JACQUELINE RABUN (b.1961)
Jacqueline Rabun is an American jewelry designer born in Bitburg, Germany in 1961. She is currently based in Los Angeles, CA.
Rabun traveled extensively during her childhood, eventually settling with her family in Northern California. She began designing jewelry in Los Angeles in 1988 although initially she studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute in San Francisco. A job at a jewelry gallery in Los Angeles called M Gallery made her realize that she had found her true calling.
In 1990, she moved to London and launched her studio with the debut of her “Raw Elegance” series (a term she prefers over “collection”). It was immediately picked-up by the iconic retailer Barney’s New York and became a commercial success. The series spoke to the 90s trend of genderless jewelry and had a very organic look to it. In September of 1992, Linda Evangelista graced the cover of British Vogue wearing pieces from the “Raw Elegance” series. Madonna, U2, Lenny Kravitz, and Whitney Houston, were just a few of her 90’s A-list clients.
In 1999, she entered a long-term collaboration with the Danish Royal Purveyor, Georg Jensen, an iconic hub of early Nordic modernism. Rabun, along with Vivianna Torun (whom she deeply admires personally and professionally) and Nanna Ditzel, is part of a legacy of female designers at Jensen. The partnership proved to be a good fit for her Rabun because she believes they share the same creative vision. In a recent interview with the jewelry journalist Mazzi Odu, Rabun explained that her design language “has an equal dose of Scandinavian and African influences and interestingly there is a lot of Scandinavian jewellery where you can see the designer is very knowledgeable about African jewellery.”
Rabun’s intuitive ability to interpret Scandinavian design has seen her creations exhibited at Staten Museum for Kunst “Georg Jensen’s 100 years” (August 2004) and Koldinghus Museum’s "Georg Jensen a tale of Danish Silver” (October 2015), amongst Georg Jensen’s stable of celebrated designers.
Rabun’s designs demonstrate a respect for both organic and geometric forms, and they are motivated by a desire to reflect the human experience in her work—be it the relationship between mother and child (like the 2001 “Offspring” series which was inspired by the birth of her own son and to this day remains Georg Jensen’s best-selling collections so much so that it was relaunched in 2018), or our attempts to find stillness amidst the often chaotic world (the 2002 “Cave” series), or the need to be compassionate and empathetic to others (the 2019 “Mercy” series).
Rabun’s style is defined by her African heritage, elegance, minimalism, as well as fluid and organic forms that are warm and tactile, beautifully rendered in sterling silver or 18K gold with diamonds, aventurine, or rutilated quartz crystal. A renowned modernist Rabun has sought beauty often in simplicity and the everyday; yet it has never been at the expense of a display of deep emotion; her shapes often meant to symbolize life’s greatest tragedies such as the brutish aspects of the Black experience and its greatest gifts, love and healing, mindfulness and serenity.
A highly regarded designer, Rabun has been the subject of international press including the New York Times, Wallpaper, British Vogue, 1stdibs’ Introspective, and Interview, amongst many others. Rabun’s work was part of the Melanie Grant curated exhibitions Brilliant & Black: A Jewelry Renaissance held at Sotheby’s New York (September 2021) and London (September 2022).
Visit our exhibition page for "MEDITATIONS ON MODERNISM: Thirty Years of Jewelry Design by Jacqueline Rabun, 1990–2022 and Selections from Notable Post-WWII Nordic Jewelry" to learn more about our innovative and exquisite Nordic jewelry in our collection.
