Q&a / Anna Jewsbury, creative director of Completedworks, on jewellery design, what inspires her, and the ethos behind the brand whose fans include Emma Watson, Keira Knightley and Saoirse Ronan
The audience at the jeweller’s autumn/winter 2025 show were treated to a dark comedy by playwright Laura Waldron, starring LA Law’s Debi Mazar as a neurotic shopping channel presenter
Guests knew they were in for a treat when they walked into Senate House – the imposing academic building in London’s leafy Bloomsbury neighbourhood – ahead of Completedworks’ fashion week show.
The mystery performance teased in invitations manifested as a dark comedy by playwright Laura Waldron, starring American actress Debi Mazar as Julia, a QVC-style presenter who yo-yos between her droll on-screen persona and a frenetic, but relatably human, inner monologue. Alongside Mazar’s anguished performance, magnified in several TV screens positioned around the set, the brand’s autumn/winter 2025 jewels shone, replete with signature pearls and candy-like ruby red gems.
How did you rationalise staging a play, instead of presenting the pieces for people to look at up-close?
It’s quite nice to try and do something a little bit different for fashion week, because I feel like people really expect a static installation, but there’s something so special about a live performance.
I think what’s nice is that the show is one part of the Completedworks’ world, and it definitely serves to build an aesthetic and also a point of view. Building this personality through the show feels worthwhile, and maybe there’s a bit of wanting to be contrary and go a bit against the grain in doing something that isn’t expected of a jewellery brand.
Did you always want to go into jewellery?
I don’t know if it was that pre-planned, but ever since I was a child, I always loved jewellery and beautiful objects. I never studied jewellery – I studied maths and philosophy – and what I love about those two subjects is that there’s this real mix of precision and creativity. You’re trying to understand the world, and I think you can apply that to what I’m doing now. When I’m designing, I have questions in my mind and am pulling together lots of different references to find the pieces that we make in response.
As someone without technical training, how do you approach the design process?