Clairo’s Catbird Collection Is The Unofficial Merch For Charm — EXCLUSIVE

It is something of a Gen-Z starlet rite of passage to be asked to do a Catbird collaboration: The New York-based jewelry brand has enlisted Laufey, Phoebe Bridgers, and even a whole television show, The Summer I Turned Pretty. (Lola Tung is a very convincing model, after all.) Clairo was eager to join the ranks of her peers and friends, and when she got the call to bring her creative energy to a jewelry collaboration, she was more than game. The main inspiration for her dainty cameo necklaces and sturdy rose-and-sword rings came from Charm, the singer’s third album, which, in her words, is “about flirty, coy feelings.” She considers this collection the first world-building she’s done (that is available for purchase, that is) outside of her live shows.

The tensions between sweet and dark, mysterious and clear, and timely and timeless all come up in her album, and thus show up in the collection. A swan set inside a clear jewel inspires a closer look, as does a mother-of-pearl pendant with the word “kismet” engraved on the back. It’s this juxtaposition between coy and seductive that makes Clairo such an enigmatic artist, like when she posed in her Miss Claire Sullivan look for the Grammys with an itty-bitty pistol in her hand. The resulting campaign pictures capture this neo-noir moodiness; Clairo cited Lost Highway as inspiration. (Is there anything more Lynchian than a vintage car and blurred lighting?)

Before she makes her gifting list for all her friends, Clairo hopped on the phone with NYLON to talk about her experience designing jewelry, how the creative process felt different, and the beauty of animals.

What were the first conversations with the Catbird team like?

I’ve gotten my friends Catbird necklaces and rings for as long as I can remember, because it is the one place I can find cute jewelry that is also high quality. I’ve had friends do collections, and I always thought it was sweet. When they reached out, I was super excited. The conversations were really about the album I put out last summer, Charm. We never ended up making any sort of merch or jewelry — like a charm bracelet. We never really expanded on the title of the album, so I was really excited to do that and implement themes of nature, and some of my tattoos are in there. I wanted it to look timeless and fun.

I love the idea of this being your merch. Were there specific moments on Charm you wanted to capture?

“Second Nature” is where we took the most inspiration from. On the back of one of the necklaces, we had the “kismet” put in. That’s one of my favorite words, and I use that word in “Second Nature.” We expanded from there with different animals, keeping the nature aspect of it. If we were going to do a written word, I wanted it to be something you could find in your grandmother’s collection years and years from now, and they wouldn’t have a pull back to me as an artist. There’s something beautiful about not putting my name on it and letting the word be this cool thing, because a teenager 30 years from now could be like, “I don’t even know what this means; I just found it, and it’s so cool.” Then they’ll find out it’s tied back to this specific collection, and that gives a little bit of the story.

This is one of your first times co-designing a collection. How was the creative process and ownership different from a red-carpet look or album?

It was very different from what I’m used to, but in such a nice way. It was cool to hop on calls with people from Catbird, run to my room, run back, and show them my favorite necklaces to see how we could do something like them. I’ve had vintage and mother-of-pearl necklaces for years I’m obsessed with. I had a lot more ideas than I thought I would. I like one-of-a-kind things, so it was cool to build on top of the world of my last record. It feels cool to be able to make something tangible on top of a sonic world.

What other pieces from your personal collection were the jumping off point for inspiration?

The sword pieces are really cool. I have a sword tattoo on my sternum, and it’s a special tattoo because it’s only shown every so often. It’s not one you see every day, and I liked that sentiment. There are beautiful sword necklaces, and rings I think are gorgeous. I also wear an onyx ring on my left hand everyday for the last maybe five or six years. The swan ring is the same shape and form. It might even be cooler than the one I wear. I like that you can look inside and see a swan.

I like the swan because it captures the subdued elegance of Charm, and it also has a little bit of mystery to it. Some swans are a little mean or evil.

It’s true. It’s like geese. Geese are the same. It’s just about how you look at them. I love mystery a lot. I also like how animals are when they’re by themselves without human interaction. It’s amazing that an animal can move so beautifully without even knowing it’s being watched. That sentiment is a core mindset for me while making music. It always feels good to draw back to animals. I do it a lot.

Which piece from the collection are you wearing the most?

The kismet necklace, because it has that little surprise on the back. Necklaces can get turned around so quickly, but I love the way that one falls. It looks gorgeous and feels the most sweet and sincere to me. It’s always about flirty, coy feelings. That’s how Charm feels to me. Every piece to me feels a little bit flirty, mysterious, secret, and sweet. I can imagine all types of people wearing this. I like mixing feminine with my big tattoos, and having this balance of wearing dainty jewelry on top of a sleeve tattoo. It looks so beautiful and adds depth to a look.

If you had to gift any piece from the collection to a friend, who you would choose and what you would give them?

I am about to give it to a bunch of my friends. A lot of my friends wear jewelry differently and all have different styles, so I’d be more interested to see what they pick themselves. I don’t know if I can choose for somebody, but I’m sending it to my sister and all the important women in my life. I’m excited to see how they wear it or how they interpret it.

How was the experience shooting on set with Bella?

I love Bella Newman. We’d been talking about an opposite effect to make the jewelry pop out. I wore all dark clothing, and we took these pictures in the studio with a limo. We were saying it reminded us of Lost Highway. Having that David Lynch inspiration on top of sweet jewelry makes it more of a sensual thing, which I’m drawn to. I like jewelry that feels like a secret piercing or something. The pictures are beautiful. They help bring out energies of my music, and what I want to do in the future. It’s no fun if it’s all sunshine and rainbows, and jewelry is the same thing.

The Catbird x Clairo collection will be available at noon Sep. 4 on catbirdnyc.com.