Not Your Average Beauty By Joanne Tan
- Words
- Sarah Press
Coming from the western Malaysian city of Klang, Jewelry designer Joanne Tan combines modern and traditional jewelry making techniques by focusing on topical approaches. Titled “Not Your Average Beauty”, her collection of handmade facial ornaments are inspired by radical tribal jewelry that aims to combat the media’s idealisation of beauty and the modern obsession with plastic surgery.
Joanna’s collection covers just about everything from nose cuffs to clips and facial frames, allowing the wearers to customize their appearance at will, empowering them through enhancement rather than modification of their natural features. Manufactured with 18 carat yellow gold, diamonds and pearls, each piece has an unique design with varied structures, scaled accordingly to fit the variety of facial anatomies of both Asian and Western societies. The thin gold wire frames highlight the wearer’s delicate features, while diamonds and pearls draw attention to imperfect attributes. Not Your Average Beauty is a collection with a view to raise awareness about the pressures of today’s beauty standards by celebrating individuality and improving existing imperfections.
All images © Joanne Tan
