The bold and the beautiful

Gladys Young is as stunning as the glimmering colored-stone jewelry that is her craft. On the day of our interview, she is her own endorser, adorned with her lovely creations: an edgy colored stone pendant looped around her slender neck and hooked on a finger, a huge pearl ring she dubbed Stile. The pieces were taken from her own avant-garde collections of custom-made, handcrafted jewelry branded Vero, which is Italian for genuine or true. Gladys is tall and willowy, moving as gracefully as a debutante at a ball, and is the beautiful mind behind the beautiful jewelry. When she talks of her craft, one can’t miss the passion in her voice. This is the one-of-a-kind Vero; not just the jewelry but the woman.

Ever since Gladys was a little girl, she has always liked designing. Back then, she’d imagine dainty dresses and elegant arcs of windowsill grills. Designing must run in her blood, because her mother is a fashion designer and Gladys muses that her mother’s creativity must’ve been passed on to her. She remembers opening her mom’s jewelry box, one day, and seeing the treasury of glittering colored stones. Apparently it was love at first sight, because the colored stone collection sparked her desire to design her very own.

This gifted Cebuana found her niche in customized, handcrafted adornments of precious and semi-precious stones, as well as in redesigning and resetting of old, unusable jewelry to update and refresh the look of old pieces. For a look that’s lively and sparkling with zest, she loves to set colored diamonds in jewelry.

A beach-lover, Gladys frequents the sandy shores for brainstorming sessions. She shares that she doesn’t look into fashion magazines, because she wants the ideas in her mind to be her very own. Instead, she observes her surroundings with a keen eye and sources inspiration from contemporary settings.

What is the look of Gladys Young’s craft? To simply call her pieces “unique” wouldn’t do her pieces justice. More than unique, they are bold fashion statements that exude a spicy modern vibe sought by today’s fashionistas. As her personal creative philosophy, Gladys leaps from the norms of conventional jewelry design, and explores the exceptional, the avant-garde, the recherché. Testimonies to such bound-breaking design are her collections: Vero Vault, her high-end collection featuring brilliant pieces such as Golden Affair (earring and ring set of south sea pearls highlighted with brown diamonds), Enigma (an indulgence of regal amethyst and white diamonds), Heat (a hot pendant of yellow, orange and red stones), and other standouts; S Collection, a daily wear assemblage that spells subtle elegance and supreme sophistication; and the Holiday Collection, presenting avant-garde pieces that are sure to light up the Christmas season. In short, these are beautiful pieces that cannot be found elsewhere.

Gladys ventured out by personally meeting her mother’s friends as her first clients, and over the course of about five years, the dynamic designer’s clientele base has expanded to our City’s glamorous socialites and business women. She makes it a selling point that she’s her own best client, that the look is authentic because it’s what Gladys would like for herself.

Despite the frenetic pace of the fashion world, Gladys possesses the edge allowing her to ride with the tides of haute couture. The prelude of her Vero Vault picture presentation tells us best:

In this world where creative minds abound, there’s stiff competition and pieces alike. But passion spells the difference. When you love what you do, you work will show it. And while some call it talent, Gladys calls it drive.

For orders and/or appointments, one may contact Gladys Young at mobile numbers (0922) 8811140 or (0917) 6270070. (Jewelry photos by G2 Foto)