Olivia Yao

Taiwan

Everything seems to just settle down, yet I am taking that leap and pulling everything I have built to another direction. It’s a bold move at this point and I feel excited and a bit anxious concurrently, envisaging if there is possibly someone who understand how tough this life decision could be and where it could lead me. 

Just few days before my 30 birthday, I met her, Olivia Yao. Looking into the story and design behind her creation, I find myself encounter some things that defines my own spectrum of feeling, and that feeling doesn’t come to simply just a look. When I was contemplating the collection of Oli, I feel her.

Olivia Yao, the founder and creative director of Olivia Yao Jewelry, has come from the a background of economic and accounting and then devoted herself in jewelry design afterward. It’s never easy to give up everything you have in hand and follow that voice in your heart. The similarity and determination share here. 

The collection, Oli, was the first of her creation after 4 year of learning and designing in Paris. The entire collection is inspirited by the wild beauty and flourish gems and stones at Orchid Island, a volcanic island off the south eastern coast of Taitung, Taiwan, where surprisedly I never visited before. Appreciating the natural uniqueness of each and every piece of material, and uncovering the glamour of precious stones with refined artistry, with mother of pearls, African rubies, and other dazzling gems in the creation, Olivia not only transported to an exotic land of sophistication and adventure but also awaken the artistic character to let her fearlessly create. 

Listen to that voice and awaken your heart. To be bold, to be you but no one else. 

These pieces come into my life just at the day of me turning 30, exactly, on my birthday. And all these time of effort and transition remain.

Wearing:
Pearl Drop Scallop, Olivia Yao Jewellery / Gold Reef Ring, Olivia Yao Jewellery / Photo 6: Silver Reef earrings, Olivia Yao Jewellery / Photo 12: Drift Bracelet, Olivia Yao Jewellery

Photographer:
Sean Wu