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Music

Meet Meghan Farrell: Her Jewelry is Inspired by Music, Romance, and the Body

Meghan's jewelry has been worn by Rihanna, Haim, Michael Stipe, and a bunch of other musicians. We're kind of obsessed.

Jewelry designer Meghan Farrell.

Meghan Farrell makes me feel lazy. Currently she splits her time between designing jewelry for her eponymous line, DJing every Tuesday at Dream Baby in the East Village, shooting bands at whatever shows she happens to be attending, plus volunteering weekly at the charitable initiative Cooking Sprouts, where she helps teach a bunch of seven-to-nine year olds (from PS24 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn), how to garden and then cook what they grow.

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I met up with the Long Island-born designer recently to talk about her the inspiration behind her collections—and try on every single piece—and it was immediately apparent that she’s been hyperactively doing-it-all for years and years. For instance, when studying drama at Sarah Lawrence, she simultaneously held down an internship in the accessories department at Teen Vogue, while working insane hours assisting the production of FX “dramedy” Rescue Me. Did I mention she’s also written a screenplay? Jeez.

After deciding neither being in front of the camera, nor behind it was quite her thing, Farrell ended up working her way up to become a buyer at Opening Ceremony. It was during this time that friends encouraged Meghan to take jewelry class at FIT. Since officially launching her line in 2010, her pieces have been spotted on everyone from Haim to Rihanna, Jack Dishal of Only Son and Michael Stipe (who owns this "Triple Neurology" pendant), and Little Joy’s Binki Shapiro.

Rihanna in the “We Found Love” video wearing Meghan’s Fused Axon ring.

Noisey: Were you always more drawn to accessories rather than clothes?
Meghan: I’ve loved accessories since I was really little and then when I started designing this medical influence started coming out. My dad’s a doctor and my mom and my little sister are nurses.

Meghan's mom's Beatles scrapbook. Music is a big influence on your work too though, right?
I always listen to music when I’m designing and I also DJ. Even though my parents aren’t musical, my mom was a huge Beatles fan and she gave me her Beatles scrapbook from the 60s. It’s amazing, it’s got original Life magazine clippings. I grew up on them and Carol King and Fleetwood Mac. My first record was the Beach Boys, but also Natalie Cole and Meatloaf! I’ll never forget Bat Out Of Hell! I think we had it on at dinner sometimes.

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Binki Shapiro wearing Meghan's . Photo courtesy of

What kind of stuff do you DJ?
Obscure garage rock, R&B and 50s and 60s music, plus classic rock. I mix it up with newer stuff like Beck and Vampire Weekend. I like happy music. I love discovering new music, but also covers of old music.

You've pulled together a compilation featuring Tashaki Miyaki, Bad Girlfriend, and others (check out the full tracklisting here), what's the deal?
I like new music, finding artists that other people aren’t listening to and covers of old music too—like on the CD there are covers of INXS and The Rays. The music on this compilation are all the songs that inspired me while I was creating. I also interview all the artists on here on my blog. I had a lot of fun putting it together and you get a free copy of the CD with every order of jewelry from my website.

Patti Smith shot by Meghan.

Who would you love to wear your pieces?
I would have said Haim, but now they are wearing my stuff! I've thought a lot about who I respect, and I'd have to say Patti Smith. I remember discovering her in college and being completely in awe. She's a multi-faceted artist, a life poet in her own right, and a strong woman who's been through it all. I used to go to all of her shows at the Bowery. The collection can be seen as a bit punk, sometimes a bit minimalist, and so something like the cross rings, the protection rings, or Held Together pendant would fit her style and personality well. I also love Regina Spektor. She's also an immensely talented, a beautiful person, and I consider her a life poet as well. She's a little punk, but more dainty and girly so I think of the fused hearts ring, or the secret chords rings [scroll down] when I think of her!

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The tagline for your collections is always “Romance Never Dies.” What’s the story behind that?
It’s the one sentence that pieces everything together—the body and life, the heartbeat and the lifeline and love—which are the prevalent themes in my work. Somebody pointed out that all my pieces have some kind of love symbolism. I didn’t realize that at first because I was seeing them very literally. Sometimes it takes someone else to point it out. It stuck with me and I kept making pieces and seeing that theme.

Here are a bunch of Meghan's awesome pieces and the stories behind them…

Held Together pendant.

“This piece was inspired by a class I took with my psych professor, Marvin Frankel. The Autokinetic/Held Together pendant represents the self in that each spoke of the wheel is a social context and set of values that holds the individual together. It could be family, friends, religion. We may hold different values with each context, and operate differently, but they all make up who we are, thus the outermost circle which holds it all together."

The EKG rings.

"Three summers ago I was going through a rough time and I wanted to get a tattoo. The idea was that I'd get an EKG that would wrap around my finger. I thought it would be really neat, but my mom was like, 'Absolutely not.' So I made this instead.”

Broken Heart necklace.

“Then I moved into love and cardiology. This was a wax carving which I then cast. For reference I had a heart puzzle that fit together, a big anatomical heart, and some antique medical bookplates. It was one of those pieces where I was holed up working on it for a few weeks. Just determined.”

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Infinity DNA ring and necklace.

Secret chord ring.

"The secret chords ring is directly inspired both by hanging out in St Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue—a stone’s throw from the jewelry district—and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” which lyrics run: “I've heard there was a secret chord /That David played and it pleased the Lord/But you don't really care for music, do you?… /It goes like this/The fourth, the fifth/The minor fall, the major lift/The baffled king composing Hallelujah.”

"The bracelet, necklace and smaller ring are pieces from the protection series, in the neurology/psych series. It represents the idea of peeling back our layers or defenses that act as a shield from the world. I like to think of it as the "getting to know you" ring. When it comes to romance, it's a lot about getting to the core of that other person, about slowly revealing to your love and discovering who your love really is, without any defenses in the way. After the fact I also realized its quite an interesting and unexpected symbol of the male body. "The larger of the two rings I call the "Steps ring" and is from the cardiology series. I was playing a lot with the idea of the electrocardiogram and lines, however this came out looking like two sets of steps that meet at the middle. I think it represents two people who take the step to meet eye-to-eye and be together. I feel like that's a big step for everyone in our specific generation. I think I'm strong and take more risks with matters of the heart, but many people are light or scared about these things."

Fused Flat Line necklace.

“I was playing with square hollow wire trying to make flat electrocardiogram lines and fuse them into a zig-zag EKG beat, but it came out like this! I still call it a Fused Flat Line necklace, meaning, the heart never stops beating, we never stop loving a person, and of course, that romance never dies."

Kim is currently saving up to buy everything Meghan makes ever. She's on Twitter - @theKTB. Style Stage is an ongoing partnership between Noisey & Garnier Fructis celebrating music, hair, and style.