believe that Suz didn’t always set out to be a jewellery designer, and her journey from young girl kicking around Mexico to being stocked globally and fast amassing a cult following as a designer to watch, is something we’re inspired by. In fact, it was only during her degree in Technical Sculpture that Suz first dipped her toe in the world of bling. She started to create kitschy, glittery hoops for pals at university, and a subsequent internship at a jewellers post-graduation sealed the deal for Suz and her journey into full-blown jewellery designer.
Her new collection, of which we have seen sneak peaks is inspired by rivers and has a more than a touch of Pocahontas’ blue choker about it. But lips sealed on that– you’ll have to wait until Tuza shows at London Fashion week this September in London as part of the Designer Showrooms to see the whole shebang. Oh, and the name Tuza? It was her nickname given to her from her dad who raised her single-handedly. It comes from an old Mexican film, that centres on a young girl named “Tuzita” whose father is a badass villain who only shows compassion for his loving only child.